The Caretaker's Daughter (Chase 1925)

Everything I see of Chase in his prime convinces me he was one of the greatest of the lot. He plays opposite his brother here in a really strong, and really outlandish, old-fashioned farce. It reminds me of nothing so much as an episode of Frasier at its most farcical. There's that ski lodge episode actually- maybe I'm just seeing the connection there. There isn't really a weak link in here- this is good ensemble playing. Parrott (J) plays a limping oriental lodge caretaker- when various farcical complications arise at the lodge between various couples, detectives and cons, everyone takes their turn trying on the limping oriental disguise. Tremendously silly, yeah of course, but adorably done.
Adorabe too is Grant as Chase's wife- she has some lovely bits early on when the two of them have some business with an old dilapidated car. The plot is one of those plots where you can't quite pin it all together afterwards, but it works just fine while it's going on. As good as 'Mighty Like a Moose'? No, nowhere near. But this bunch of players is fun to watch, and they seem to be enjoying themselves, especially with the disguise stuff.

Way Out West (Laurel & Hardy 1937)

'Way Out West', glorious though it is, probably confirms that for my taste at least the feature length was a step too far for Laurel and Hardy. In shorts, they were perfect, frequently perfect, but in features- and this is surely the best of them all- there's just a little too much flab, too many scenes that should have been trimmed or even snipped out completely.
I don't know, maybe that's harsh.
Maybe I need to lay my cards on the table and say that I think 20-30 minutes is the premium for all comedy media- you cross that line and you're into diminishing returns. Maybe ultimately that's my problem then- I'm not sure any comedy feature is ever going to give me exactly what I'm looking for. But 'Way Out West' comes much, much closer than most. I could have done without the scenes of the Boys trying to reclaim the goldmine deed at night- this dragged. There were fine touches, but I didn't want to be watching it. The stuff with the mule, and Ollie going up and down with the ropes- there was nothing wrong with it, but it was a long and pretty pointless scene where I didn't want a long and pretty pointless scene to be. I can be a perfectionist you know.
Ah, but now let's bask in some of the glories that came before. The plot of course- Stan and Ollie are somehow entrusted with handing over the deeds to a young saloon worker whose father has just died. Her guardains try and trick her out of her inheritance. Finn, in particular, was never better than here- there's a gurning aside he gives to camera qute early on, just before Laurel and Hardy meet the conniving Sharon Lynn for the first time I think, that is absolutely magical. I think it's filed away in the Flickr album of my mind's eye for all time. In his own way James Finlayson was a legend, and I think we should pause for a second to appreciate him...
The musical numbers worked better here too than in any other Stan and Ollie film I've seen- the film didn't stop to accommodate them, and more to the point the entertainment didn't stop to accommodate them. They worked well as musical numbers, and they were funny.
And surely the tickling scene with Stan and Sharon Lynn is one of the most perversely sexual things ever to find its way on to film? Maybe it's me again. Maybe I need to keep quiet.

Saps At Sea (Laurel & Hardy 1940)

Now this is lovely. It really is though, and I know I'm going against the grain somewhat here. Sure, it's hugely flawed, but by reputation the Boys were well into their decline by this point, and if you take 'Saps at Sea' purely on its own terms and snip out the wider historical overview completely I don't see how you can deny that it is really good fun. And you get a proper climactic fight too, with Ollie giving Nick the convict a pasting!
Ben Turpin has a wee cameo, Fin has a glorious scene as a doctor, and Harry Langdon was on the writing staff- this is like a last hurrah for the silent era. Even the goat's face rings a bell.
Ollie has a breakdown in a horn factory (yeah, the whole idea of the horn factory and the production line approach- I think disbelief has to get suspended here a bit...) and is prescribed a nice sea voyage by Doctor Fin. Unfortunately Ollie and Stan's ramshackle little craft has a murderous stowaway on board. There's not a whole lot more to it than that, but gags are milked at every opportunity, and most of them work well, even if they can be a tad familiar. The bunk scene for instance, with the goat in Stan's bed- this is done beautifully, tenderly even. Sure you're not dealing with material of the highest originality, but so often with Laurel and Hardy the appeal- damn it, let's come straight out and say it, the MAGIC- is as much to do with the chemistry, the performances, the subtleties of the interplay, as it is to do with the material the comedians happen to be performing with. You're left with an approach to comedy and an approach to entertaining the audience that transcends the film itself- hence the base level of quality for any Laurel and Hardy film is going to be significantly higher than it is going to be for, say, a Three Stooges film (and I've got no intention of getting all anti-Three Stooges here- they can at least be mentioned in the same sentence as Laurel and Hardy, and that's not to be sniffed at...) Practically none of their mature films, up to about the time of 'Saps at Sea', could be considered a failure, let alone could be regarded as unwatchable. Compare that with what was to come once Stan's artistic input was thrown out with the dishwater.
No, not a masterpiece, but hugely fun.

