Why Girls Love Sailors

"Why Girls Love Sailors" (1927) is a two-reeler with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy eating the scenes, along with Anita Garvin, Viola Richard, and Malcolm Waite, all in a tizzy when captain Malcolm Waite brings his boat into port and goes to see former girl friend Viola Richard, but she's now engaged to Laurel. Oops, and Waite's a toughie - and he shows it! Now back on the boat with both in tow, Richard basically captive and Laurel in a position to be eaten by the sharks who run the boat, especially the captain and his first mate, Hardy, Laurel decides to show what a man he can be by dressing up as a woman and ensnaring all the men on the boat... Then... Things get in high gear and things begin to happen: Bing, bong, bunk, Although the boat's not sunk, The sailors are beaten And though not eaten, By Laurel are thwarted While the captain's sorted Out by his wife, A knife Named Garvin.

My print is the American print found in France in 1971, long thought lost forever. After I watched this print, I watched the French version which differs here and there. Some of the scenes are obviously other takes, plus Charles R. Althoff shows up for about 1 second in a shot in Laurel's abode on shore. The viewer can just see him before he's out of the scene, sitting in a chair at the bottom of the screen. I mention this because he's not in the American print at all! Plus - several others were in scenes originally that had been deleted before release, including Anna May Wong and Sôjin Kamiyama. Althoff's presence is never explained by the syntax of the film, nor would many care. The titles in French differ only marginally from the American ones.

This is on the Image Entertainment DVD release of several years ago.

Another film with a seafaring theme, although no boats leave the harbour. Stan and Ollie aren't a double act as such in this one: Ollie's a rather rough-and-ready looking first mate with a perpetual scowl, while Stan's engaged to a woman to whom the Captain of Ollie's boat takes a shine.. The captain kidnaps the woman, so Stan follows him aboard to claim her back.

This is an OK silent film which is lifted immeasurably by the presence of Laurel & Hardy, even if their double act isn't yet developed. After pretending to be a ghost, Stan disguises himself as a woman. He did that in quite a few of their films. As a woman he looks rather odd, all neck and thin legs, but the sailors aboard ship all seem enchanted by him/her. He lures them to a secluded part of the boat then, after knocking them out with a bottle, tricks Ollie into throwing them overboard. This isn't one of their best but, as always with Laurel & Hardy, it's worth a look.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

'Why Girls Love Sailors' is nowhere near classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better. At this point, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in especially the previous two outings of theirs had too little to do. 'Why Girls Love Sailors' is still worth watching though and is an improvement on the previous two short films, along with 'Duck Soup' it was Laurel and Hardy's best up to this point.

Personally would have liked more sly wit, more scenes with Laurel and Hardy together and Hardy having more screen time.

The story is a bit busy at times and both slight and formulaic.

Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious, like as was said for their previous outing 'Love Em and Weep', 'Why Girls Love Sailors' is worth seeing for him alone. Anita Garvin is up to his level too. Despite saying above about Hardy's screen time being too short he is at least not wasted, and he does give one of his funniest and most interesting appearances of his pairings with Laurel up to this point. There is not enough of him and Laurel together and one can see glimpses.

A good deal of the humour is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny, with everything going at a lively pace, and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going. 'Why Girls Love Sailors' looks quite good as well.

To conclude, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Like a lot of Laurel & Hardy's silent movies, you need to be in the right frame of mind to view them – i.e. you need to watch them not expecting the usual huge quota of belly laughs found in Laurel & Hardy films. I watched this film expecting to be, as is usually the case, reduced to a shivering wreck, but was slightly disappointed. However, when I watched it again, I was surprised at how much I was laughing, especially at Stan's little display at the start of the film to impress his love, and at his excellent capacity for drag later in the film. Oliver Hardy is, as usual, brilliantly underplaying his role and is suitably menacing as the 'heavy', and the little scene he shares with Stan is charming, sometimes touching, making one wonder why it took as long as it did for them to be paired.

This is a little delight of a film, which is made even better (as are all the silent films) with the addition of wonderful recreations of the Shields and Hatley tunes by the Beau Hunks orchestra – those who own a copy of WHY GIRLS LOVE SAILORS on VVL as I do are fortunate enough to have these marvellous little melodies playing in the background; if you don't, buy the CDs and play them while you're watching. It makes an already pleasurable experience that little bit more enjoyable.

WHY GIRLS LOVE SAILORS was a lost film for many years until it turned up in a French Film Archive in 1971.It took another 15 years for the film to be viewed again,but happily it is now readily available on DVD and Video,with the French subtitles translated into English.

So,do Stan and Ollie work as a team here? Not really,though they do share one scene towards the end as Stan(called Willie Brisling here)tricks Ollie(billed as the First Mate)into thinking he's a woman,though he's actually trying to rescue his girl who's been kidnapped by the Ship's captain(Malcolm Waite).Anita Garvin,who was not thought to have appeared in the film until it's rediscovery,steals the show as the Captain's irate wife.Interesting more historically than aesthetically,but still watchable.