Block-Heads **** (1938, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell, Billy Gilbert, James Finlayson) – Classic Movie Review 7372

Director John G Blystone’s 1938 Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy comedy Block-Heads was planned as the boys’ final feature film, and it was their swan-song with their producer Hal Roach at Hal Roach Studios and MGM, and it proved if not their final film, then their last truly vintage feature. It may be the end of an era, but Laurel and Hardy go out with grace and style.

Stan is still guarding the trenches in France in 1938 – someone forgot to tell him that the First World War ended in 1918. He meets up with Ollie in Civvy Street, where they soon get into another fine mess and upset Hardy’s new wife Mrs Hardy (Minna Gombell).

Ollie invites Stan home for a home-cooked meal and, with the wife gone, predictably blows up the kitchen. The next-door neighbour Mrs Gilbert (Patricia Ellis) comes in to help Ollie out, but then big-game hunting Mr Gilbert (Billy Gilbert) comes home unexpectedly with his shotgun. The boys end up destroying Mrs Hardy’s 1936 Ford Convertible car.

Silent star Harry Langdon had a hand (along with James Parrott, Felix Adler, Charles Rogers and Arnold Belgard) in the inventive, hilarious script which re-explores the Stan n’ Ollie relationship and revisits old gags and routines to great effect, and is in part a remake of their 1929 first talkie short Unaccustomed As We Are.

Also in the cast are James Finlayson, Tommy Bond, Tex Driscoll, Olin Francis, Bud Geary, Pat Gleason, Henry Hall, Jack Hill, Sam Lufkin, Patsy Moran, James C Morton, Harry Myers, Cyril Ring, William Royle, George Sorel, Harry Strang, Harry Tenbrook and Harry Woods.

Marvin Hatley’s score was Oscar nominated for Best Original Score.

Mysteriously, it was advertised as ’90 MINUTES of Happiness and Hi-Jinks’, but runs only 57 minutes.

Nevertheless, L&H’s still funny A Chump at Oxford (1939) and Saps at Sea (1940) were still to follow.

Blystone, who also directed L&H’s 1938 Swiss Miss, died aged 45 of a heart attack on 6 August 1938 just two weeks before Block-Heads was released on 19 August.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7372

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