Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

lugonian BLOCK-HEADS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1938), directed by John G. Blystone, is not a comedy short featuring The Three Stooges, but a feature length comedy starring another comedy team simply known by many as Laurel and Hardy. Produced by the Hal Roach Studios, released by MGM, BLOCK-HEADS, resembling a comedy short extended to 57 minutes, is a perfect example how a minor story with enough gag material (whether lifted from other comedies or those starring Stan and Ollie) becomes a laugh-filled comedy classic. Before the story proceeds, it gives out warning that, "The events and characters depicted in this photo-play are fictitious. Any similarity to actors portrayed, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not our fault." Signed Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.The story starts off in France during the Great War (World War I) in 1917. Private Stan Laurel is ordered by his commanding officer (William Royle) to remain in the trenches, guarding the post, until relieved from duty, while others in his regiment, including his best pal, Oliver, go off to war. After the Armistice of 1918, soldiers return home and resume with their lives. Move forward to 1938. Stanley still stands guard at the post, with a mountain of bean cans close by. After shooting at a passing airplane, a French pilot (Jean Del Val) lands to tell this soldier that the war has been over for twenty years. Now home from the front, Stanley makes the headline news, "America honors forgotten dough-boy." As Oliver, now living at the exclusive Elite Arms Apartments, is about to go and prepare his one year anniversary celebration with his wife (Minna Gombell), he notices the headline on the front page of a newspaper, "America honors forgotten dough-boy." As he sees the photo with the story, he quips, "I can't imagine anybody being that dumb. (delayed reaction) Oh, yes I can!" Remembering his old pal, Oliver comes to the National Soldiers Home where Stanley is staying. Ollie then invites Stanley to return home with him for a steak dinner and meet the wife. Easier said than done.Considering the Laurel and Hardy comedies dating back to the late twenties, their movies are never consistent. In almost all of them, they use their own names, indicating a continuing film series, which it's not. It's just a series of movies with new stories using same actors bearing their same names. Laurel and Hardy can be henpecked husbands in one film, or single men the next. One of them can be married, the other a single pal, such as the case in BLOCK-HEADS. Regardless, their basic characters are always the same with derby hats being their official trademarks. Then there's Ollie at one point telling Stanley, "Now here's another fine mess you've gotten me into." With BLOCK-HEADS consisting of many fine messes, Stan's memorable quote here happens to be, "You know how dumb I used to be? Well, I'm better now." Not quite. Invitation to dinner sequence happens to be one mishap after another, thanks to Stanley and scripting material written by none other than former silent comedian, Harry Langdon, with the assistance by James Parrott, Charles Rogers, Felix Adler and Arnold Belgard.Others members in the cast of Hal Roach stock players include Oliver's next door neighbor, Billy Gilbert as Mr. Gilbert, an avid hunter with a rifle returning home after two months in Borneo to his attractive wife, Mrs. Gilbert (Patricia Ellis) and suspicious nature; Tommy Bond ("Butch" from the "Our Gang" comedies) as a brat playing football in the apartment building; Harry Woods as the boy's tough father; Patsy Moran (Lulu, Oliver's ex-girlfriend); and James Finlayson, a regular in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, seen briefly as an angry tenant whose misunderstanding with Oliver has Stanley alerting the tenants, "There's going to be a fight!" Aside from fine production values and classic underscoring, BLOCK-HEADS is fast-pace and high on laughs. The film itself is a sheer reminder as to how great Laurel and Hardy are as a comedy team. There will never be another likes of them again.Initially distributed in the 1980s onto home video, either in black and white or colorized format, BLOCK-HEADS, available on DVD (on a double bill with another Laurel and Hardy classic, WAY OUT WEST), had its cable television broadcasts consisting of the Comedy Channel (1980s), American Movie Classics (1994-96) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: appropriately April 1, 2005). Does Stanley finally get to have his juicy steak dinner with Ollie. Stay tuned and fine out. (***)

ccthemovieman-1 This is the "boys" - Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy - it what many consider their last good comedy feature film, doing what they do best: short slapstick routines. It's almost a compilation of them, a series of routines more than a story with a plot. Stan and Ollie, between 45 and 50 years old when they made this film, were Hollywood veterans by now.Frankly, the comedy might be considered a little too corny for today's crowd but, hey, the movie is 70 years old. If you're a fan of these two comedians you should enjoy this film. Anyway, when anyone provides a lot of gags in just under one hour, you'll hit and miss a lot....but some things will always be funny. Some are still clever, too, such as the bit with the window shade being a shadow.You can always count on Ollie being henpecked and Stan being an airhead (he's a WWI soldier who marched in a trench for 20 years not realizing the war is long over). Of course, if you think about it, that premise has more holes in it than the proverbial swiss cheese, but who cares? A good portion of this film involves the simple fact of Ollie and Stan just trying to walk 13 flights up the stairs to Ollie's apartment, and the adventures that happen to them along the way.After watching just 57 minutes of these guys pratfalls and slapstick routines, you'll be exhausted!

