ShangLuda Admirable film.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

bkoganbing It's been remarked by some critics that Laurel and Hardy on the screen played it gay. I think most are reading too much into that, but in the case of The Dancing Masters this might be the exception.Meet Stan And Ollie proprietors of a dance studio and seeing them at the beginning in costume, especially Stanley in ballerina drag might just make you wonder. It was quite a treat to see them as dance instructors especially Ollie. For such a big guy he moved pretty good.They've got themselves in a situation. Already owing a lot of back rent to landlord Matt Briggs who has only been staved off from throwing the boys out by wife Margaret Dumont and daughter Trudy Marshall. Stan and Ollie get intimidated into buying insurance from some shady characters. The old protection racket with a veneer of legitimacy.They are also guardians to Marshall and her boyfriend Robert Bailey who apparently years ahead of his time has perfected laser technology. The invention works, but in Stan and Ollie's hands only too well.Although not up to the standards of their work with Hal Roach, Stan and Ollie do recapture some of the magic of those previous films. Best scenes are an auction where Ollie is suckered into buying some useless junk and the climax on a runaway bus. That final scene is more like an Abbott&Costello sequence, but it works for Laurel&Hardy.Allan 'Rocky' Lane plays a favorite of Briggs whom he'd like to match up with his daughter. And Robert Mitchum plays one of the 'insurance' salesmen. Speaking of Lane, Briggs does a rather unconvincing 180 degree turn in regard to Lane and Bailey for the hand of his daughter. That does weaken the film somewhat.Still die-hard fans of Stan and Ollie should like The Dancing Masters.

Michael_Elliott Dancing Masters, The (1943) ** (out of 4) Later day Laurel and Hardy has the boys working as dance instructors but they decide to help a friend try to sell a new invisible ray gun. This film wasn't as bad as I had heard but it's still one of the lesser films that the boys made. There are plenty of laughs throughout the film but for the most part the jokes fall flat on their face. We get several sequences, which we've seen in earlier L&H films and these include the entire ending when Laurel is trying to get injured so that they can collect some insurance money. The highlight of the film has to be seeing a young Robert Mitchum trying to sell the boys some insurance. Again, the film isn't that bad and it's mildly entertaining for 63-minutes but we've seen these jokes in better shorts before.

tavm In a remarkable coincidence, I found out in the morning paper that today is the day Oliver Hardy died 50 years ago. That made me want to watch The Dancing Masters right away since I checked that out of the library last Sunday. Since this was one of Hardy's and partner Laurel's latter-day features they made for, in Stan's words, "those Fox people", there isn't much in the way of logic in the comic set pieces that are depicted here but for the most part the movie is pretty amusing with many laughs and smiles from me when the boys are by themselves or whenever they have someone new, like leading lady Trudy Marshall, participate in one of their routines. In fact, Ms. Marshall recounted to one L & H biographer how she told Stan and Ollie how she'd love to do comedy so they let her in the "Mixed Hats" routine in which she also incorporated plates. She became known as "One-Take Marshall" from that incident in her cherished memory! Also appearing, without credit, was Robert Mitchum in one of his early thug roles, here talking a little fast for his usual character. Also, Margaret Dumont, usual Marx Brothers foil, provides some amusing moments. Alas, the movie falls apart at the end with a really illogical bus chase that mixes obvious back projection scenes with obvious model scenes to uneven results. Stan's line at the end does partially make up for that. So while The Dancing Masters is not an L & H classic, it's certainly worth a look for die-hard fans of the boys. Rest in eternal peace, Mr. Hardy.

zsenorsock I suppose bad Laurel and Hardy is better than no Laurel and Hardy at all, but just barely. It's sad that the Fox films are the ones getting a big release on DVD, exposing people who may not be too familiar with L&H to their WORST stuff rather than their classic comedies.Once again the boys are saddled with a dumb romantic plot about a guy who's invented an invisible ray. He's in love with the bosses' daughter, who hates him and prefers some slick guy. It's incredible to think the geniuses at Fox thought THIS is what L&H needed in their films.Without their pancake makeup the boys look tired and old. The only scenes that work for them in this picture is when they try to sneak out of a bedroom window at night and the rather bizarre scene where Robert Mitchum, being a classic noir bad guy tries to sell Oliver Hardy "insurance" on Stan.Otherwise, this script is just a mess. Forget this and see if you can find a copy of "A Chump at Oxford" or "Bohemian Girl" or "Sons of the Desert" instead.