Hired to sweep the chimney at Professor Noodle's house, the boys wreck the living-room and end-up in the mad scientist's laboratory where they interact with a rejuvenation potion.Hired to sweep the chimney at Professor Noodle's house, the boys wreck the living-room and end-up in the mad scientist's laboratory where they interact with a rejuvenation potion.Hired to sweep the chimney at Professor Noodle's house, the boys wreck the living-room and end-up in the mad scientist's laboratory where they interact with a rejuvenation potion.
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Laurel & Hardy as chimney sweepers = Laughs guaranteed!
The movie also has a subplot with a nutty professor who is working on a rejuvenation formula. It doesn't really sound like a logical mix of story lines and incoherent but both plot lines blend in perfectly toward the memorable ending. It's still a bit weird but its funny nevertheless, so it works for the movie.
The supporting cast of the movie is surprising good. Sam Adams is great as the stereotypical butler and Lucien Littlefield goes deliciously over-the-top as the nutty professor.
The movie is filled with some excellent timed and hilarious constructed sequences, which are all quite predictable but become hilarious to watch nevertheless thanks to the way they are all executed. It all helps to make "Dirty Work" to be one of the better Laurel & Hardy shorts.
8/10
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"Is this the home of Professor Noodle? We've come to sweep his chimney!"
Our story is set in the home of Professor Noodle, who represents one element of the story-line: a wildly over-the-top parody of Mad Scientist tales. This marks a rare venture into sci-fi territory for L&H; Abbott & Costello and The Three Stooges tangled with mad doctors far more often than Stan and Ollie. In any event, the professor is obsessed with creating a rejuvenating serum that can make people younger, while his sardonic butler, Jessup, expresses skepticism with rolled eyes and the occasional dry quip. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie are chimney sweeps who show up at the Professor's home the very day he perfects his solution. "Their" portion of the film consists of characteristic (but first-rate) slapstick involving the chimney, the roof, shovels, and a number of unfortunate mishaps. If you don't enjoy watching the boys screw up a task then you probably won't like Dirty Work, but for fans of the team this movie is a feast. The highlight comes when Ollie plummets through the chimney, lands in the fireplace, and is then pummeled with bricks that fall onto his head with maddening, rhythmic precision, one by one. I also like the shot of Ollie tumbling off the roof into a greenhouse; the process work is so rudimentary I suspect it was something of an inside joke, in the way that W.C. Fields' movies would boast the world's worst rear projection screens.
The slapstick stuff is great fun, but it's the mad scientist motif that makes this film memorably offbeat, and two supporting players deserve a tip of the bowler hat: prolific character actor Lucien Littlefield is terrific as Professor Noodle, delivering his overripe lines with relish and cackling with glee, while Sam Adams is a stitch in the less showy role of Jessup the butler. As great as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were in their prime, it's always worth noting that their supporting players at the Hal Roach Studio gave their films an enormous boost. So too, usually, did the background music of Le Roy Shield, but Dirty Work marks a rare occasion from this period that a Roach comedy has no musical accompaniment at all after the opening credits. Mood music might have enhanced the proceedings, but the lack of it is no great flaw. This is a highly enjoyable comedy, a prime example of what made Laurel & Hardy so popular in their day -- and long beyond it.
Bricks on the Head
Entertaining Short Feature
Timing Bricks
I wonder how much time was spent calculating the exact right moment to drop each brick onto Ollie's head to get maximum laughs as he sits at the bottom of the chimney. Possibly Stan, as he was the creative force in the partnership. If it was him, he got it exactly right. It's a small detail, almost inconsequential, but if it had been mistimed it wouldn't have been half as funny.
The potty professor's sarcastic butler is also pretty funny. 'You'll find it in there, standing against the wall,' he dryly informs Ollie when he enquires as to the whereabouts of the chimney.
Did you know
- TriviaThe clouds of chimney soot which engulfs the boys and Jessup was actually powdered chocolate.
- GoofsWhen Ollie falls into the tank and turns into a chimp all his clothes vanish except his hat.
- Quotes
Professor Noodle: [unaware that Jessup is in another part of the house, taking a huge soapy bath to wash off the ashes] Jessup! Jessup!
[coming across Stan and Ollie who are busy sweeping up after cleaning the chimney]
Professor Noodle: Where is Jessup?
Oliver: Jessup? Oh, about 35 miles southwest of Augusta, Georgia.
Professor Noodle: No, no, no - - I mean my butler!
Stan: [innocently] Oh, he went somewhere to look for an electric chair.
Oliver: Is there something we could help you with?
Professor Noodle: Yes! A capital idea! You shall be the first to witness a successful rejuvenation experiment in the entire history of science! And it's mine - - ALL MINE!
[laughs hysterically in a paroxysm of delight]
Professor Noodle: Come here! Come here!
[leads the way to his lab, where the duckling is floating in the rejuvenation tank]
Professor Noodle: Watch! I'm going to rejuvenate this duckling!
[uses the eyedropper to add a couple drops of the dark liquid from the large glass beaker to the water in the tank, causing the water to bubble and churn vigorously. A few seconds later the water quiets down again, and an egg is left floating on the water where the duckling had been]
Professor Noodle: Ha-haaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! SUCCESS! I did it! I did it! And now - - for a HUMAN demonstration!
Oliver: [fearing that the professor means that he wants to use him or Stan for his demonstration] Well - - we'll be seeing you!
Professor Noodle: Don't go - - wait here while I find my butler - - and use HIM for my experiment.
[shouting out the door]
Professor Noodle: Jessup!
[proceeding down the hall]
Professor Noodle: Jessup! Jessup! Jessup? Where are you, Jessup? Jessup!
Stan: What do you think about it?
Oliver: The whole thing looks screwy to me!
Stan: Me, too.
[looks around the lab, and spies a small aquarium with a large goldfish swimming around in it]
Stan: How about us trying it on that fish?
Oliver: That's a good idea! We'll find out for ourselves!
[catches the fish in his hands, then tips it into the rejuvenation tank. Next he picks up the huge glass beaker of dark liquid, and leans the side of the tank to pour some in]
Stan: Be careful how much you put in - - you might make it TOO young!
Oliver: Get me the eyedropper.
[takes the eyedropper from Stan, then leans over the side of the tank again. But - - naturally! - - he loses his balance and tumbles head-first with a loud yelp into the tank, still clutching the huge beaker of dark liquid. So of course, the WHOLE BEAKERFULL of rejuvenation liquid - - over two quarts, by the look of it - - gets added to the tank, instead of just a few drops. The water inside the tank froths and boils and churns furiously, and Ollie thrashes about wildly inside, giving his famous cries and exclamations of horrified distress]
Oliver: Hooooooooooooh- hoh- hoh- hoh- hoh- hoh! Aaaaaaaaaaaa-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah! Ohhhhhhhhhh-oh-oh-oh-oh-aaaaaAAAAAHHCKK!
Stan: [staring at the chimpanzee that has appeared over the edge of the tank and is gazing silently back at him] Ollie - don't you know me? Won't you speak to me?
Oliver: [in a voice-over, as if the chimpanzee is speaking] I have nothing to say.
Stan: [in his typical helpless panicked wail] Oh-ohhh!
- Alternate versionsThere is an Italian edition of this film on DVD, distributed by DNA Srl ("NON ANDIAMO A LAVORARE", Various Shorts on a single DVD). The film has been re-edited with the contribution of film historian Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available for streaming on some platforms.
- ConnectionsEdited into Dance of the Cookoos (1982)
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- Also known as
- Trabajo sucio
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- Runtime
- 19m
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1