John T. Ryan In 1938, it was obvious that the World was changing rapidly and radically; and the perennially favourite comedy team of Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy was nearing its run at the top of Hollywood's comedy films. Only 3 more of their features would be made in their old Roach Studios' style of working and feeling their way through and hence improving on what's written on the scripted page. The independent film THE FLYING DEUCES (Boris Morros Prod./RKO RADIO Pictures, 1939), A CHUMP AT OXFORD (Hal Roach, United Artists, 1940) and SAPS AT SEA (Hal Roach/United Artists, 1940) rounded out what many would later consider the body of "True Laurel & Hardy Work." Abbott & Costello, Hope & Crosby's ROAD PICTURES Series and Martin & Lewis waited in the wings for their turn in the spotlight.So now we go on to our dissection of BLOCKHEADS, presented entirely without commercial interruption.OUR STORY……………….It is 1918 in France. The Great 'War to End All Wars' is grinding to the standstill of Armistice; which is sort of brutally analogous to the great Football Coach of Boston College & Notre Dame, Frank Leahy's defining statement that, "Playing for a Tie is like Kissing your Sister!" WE iris in on a platoon of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force or "Rainbow Division"). They are in combat, situated in the now famous trenches that were so common on the Western Front. The whole Company is ordered to go over top and charge out of the relative safety of the giant 'Foxhole' to engage the Germans. One Private is chosen to guard the encampment. "STAY HERE UNTIL WE GET BACK!", comes the order to Private Laurel, while Private Hardy and the rest of the troops strike out onto the open battlefield.MEANWHILE the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month comes along and with it the End of Hostilities. Of course, no one bothers to tell Stan, who maintains his position in patrolling and protecting the American bivouac.Suddenly it's 1938, 20 years after the Big Push that left Stan alone. In the back of the encampment we see a veritable Everest of empty field ration bean cans indicating the rather lengthy passage of time. It is ultimately a misunderstanding by Private Stanley that leads to his discovery. He attempts to shoot down a civilian plane with a tripod machine gun and the Pilot lands nearby; informing him that THE WAR HAS BEEN OVER FOR TWENTY TEARS!; to which Laurel replies with a "Huh?" STAN is taken to the States and is resting comfortably in an Old Soldiers' Home; when the story is picked up in the newspapers. Mrs. Hardy asks Ollie, "Can you imagine anyone being so dumb?" Hardy replies, "Oh yes I can!" HARDY takes off for the Soldier's Home to bring his old friend back to his house and the rest of the story is taken up with Laurel's less than enthusiastic reception by Mrs. Hardy, domestic quarrelling between the Hardys, interplay between the Boys and the neighbors, The Big Game Hunter (Billy Gilbert) & Wife (Patricia Ellis) and hostile interaction with just about the whole, wide World; which Laurel was apparently no longer a member in good standing.In keeping with this movement toward "modernization" Hal Roach Studios had opted for a sort of middle path to its production output. Whereas Roach had been THE Mecca of the Comedy Short, that format had been discontinued by him in (ca.) 1935. Replacing the Shorts* and most of the long Feature Films (of approximately 90 minutes or so in running time) was a 'new', bastard size movie; which ran from between 40 to 50 minutes, but always under an hour. Being marketed as the "Streamliner", the short features were meant to play as the second film of the Double Feature, or the kind of movie for Teenagers not to watch while making out at the ever growing number of Drive-Ins proliferating in the Nation.** We read here that BLOCKHEADS is a remake of the Mack Sennett silent 2 Reeler SOLDIER MAN (Sennett/Pathe, 1926) starring Harry Langdon. Inasmuch as Harry was a writer and gagman for Roach during this period and worked on BLOCKHEADS, there is no doubt of there being a correlation between the two. But, we don't call it a 'remake' in the strict sense of the word; but rather a 're-working' of the central gag of the overly conscientious, duty-bound Soldier, who is none too bright and takes everything in a very literal sense. The rest of the story is strictly Laurel & Hardy and tends to take things easy in expanding its envelope beyond usual L & H proved winning interplay.AS for the seemingly ridiculous premise of presenting a Soldier, isolated and believing that the War was still on after 20 years of "Peace", we have to play Devil's Advocate and back those who would be pro to such an outlandish notion.WELL, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, we present in evidence an incident that occurred in 1973on a lonely Pacific cay, a lone Japanese Soldier had a cave shelter; living off the land. He was awaiting the return of his Imperial Japanese Army's Troops. This guy was really well trained and devoted to The Emperor Hirohito and the Prime Minister Tojo; for he had his dress uniform kept available for a Victory Flight over Washington, D.C.NOW, "Can you imagine anyone being so dumb?" (He must have been Private Rawrel! Get it, Schultz?) NOTE: * One reason for the decline of so much of the live action Comedy Shorts market was the popularity of the Theatrical Cartoon starring the likes of Mr. Mickey Mouse, Popeye and Bugs Bunny (Himself)NOTE: ** 'Streamliner', after the popular term for the Diesel Engined Locomotives, the 'new' and the greatest thing. POODLE SCHNITZ!!

Neil Doyle The first half of BLOCK-HEADS contains the most amusing skits in the feature that runs just a little short of one hour and seems like a series of farcical sketches that become a little too hectic toward the last twenty minutes. But fans of LAUREL & HARDY probably won't really mind since it's good slapstick fun.The most amusing idea has STAN LAUREL still keeping watch in the trenches during World War I and shooting at a German plane until the pilot (who lands safely nearby) explains to him that the war has been over since 1918. When Stan is reunited with his friend OLIVER HARDY at a veteran's home, he's sitting in an unoccupied wheelchair and Oliver thinks he's a vet with a missing leg. It's one of the funniest sections of the film, that has Oliver carrying him, getting dumped on by a dumpster, and taking all sorts of pratfalls as the routine winds on.Later, at Hardy's home, the slapstick gets even wilder but not necessarily funnier. Too many staged arguments with his wife (MINNA GOMBELL) lead to the sort of shouting matches that can become tiresome after awhile. But through it all, STAN LAUREL has some good comic moments as friend Oliver gets in trouble with the lady next door and her jealous husband (BILLY GILBERT).The gags are fast and furious in typical slapstick tradition and it's a fast-moving comedy that should satisfy fans of the duo. Gilbert is a joy to watch as the jealous hubby, easily stealing scenes with his caricature of the man across the hall from Hardy.Summing up: Delightful mixture of gags and slapstick situations in the Hal Roach tradition.