Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

mark.waltz I have to kick myself for assuming that all of the post-Hal Roach Laurel and Hardy films were poor or only slightly amusing at best. True, most of them were, but this one is a pleasing find in their later day credits.The actual "Big Noise" is a massive explosive, a bomb slightly bigger than a pool ball but smaller than a bowling ball. It can blow up an entire mountain (which somehow the police or newspapers never find out about) but poor Oliver doesn't see it. His head is covered by part of an old fashioned camera, making him look like an elephant. The boys are hired to guard the bomb invented by a wacky inventor who also invented an eye guard for people eating grapefruit. Of course, some criminals next door find out about the invention, and the boys screw everything up, leading to lots of hilarity.As the inventor, Arthur Space plays his part as if he were Karloff or Lugosi in one of their sillier horror films from PRC or Monogram-totally seriously! Recent "Our Gang" graduate Bobby Blake (later Robert, of "Baretta" fame in addition to a well-publicized murder trial) is adorable as Space's prankster son. There's some amusing uses of familiar songs, particularly "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" for Space's Bluebeard-ish like Aunt who's buried six husbands and wants to make Oliver her seventh), "Singin' in the Rain" (where Hardy accidentally finds a shower in Space's inventive model home) and "Mairzedoats", played by Laurel on his trusted accordion and later danced to by some talented fish. There's the usual series of pants-ripping gags, sights of Hardy constantly tripping over luggage and some great verbal humor, especially one surrounding who will stay up taking turns to guard the bomb. Of course, Laurel is never as dumb as he seems, so its always nice to see him pull one over on the unsuspecting Hardy.

Wizard-8 "The Big Noise" is considered by many fans of Laurel and Hardy to be the worst movie the comic duo did. Even Laurel and Hardy themselves didn't think very highly of this effort of theirs. I haven't seen every Laurel and Hardy movie, but from what I've seen I think I can safely say that this is definitely below average for this comic team. To be fair, the movie is not without humor, having a few comic touches that are genuinely amusing. And Laurel and Hardy do contribute some energy with their performances. But the laughs are few and far between. There are many attempts at comedy that will make you think, "Someone thought this was funny?" And the scene in the train car bed goes on for an agonizingly long time (and has some strange homosexual overtones showing the boys struggling and wrestling endlessly in the bed.) The movie is never aggressively bad, but you will instantly forget it once it reaches the end.

Alex da Silva Two cleaners (Stan & Ollie) pretend to be private detectives and turn up for duty at the house of an inventor (Arthur Space). They must protect a new bomb that he has invented from being stolen before he takes it to Washington. Next door are a gang who are planning to steal the jewels of Aunt Sophie (Esther Howard) who lives with the inventor, Grandpa and a young brat. Once they learn that the inventor has made a new bomb, they change their plan to steal this instead of the jewels. The arrival of Evelyn (Doris Merrick) allows them an invite into the inventor's house, but when this is cancelled, 2 of the gang break in to find the bomb themselves.......Stan & Ollie look old in this film but it still has a few funny moments, eg, the meal scene and the scene where Stan is playing the accordion where we focus on Ollie's annoyance as he keeps playing wrong notes. This is, however, balanced out with unfunny segments, the most notable being when they are undressing on the train and a 3rd person joins them in their bunk. It's tedious and too long and not at all funny. In fact, there are no funny moments once the action shifts away from the house, and overall, the film is a disappointment.

BJJManchester THE BIG NOISE has had an horrendous reputation with critics,film-goers and L & H fans in the past,dismissed by various film scholars,writers and journalists as "a groan","sublimely indifferent","sinking to a new low",and even receiving an entry in Michael and Harry Medved's notorious book,'THE FIFTY WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME'.The film is certainly no classic,and is pretty poor when even compared to their average efforts at the Hal Roach Studios,but for the standards of the L & H wartime comedies,this is actually one of the better,more tolerable films that were made,which isn't saying very much,though increasing numbers are recognising that some of the contemptuous comments made previously are somewhat unfair and out of proportion.The story itself is rather thin,but one plus factor is that there is a decent concentration on Stan and Ollie here,unlike their previous efforts for 20th Century Fox,and scenes which are thankfully more in keeping with their characters;it is pleasing to see the Hardy camera look in many scenes,for example.This essential trait of Ollie's behaviour was non-existent in their previous Fox features(the otherwise banal MGM vehicle AIR RAID WARDENS at least had several authentic stares to the camera),but after several unsuitable drafts,writer Scott Darling apparently watched a few vintage L & H shorts,and began in earnest to mildly understand their established characterisations,reworking routines from such films as HABEUS CORPUS(this very utterance is actually spoken in the film),WRONG AGAIN,BERTH MARKS,OLIVER THE EIGHTH and TWICE TWO. Some of the insertions of these routines work surprisingly well,best of all the train upper berth sequence borrowed from BERTH MARKS.The original routine was over stretched and strained,mainly because this was only the team's second talkie,and restrictions on technology at the time(particularly sound editing)led to tedium and repetition.This routine works rather better in THE BIG NOISE,with not as much footage, improved pacing and the amusing addition of a genial drunk,played by Hollywood favourite inebriate Jack Norton;Tinseltown's other regular drunkard,Arthur Housman,had worked with L & H notably several times before,and would probably have been cast for this sequence had it not been for his premature death two years earlier.That said,there is still too much straight,non-humorous exposition involving gangsters and would-be Nazi spies,an all too common problem in these post-Roach L & H features,and Bobby(later Robert)Blake is something of an irritation as the inventor's misbehaving son.But some of the support cast aren't bad at all,especially the elderly Robert Dudley and an amusing bit from Francis Ford.Several supporting players from their Hal Roach days also turn up;the brief appearance of motorcycle cop Edgar Dearing(memorable in their silent classic TWO TARS)is a welcome diversion;a previous occasional foil,Del Henderson,can also be briefly glimpsed at the end of the upper berth sequence. The eminent L & H expert and writer Randy Skretvedt has admitted on a commentary accompanying this film's recent DVD release that his previous highly negative opinions on THE BIG NOISE were somewhat wrong,and that it's nowhere near as bad as he originally thought,rating this only under THE BULLFIGHTERS as the best of their Fox-MGM wartime features.I more or less agree with him.RATING:5 and a half out of 10.