Scram!

LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

An angry judge orders vagrants Stan & Ollie to `SCRAM!' or they'll be locked-up. Before they can obey, a good deed performed for an inebriated millionaire precipitates the Boys into a crazy series of misunderstandings.

A hilarious little film. Highlight: the wild romp with the lady of the house. That's Richard Cramer as His Honor; Arthur Housman as the drunk; and Vivien Oakland portrays the lady.

Convicted of vagrancy, Laurel and Hardy are give one hour to get out of town or be jailed. On their way out of town they meet a drunk who has lost his car keys. They help him find them and he takes them to his house, but given the trouble they have getting inside, is it even his house?

As usual Stan and Oliver are homeless and workless. Here they are forced out of a town but think they've landed on their feet when a drunk takes them into his luxury home. This plot gives the leads only really one type of humour to concentrate on – physical routines. That isn't a major problem as they are pretty funny is never exactly setting the world on fire.

However I always liked their dialogue together as it is often hilarious and well written to make them both look foolish. Here there is none of this worth speaking of. Both the leads do well and there's no doubting their abilities when it comes to falling over in amusing way.

Overall this is funny if you like L&H's physical stuff which I do, but I did feel like the job was only half done when their was none of their usual banter.

This is a "vintage" Stan and Ollie film in more than one sense of the word as four of the five main characters in the story are innebriated for a large portion of the proceedings.

Token Hollywood drunk Arthur Houseman (an...ahem...method actor) is at his career best, and the boys are also on form. Watch for Stan's bewildered reply to the judge's question: "On what grounds?". It's a classic.

Richard Cramer is truly menacing as the judge, and the scenes featuring the judge's wife (played by Vivien Oakland) made me laugh out loud along with the characters.

8/10

The Laurel and Hardy short Scram! feels less like a new skit from the lovable and timeless comedy duo but a highlight reel of their most famous moments from all of their shorts. This particular short is packed with all the zaniness you can predict going into a Laurel and Hardy film, from repeated stumbles, difficulty getting sneaking into places, and a seriously deranged mix-up serving as the cherry on the sundae.

Scram! opens with Laurel and Hardy being ordered out of town by a judge after finding them sleeping on a park bench. In the process of leaving town, they run into a congenial drunk (Arthur Housman, who plays a wildly convincing drunk) who invites them back to his home to spend the night after they retrieved his key when it fell into a sewer. Despite being incoherent, the man manages to drive the two of them to the home of Mrs. Beaumont (Vivien Oakland), mistaking it for his own home. While the drunk mindlessly stands outside searching for the key to his home, Laurel and Hardy barge in through the window, being greeted with Mrs. Beaumont and proceeding to get drunk themselves when they inform her they know her husband, who happens to really be someone Laurel and Hardy have already found themselves acquainted with.

Scram! is all too familiar for a dedicated Laurel and Hardy fan, especially one who has seen their admittedly short range of physical comedy. All the aforementioned tropes make an appearance here or there, and their geniality could easily be mistaken for genuine humor. The moral of this particular short is just because you recognize the sight-gag or the ploy doesn't mean it's necessarily funny. If anything, the funniest part of the film is how much it got away with in 1932: drunk driving, breaking and entering, philandering, and two men in the same bed with one woman. Did the Motion Picture Association of America fall asleep when looking over the contents of the film making sure it was in line with the Hays Code?

Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Arthur Housman, Vivien Oakland, and Richard Cramer. Directed by: Ray McCarey.

Scram finds Laurel&Hardy being told to Scram, as in scram out of town. Judge Richard Cramer who has no tolerance for drunks and vagrants tells them to get out of town after they've been caught sleeping on a park bench.

In 1932 that would have gotten a lot of sympathy from the movie audience as it seemed about half the country had similar sleeping quarters. Still this judge is a mean one.

Fortunately they find an amiable drunk in Arthur Housman whom they help in true Stan and Ollie fashion break into his house and he invites them to spend the night out of the rain. In breaking in there are a whole treasure trove of gags.

Once in the lady of the house is not thrilled with their presence.

All I can say there is heed the words of Paul Newman who says it is best to use gin when drinking with a mark in The Sting. Water in a gin bottle is most effective. But in this case it's gin in a water jug. Also effective.

The last gag is the end to a perfect evening for Stan and Ollie.

A most timely Prohibition era short subject.