‘…the very best of their ‘realistic’ comedies… the timing is perfect.’

Their routines may have been predictable, but always seemed to work:

‘These basic themes developed but never really varied; they always came up fresh because they were full of human truth.’

And the characters endeared themselves to him in a way no other screen pair ever managed…

‘Just by being themselves, or what we took to be themselves, they were foolish, funny and entirely sympathetic, like over-indulged members of the family, and I grew up regarding them as just that… once seen, Stan and Olly can never be forgotten.’

 

LH’s affection for this famous comedy duo is evident for anyone who has ever read his books –

‘Once you knew and loved their characteristics, there was no great element of surprise about Laurel and Hardy’s comedy routines.  In fact, what made them funny was that you knew exactly what was going to happen, and it always happened bang on cue… with Stan and Ollie on the screen, even in something you’d seen before, you could start laughing while you were still in the queue.’

This film features the boys lying to their wives about going to Honolulu for a therapeutic vacation, and instead meeting up with a convention in Chicago.  However, the boat they were due to come home on sinks, and they have a lot of explaining to do.  Halliwell found it: