The Fixer Uppers

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.

Didn't find 'The Fixer Uppers' one of the duo's best, one of their lesser ones actually from this period from personal opinion. In a filmography that was mostly solid to classic (only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired for me but that was very early on when their partnership and style hadn't formed or evolved and when Hardy especially was not being used well), nonetheless it is still good and has much of what makes Laurel and Hardy's work as appealing as it is.

'The Fixer Uppers' story is threadbare and more problematic is how daftly credibility-straining and heavy in coincidence it is.

Also found it a bit of a slow-starter with a draggy first third where there is a little too much talk for my liking.

However, 'The Fixer Uppers' is nonetheless very funny, especially the boys' reactions (notably Hardy's). It is rarely dull, going at a snappy pace, and there is energy in the slapstick and sly wit, silly and typical of the duo but in an endearing and entertaining way. The second half is much better, livelier in pace and chockfull of beautifully timed gags and wit.

Both Laurel and Hardy are on top form, especially Laurel. They are equally funny with impeccable comic timing physically and verbally, this is not a case of one being funnier and having more screen time than the other (in their early efforts Laurel tended to be funnier and better used). Their chemistry is legendary for a reason and it is obvious here. The supporting cast are up to their level, as scene stealing as Arthur Houseman is as a drunk and amusing Mae Busch is it is fearsome Charles Middleton who comes off the best. 'The Fixer Uppers' visually looks good and the direction is never too busy or static.

In summary, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

THE FIXER UPPERS was one of Laurel and Hardy's final short films, and its a classic. One thing to note, there were more clever lines and situations at work here, as opposed to the usual crashes and explosions. The boys manage to mess things up either way, now working as greeting card salesmen who happen upon weepy customer Mae Busch --who wants to use Ollie to make her stubborn husband jealous!

This was a good switch for Stan and Ollie, and with Charles Middleton playing the "deadly serious" husband, who happens to know how to use a gun! Middleton was always a fun bad guy for Laurel and Hardy, usually playing a bitter, revengeful chap, ready to strangle them. In one goofy bit, Hardy phones him and lets the insults fly, followed by Stan, prompting Middleton to hang up and declare he'll kill them both, the sooner the better!

By the way, Mae Busch never looked lovelier, and exceptionally well dressed, as opposed to her usual exasperated housewife roles opposite Hardy. Not to forget she was a leading dramatic actress in silent films. Arthur Houseman is again cast as a loony drunk (with an ice pack on his noggin), one of the boys customers, probably the best actor ever to play such a role.

The bedroom scene with the cops carrying Stan and Ollie (who drank too much also) into Mae's room ---before her husband arrives --is outrageous. This short was originally computerized colored for vhs with a few other L & H films.

Note that some of Laurel and Hardy's short films are on European dvds that will not play on U. S. made dvd and blu ray players. Be sure to check where the box set was produced.

This one takes the basic idea of a neglected wife pretending to have a lover to make her husband jealous from Slipping Wives, a 1927 silent short that Laurel & Hardy both appeared in, although not as a comedy team, but it quickly departs at a tangent. The neglected wife here is Mae Busch, in a more sympathetic role than usual as the neglected wife in question. Her husband is Charles Middleton, a frequent foe of the boys who, rather than brimming with gratitude to Ollie for showing him how neglectful he had been, challenges him to a pistol duel.

The story is a bit daft, and it's true that this isn't one of Stan & Ollie's stronger shorts, but those two only have to appear on screen to make us smile. They sell greeting cards in this one, and Stan is the writer of such gems as 'A Merry Christmas, husband, a happy New Years nigh, I wish you Easter Greetings, hooray for the fourth of July.' 'We call that our four-in-one,' Ollie advises the unhappy wife.

Sorry if I`m hurting anyone`s feelings but this is one of the weakest of the L&H shorts . My problem with it is not so much a threadbare plot but the set-up and the coincidence of the husband arriving home at that precise point . Like science fiction comedy relies on sincere credibilty for it to work and sincere credibilty is in short supply when Stan and Ollie sit in a bar when they should be getting the first train out of town . Wouldn`t you in the same circumstance ? And the flaws in the script aren`t helped by the very stagey performances of the supporting cast .

That said both Stan and Ollie greatly rise above the material on display and do give very good slapstick performances with the telephone scene and the duel working simply because L&H have the greatest chemistry of any comedy duo that have ever lived . Even when the scripts aren`t very good Stan and Ollie can still bring a grin to my face

Six out of ten

Stan and Ollie have another one of those innocuous jobs. They are door to door greeting card salesmen. When they come to the door of Mae Busch, she is bemoaning the fact that her husband doesn't seem to love her. To test this, it is suggested that Oliver pretend to "make love" (not quite the same meaning as now) to her and test the husband. Of course, he is Charles Middleton, who played the evil space lord, Ming, in the Flash Gordon serials. He is an artist and the best shot in France, and he decides to fight a duel with our rotund friend. Now the boys must find a way out of this because this guy really means business. Unfortunately, they decide to get drunk and through a series of unfortunate events, end up back at the artist's home, in his bed. This is a little weaker than many of these episodes, but it's still better than what most anyone else was doing at the time.