Their First Mistake

"Their First Mistake" is restricted to just 3 very simple sets and the comedy does the rest. Released in 1932, Ollie's wife leaves him after she accuses him of deserting her for Stan. An almighty argument occurs at the beginning which leads to the early exit for Mae Busch as the irate wife. Stan convinces Ollie that adapting a baby would solve his marital problems but it is still too late. The boys are left to fend for themselves, baby and all. They truly need to rely upon each other as Ollie is being sued for divorce and thinks all his friends will ostracise him. Moments like this are more like drama and it compliments the comedy perfectly. Stan and Ollie in their efforts to care for the baby are so funny! It is a case of lurching from one disaster to another. The comedy builds very carefully but surely, just like with all Laurel and Hardy talkie films.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. The Boys make THEIR FIRST MISTAKE when Stan convinces Ollie to adopt a tiny baby in order to placate his ferocious wife. Arriving home with the infant, the Boys discover that Mrs. Hardy has left him for good - leaving Stan & Ollie to look after the baby. This, of course, is something they are spectacularly ill-equipped to do.

Not much plot in this little film - plenty of sight gags, though. Stan's preparation to milk the baby is hilarious. That's Billy Gilbert as the process server & Mae Busch as Mrs. Hardy.

An above-average Laurel and Hardy short feature, this two reel affair is directed by George Marshall (later at the helm of many top-flight comedy features) and is marked, specially so during its initial two-thirds, by a greater emphasis upon character development than upon physical humour, to the work's advantage. After Oliver and his wife Arabella (Laurel/Hardy regular Mae Busch) have a violent spat due to his expenditure of a majority of his free time with Stan, the latter suggests that Ollie adopt a baby with which to occupy Arabella's hours, freeing the two pals to enjoy themselves, and Ollie immediately does so (following an optical wipe), but too late because a process server (Billy Gilbert) presents him with divorce papers along with a similar document to Laurel for "alienation of Mr. Hardy's affections." This leads to one of the better developed scenes from the duo's films wherein Ollie pastiches the Abandoned Maiden genre after his buddy tries to leave him alone to care for his new infant, a very funny and original piece of cinematic business that, in addition to a poignant scene when the men revert to boyhood while lolling atop Stanley's bed in his adjacent apartment, make of this a better than standard effort of Laurel and Hardy.

In this talking Laurel & Hardy movie Hardy is married. Laurel is also unhappy. With these two statements the short movie starts. Hardy's wife thinks he does to much with Laurel, he likes Laurel more than he likes her. When Laurel calls if they will do something nice tonight Hardy pretends that he is talking to his new boss. When the wife finds out she gets very mad. Laurel thinks he has the solution. They need a baby, because that will draw all the attention of the wife and Hardy can do fun stuff with Laurel again. Hardy thinks it is a pretty good idea and they adopt a baby. When they enter Hardy's home again his wife is gone. A man arrives telling them both that Hardy is sued for divorce and Laurel is sued for the reason of alienation of Hardy from his wife. Now they are stuck with a baby, their first mistake.

This is a very nice short. Of course a baby is an inspiration for a lot of nice little gags. The bottle with milk has a main part for those gags and Laurel makes sure every single one of them works. The usual jokes with tripping over things also work most of the time, although they are very predictable. It is quite an accomplishment that those predictable moments also bring a smile to your face. Like with most Laurel & Hardy shorts you will have a pretty good time.

I suspect that a few years after its released "Their First Mistake" might've not been allowed to show all the things that it did. Much of it is Stan and Ollie doing their usual stuff - with Ollie constantly irritated at Stan's idiocy - but their is a scene showing them in bed together with the baby. Maybe it was more acceptable since this was a comedy and thus not to meant to get taken seriously, but I can imagine that a number of people would've found it extreme back then.

Aside from that, it's a funny short, with no shortage of the pair's typical mishaps. As always, Hardy suffers the most due to Laurel's incompetence. The best scenes involve the lamp.

Good one.