Their First Mistake

Mae Busch, Oliver Hardy's wife, thinks he spends too much time with Stan Laurel. They decide that what she needs is a baby, so they go out and adopt one. When they return to the apartment, they find Mae is suing Ollie for divorce and Stan for alienation of affection. All well and good but what are the Boys going to do with a baby.

This is sometimes cited as the 'gayest' of the Laurel & Hardy shorts, and there;s something in that, but if so, it raises the implication only to make fun of it. Stan and Ollie are almost all the movie; the baby gets one close up to establish it as real, Miss Busch is gone after the first minute, Billy Gilbert plays a process server, and director George Marshall appears briefly as a neighbor.

THe gags are good, but there's no real ending. Apparently Stan and Ollie improvised so many gags, there wasn't time.

"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.

This is a remarkable short, seldom talked about. The boys have been spending too much time having a good time. Ollie's wife, the wonderful though threatening Mae Busch, has had enough. She files for divorce and names Stan for alienation of affections (I wonder if there ever were any affections). She take off, but before this, Stan talks the big guy into adopting a baby, thinking it will soothe things. I guess there was a sale on babies at the local baby market. This is no help because now they have an infant child to take care of. From then on, it's nuttiness because the are so utterly incompetent and yet endearing in their efforts to do right by the child. As is usually the case, they begin to demolish the apartment through their carelessness and stupidity. There is one precious scene when Ollie tries to feed the baby without looking to see where it is. Some have criticized this film because of its open endedness, but with all that goes on, who cares. When one realizes how much these guys could do in fifteen or twenty minutes of screen time, they were even more amazing.

Their First Mistake is a short that really embodies the essence of what Laurel and Hardy were about as a comedic duo. Hal Roach, the famous producer of many of their shorts along with a barrage of other successful ones for the period, famously stated how Laurel and Hardy complimented each other with their slapstick and behavioral tendencies, but what always drove me to their shorts as a means for pleasant escapism besides their inherent humor was how both characters were loyal to one another. It was as if they were all each other had, and no matter how angry they got at each other, they had to stick together, for where else would they go?

When Laurel and Hardy decide to adopt a baby to prove to Hardy's wife (Mae Busch) that they are indeed responsible and trustworthy, they are all they have, and while the short is frequently funny, it also proves this point as it goes on. Notice how even through anger and hostility brew between one another, there both men are, quick to recoup and try to do the right thing, despite going about it in the wrong way. Furthermore, Laurel and Hardy are breathlessly funny, finding a plethora of ways to be entertaining as well as thoughtfully engaging.

Their First Mistake embodies precisely why their careers and shorts have a timeless longevity.

Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Mae Busch. Directed by: George Marshall.

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.