Block-Heads (Laurel & Hardy 1938)

'Block-Heads' was one of the first Laurel and Hardy films I remember watching, but I don't think that's the only reason it means to much to me. I do find it curious that it isn't more highly regarded- I realize that it isn't quite spoken of in the same breath as some of the 40's atrocities, but neither has it been admitted to the top rank of Laurel and Hardy features. I understand that it is, to put it politely, derivaitive, and that it does tail of into bit of a shouty final quarter or so, but the first half an hour is just an unstoppable barrage of first-rate gags and really clever ideas, and the Boys (note the capitalization there...) are performing just wonderfully. Moments like: Ollie's disbelief at seeing Stan's picture in the photo, and his repeated double-backs to check that he isn't mistaken, Stan leaping back into Ollie's arms after the Garage Incident, the rapid descent of the apartment building's staircase ('There's going to be a fight...'). These are all small bits and pieces rather than the Big Gags, but they are all crafted so beautifully and, as far I'm concerned, should be enough to elevate 'Block-Heads' a little higher in the collective consciousness.
Twenty years after Armistice Day Stan finally learns the war is over, and he can return home. Touchingly, Ollie is overjoyed to be reunited with his old army pal, though the novelty soon wears off as Stan destroys his home and his marriage. Minna Gombell is the wife, and is unfortunately rather draining as the wife. But, to give her due, she is only playing the part as written. It's a shame as there is some subtlety about her early on- the breakfast scene between Mr and Mrs Hardy on their anniversary is rather sweet, with humour and genuine affection, but from then on she is allowed to be nothing more or less than a shrill charicature, and her 'humorous' shouting matches with her husband could bring a migraine on. More interesting is Patricia Ellis from across the hall- she is playing a type we're not really used to seeing in Laurel and Hardy films, elegant and unflappable, and while there's a reason we don't see this type of character too often, she is like a breath of fresh air here. The courtship and romance of Mr and Mrs Gilbert would make a fascinating short subject in itself I feel.

Liberty (Laurel & Hardy 1929)

Now this the 7 year old loved. And with good reason of course. Admittedly it was the intertitle about the boys changing their pants that set her off (ah, the perils of our very-nearly-shared language), but there was plenty of fairly earned merriment later on too. What was interesting though, watching it with her, was that she found the scaffolding scene genuinely involving and exciting- and in all fairness I must take my leave from her at that point, though that I guess is the difference between being 7 and being... significantly older than 7.
So- after a presumed jailbreak, Stan and Ollie find themselves wearing each other's trousers. And Stan, adding a humorous wee exclamation point to this, also has a crab in his pair. Or Ollie's pair, depending on how you look at it. Two substantial extended episodes then- trying to exchange their trousers in public, and then trying to hold on to their liberty (and their lives) perched atop a skyscraper mid-construction. It's very good, very funny, from start to finish- Stan's clowning, crab down his trousers, is a joy to behold. It is not, after all, a subtle gag, but he somehow brings subtlety to it, and also a curious sense of confused beauty. There's something haunting about the repetition of his utterly bewildered face as he tries, and fails, to understand exactly what is going on.
There's a brief cameo from dear old Fin as a shopkeeper having his pile of records destroyed, but it is a curiously half-hearted scene, an afterthought almost, as if everyone was readying themselves for the scaffolding scenes to come.