Our Relations

While Stan and Oliver sit at home eating dinner they get a letter from Oliver's mother with a picture of them with their twin brothers. Deciding it best to keep their brothers a secret from their other halves, they burn the picture. Unbeknownst to them though, these very twins have just arrived in town on a boat. Albert and Bert are not the smartest though and, before hitting the town, they allow Chief Engineer Finn to take their money to "invest" it. This means that they have no real cash when they go ashore to deliver a valuable ring for the captain. However when they meet two young ladies with expensive tastes they find themselves in a bit of a pickle.

The old "twin brothers/mistaken identity" plot is hardly the stuff of narrative gold, so I was a bit concerned that the plot would be terrible with this film. However this is actually very precisely structured for a Laurel and Hardy film and, although the plot is hardly convincing, it is very neat and tidy and moves along well. Even if the plot had been poor though, it is the laughs that matter and this film consistently delivers amusing moments even if it doesn't have much in the way of standout scenes. I was tickled all the way through it rather than roaring with laughter but this gentle humour was still enough for me.

Laurel and Hardy are both good but they weren't totally themselves. Laurel enjoyed his usual character but Hardy was given fewer withering looks which is a shame as he does them so well. Finalyson has a bigger role than normal but really I felt him more effective in short film roles that relied on his physical work rather than his delivery. Hale is enjoyable as the waiter, while Housmann is a good drunk.

Overall a solid and enjoyable Laurel & Hardy film that is a pretty tight production by their standards. Not the funniest vehicle you will find for them but certainly more than enough to please their fans.

Laurel and Hardy fans loved to see the two act out their unique brand of humorous antics on the screen. But when they saw a double dose of the two as they played a pair of identical twins in October 1936's "Our Relations.," there was so much gut-busting laughter that there were reports some had to be medically administered from laughing so hard. A combination of split screen special effects and the camerawork of one of cinema's most highly-respected cinematographers, Rudolph Mate, made this later Laurel and Hardy motion picture one of their more highly successful box office hits. The buzz of this film was so great that the royal head of the United Kingdom, King Edward VIII, a big fan of the pair, arranged a command showing of the feature film in London just before its release in the United States.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had played dual roles in two earlier short movies, in 1930's "Brats," and in 1933's "Twice Two." In "Our Relations" the two sets of twins looked and acted alike. Director Harry Lachman and his team had to distinguish the twins as they jumped in and out of the scenes. The filmmakers created subtle identifying clues to help the viewers tell the difference between the pair of twins since they all dressed in nearly identical street clothes. Stan wore his traditional bowtie while Ollie had on his necktie while the other twins, Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy, each wore just the opposite ties. If viewers didn't get the visual clues, a short musical stanza was played as each pair of twins entered the frame. For Stan and Ollie, their theme song, "Dance of the Cuckoos" is heard, while Alf and Bert are introduced by the "Sailor's Hornpipe."

Stan and Ollie are civilians happily married while Naval sailors Alf and Bert are on leave at the same port city where the two live. The first they knew each had a twin brother was when Stan's mother had earlier mailed a photo of the sailors to her son informing him and Stan of their long lost brothers.

Film reviewer Gary Loggins wrote, "'Our Relations' is a classic slapstick comedy of errors with gags galore, like when the duo touch each others noses and go "Shakespeare - Longfellow" whenever they say the same thing simultaneously." Based on the W. W. Jacobs 1903 'The Money Box,' "Our Relations" was fortunate to get the services of cameraman Rudolph Mate, a highly-respected European cinematographer whose brilliant work in Carl Dreyer's 1928 "The Passion of Joan of Arc" and 1932 "Vampyr" had made him a legend of cinema by the time he arrived in Hollywood in 1935. His camera work portfolio includes 1936's "Dodsworth," 1937 "Stella Davis," and 1942's "The Pride of the Yankees." Nominated for the Academy Awards Best Cinematographer five years in a row, Mate gave a distinctive look to Laurel and Hardy's 1936 feature film that showed the pair's appearance a bit more polished than previous efforts.

Although "Our Relations" has indirect roots from Shakespeare's 'The Comedy of Errors,' the movie has inspired future movies with a pair of identical twins, including 1957's The Three Stooges "A Merry Mix Up" as well as Bette Milder and Lily Tomlin's 1988 comedy "Big Business."

