Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Cleveronix
A different way of telling a story
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
TheLittleSongbird
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.'Sailors, Beware!' is nowhere near classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better. At this point, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in most of the previous outings had too little to do. 'Sailors, Beware!' is still worth watching though and is an improvement on some of their previous short films, along with 'Duck Soup', 'While Girls Love Sailors' and 'Sailors, Beware!' it was up there as among Laurel and Hardy's best up to this point.Personally would have liked more sly wit, more scenes with Laurel and Hardy together and Hardy having more screen time. The story is a bit busy at times and both slight and formulaic.. Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious, like as was said for a few of his previous outings 'Sailors, Beware!' is worth seeing for him alone. Anita Garvin enjoys herself as well and has nice chemistry with Laurel. Despite saying above about Hardy's screen time being too short he is at least not wasted, and he does give one of his funniest and most interesting appearances of his pairings with Laurel up to this point despite his persona being not as fully formed as Laurel's. There is not enough of him and Laurel together and one can see glimpses. A good deal of the humour is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny, with everything going at a lively pace, and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going. 'Sailors, Beware!' looks quite good.To conclude, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Robert J. Maxwell
Stan and Ollie hadn't yet become Stan and Ollie. In this one, they're strangers. Stan is a taxi driver who finds himself unwittingly a stowaway on a cruise ship. Ollie is the Purser. Also aboard are a drunken millionaire and a lady con artist whose midget husband poses as a baby and helps her cheat at cards.Various gags follow, some slapstick and some an iota more sophisticated, as when the "baby" entices Stan into shooting craps and uses loaded dice. Do people still shoot craps? It seems a lost form of gambling, just as shooting marbles among kids has disappeared.It's a silent picture and it's interesting to see that Stan's character is far more assertive than it was to become in the next few years. Stan has also developed his "crying face" which seems only half there without the accompanying whine of distress.
Boba_Fett1138
Although I just adore Laurel & Hardy, I can't say that I was very amused by this early attempt of the two.It's definitely true that this movie can't really be labeled as a Laurel & Hardy movie, since they don't appear in this movie as a comical duo. They play two separate roles, although they also interact with each other during some of movie its moments.It's one of the earliest movie starring the two boys. Their later trademark style of slapstick humor and chemistry is not yet fully notable in this movie. Instead the movie features some highly predictable and far from original comedy moments. The movie isn't even ashamed to recycle some of its own jokes time after time.Of course it's true that the movie also does have its moments. It's still fun enough to consider this a watchable movie but I have the feeling that Laurel & Hardy fans will probably be disappointed with this movie. It's not a movie that made me laugh a lot, though I think I smiled a lot. Especially the moments with the 'baby' were amusing. Kind of spooky to find out that the 'baby' was actually being played by an actual adult. Freaky!The movie is a bit longer than other Laurel & Hardy silent comedy shorts. The movie is 26 minutes long (so the 20 minutes runtime shown on this site is false!). It definitely shows on screen that this movie is longer than average. Some moments are overlong and tiresome. Seemed that 20 minutes was really the ideal length for a comedy short, at that time period. Perhaps if the movie had been shorter, I would also had been more positive about it.Obviously the boys and Hal Roach were still searching for the right comedy style, timing and pacing.This movie just does not yet fully show the Laurel & Hardy we all love.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
BJJ-2
One of the better shorts made with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before their celebrated teaming;well produced,some amusing sequences,though frustratingly the boys don't share that many scenes in the film.Still,we get the the first known camera-look from Hardy(although he had performed this trait in previous films,notably STICK AROUND,made in 1925),and Anita Garvin and Harry Earles are fine as an improbable man and wife jewel thieving team.Hal Yates is credited with the direction,though in fact Hal Roach is thought to have been the director,with Yates filming one day's worth of retakes.Later in the year,he directed HATS OFF,when the teaming was becoming an item;sadly no copy of HATS OFF is known to exist.
