With Love and Hisses

With Love and Hisses (1927)

*** (out of 4)

The Sergeant (Oliver Hardy) and Captain (James Finlayson) aren't happy with some dumbbell recruits (including Stan Laurel) so they are sent out with the Sergeant so that he can get them into shape. Very funny silent short is actually a Hal Roach "All-Star" show since L&H weren't a group yet. There's plenty of laughs including the segment where the men go skinny dipping.

Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hardy's wife leaves him when he brings Laurel home for dinner. L&H's first talkie was also later remade as Block-Heads. This short is pretty funny, although the future film is certainly a lot better.

"With Love and Hisses" isn't really a Laurel and Hardy film. They weren't a team full time at this point and their scenes together aren't tailor-made ones. Even so, Stan does very well in the lead as a rather simple character who is drafted into the army. He was a natural for being a comic leading man and knows how to use his body in the Art of comedy. Poor Stan is on the receiving end of both Ollie as the bullying drill sergeant and James Finlayson as the ineffectual captain. The latter has quite a lengthy scene where he tries to teach Stan how to be an efficient soldier on parade. It is excellent slapstick and the timing is spot on. The ending is a riot after most of the soldiers manage to lose their uniforms! A comedy short that shows potential for all future Laurel and Hardy comedies.

Laurel and Hardy weren't really a partnership when they made this short for Hal Roach, so it's something of a happy coincidence that, not only are they teamed together here, but they also come up against their frequent nemesis, James Finlayson.

Hardy plays an army sergeant, and his character is quite different from the dainty clumsiness of his later persona. While Stan is pretty much the simpleton he would always be in their films, the duo aren't friends on screen and there is less chemistry between them than there would soon be. Stan's a new recruit who keeps infuriating Hardy's cranky sergeant who, in turn, infuriates his libidinous commanding officer (Finlayson).

The film gets off to a slow start but quickly gathers pace, and from the parade sequence, in which Finlayson and Laurel nearly come to blows, the film is pretty funny. After forty years of watching Laurel and Hardy it's refreshing to come across a short of theirs I've never seen before.

This silent early pairing of Laurel and Hardy is entertaining and inventive, using a minimal amount of 'title cards' to tell its simple but sight-gag-stuffed story. Even though the iconic duo aren't playing their most iconic characters (heightened versions of themselves) in 'With Love And Hisses (1927)', their dynamic is still clear and engaging, with opportunities for both of them to play off Finlayson's stern Captain also being utilised incredibly well. They actually interact with him almost more than they do with each other and it makes for a refreshing take on the now well-known formula, while still maintaining the underlying spirit of Laurel's sweet, slightly unintelligent innocence causing Hardy seemingly endless frustration as it gets him into seemingly endless trouble. The piece is, generally, superb. It's consistently fun and has a number of properly funny set-pieces. There are also some really nice, often special-effects-driven sight-gags (as I mentioned), which pretty much never fail to get a laugh; the strongest of these is a moment in which we see Laurel's cartoonish throbbing toes. Generally, though, most of its success is sourced directly from its fantastic central performances. It's a remarkably visual experience - which you'd think would be obvious due to its silent nature, but there are plenty of pictures which fail in this regard. Of course, the narrative only serves as a way to get to each gag and there aren't any 'rolling in the aisles' moments, either. Still, these are small, essentially inconsequential complaints. This is an enjoyable film throughout. 7/10

This movie is a very early film with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, though it should not be mistaken for a "Laurel and Hardy" film. That's because Hal Roach still hadn't created the formula for their films together and they do not perform as a team. It's more a chance appearance of both in the same film--along with a chance appearance of their favorite nemesis, James Finlayson. And since the traditional formula hasn't been created, the play against each other instead of with each other. They are NOT pals like they almost always were in films. Ollie plays a drill sergeant who frequently takes out his anger on a new recruit to the army--Stan. Stan is the dumb guy he always is in later films, so his role isn't much of a stretch, but Ollie is pretty much a jerk. Plus, Ollie is a lot thinner and not totally unrealistic as a soldier--something the extremely rotund Ollie not very convincingly played in their later films.

The film itself is very episodic and has a lot of gags strung together in a little over twenty minutes. Most of these are only mildly funny, but fortunately, they get funnier as the movie progresses--culminating in a very funny segment where Stan, Ollie and several other soldiers have their clothes burnt up while they are skinny dipping. As a result, they have to try to sneak back in camp,....at the exact same time the big cheese is coming for an inspection!! Overall, this is a pretty good comedy. It's certainly not one of the funnier ones I've seen, but for what it is it succeeds pretty well. Just don't expect the familiar formula--it just hadn't been invented yet.