Is this the most violent Laurel and Hardy film ever made? Surprisingly, while Stan and Ollie's twin brothers – Bert and Alf – are described as "bad lads", it's the originals that are the most malicious, in this sadistic – yet very funny all the same – Laurel and Hardy showcase. Stan gets to headbutt a barman and set fire to another man's chest hair, while Ollie, for his part, sticks a lightbulb in a man's mouth (James Finlayson, a regular stooge for the boys in 35 movies) then punches him in the face so he swallows the broken glass. Their supposedly rogue twins, meanwhile, merely try to save money and treat some ladies to a meal. In order to distinguish between the twins (other than the level of violence they display), musical cues are used – a sea shanty for the sailors Bert and Alf, and the Laurel and Hardy theme for Stan and Ollie.

There are lots of great sustained jokes in this movie, such as Ollie's broken spectacles, and the ultimate in a sustained gag is the mistaken identities between the sets of twins. This joke is taken so far towards its logical conclusion that the duos don't discover each other's existence until the final ninety seconds of film. This causes the plot to be far more imaginative, whereas a lesser film would have had greater reliance on the two pairs meeting. Arthur Housman is also good as the drunk, a role he seemed to make a career out of playing in many of his 159 film roles. It was a also a role he reprised with Laurel and Hardy, having played both "drunk" and "drunk sailor" in Scram!, The Live Ghost and The Fixer Uppers.

The direction by Harry Lachman is well above average for the pair. Some scenes are shot through a fish tank or the back of a bed's headrail, and there are lots of aerial shots. The split screen technology, while used sparingly, was extremely proficient for the time. One thing of note is that a couple of the sequences, such as the crushed in the telephone box scene, are slightly similar to sight gags in the Marx Brothers film of the previous year, A Night At The Opera. It's not that obvious, and may just be coincidence, but I'd rather hoped that Laurel and Hardy had inspired the Marx Brothers, and not the other way around. But it's probably funnier here anyway, particularly poor old Stan with a boot on his neck. Finally, one of the concluding scenes – Stan crying hysterically as he rolls around on concrete boots – is a real winner.

This is another take on the plot of a couple of men having long lost twin brothers. Stan and Ollie have Bert and Al who they know are bad news. Well, those two are working on a ship and are on shore leave as our heroes take their wives out for dinner. This is a series of mistaken identity things where the good guys appear to be crooked and vice versa. Even the wives are confronted by a couple of sailors on the make. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie are seen to be jewel thieves. Jimmy Finlayson is superb as the long suffering ship's captain. This, of course, is a take on the Shakespeare play, "A Comedy of Errors." There is great fun and some of the encounters are wonderful. One of the best things is the boys got to be "bad" once in a while. One of their better efforts.

This has got to be one of the better 'long' Laurel & Hardy pictures. Reason why this movie is better than most of the other Laurel & Hardy comedies is that this movie has a very well written story, that at times gets a bit confusing but remains solid, enjoyable and funny all at the same time throughout its entire running time.

It isn't really a comedy with many slapstick moments or other silly events. It's more a movie that relies on its story, that might not be 'hilarious' but it remains consistently funny all the time. It makes "Our Relations" one of the more consistent Laurel & Hardy movies to watch and because of that it also becomes one of the most enjoyable ones.

Yes, it really is the slick tight story that is filled with some good comical moments that made this movie such a good and pleasant one to watch. Especially toward the ending the movie becomes really good, although also a bit confusing at the same time. It's very hard to tell who is Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy and who is Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy (the twin brothers of the two boys, who are of course being played by Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel as well.) and who is being chased by who and why. It makes the movie a bit too hard to follow in the end but the good comical moments and situations compensate this more than enough.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy really show their acting skills in this movie. They have more lines and interacting with other characters than usual. It's good to see that James Finlayson also shows up again in a fairly big role. Other fine roles are being portrayed by; Sidney Toler, Arthur Housman and Alan Hale.

OK so the movie might not be 'hilarious' by Laurel & Hardy standards but the story is extremely well written and has some well timed and executed comical moments in it, which will surely make you laugh.

9/10

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