Pardon Us *** (1931, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Wilfred Lucas, Walter Long, James Finlayson) – Classic Movie Review 7364

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have fun sending up prison movies in ‘THEIR FIRST FULL LENGTH TALKING PICTURE’.

Director James Parrott’s hour-long 1931 black and white comedy Pardon Us (aka Jailbirds) finds Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy sending up the prison film genre, particularly Wallace Beery’s 1930 The Big House. It is notable as ‘THEIR FIRST FULL LENGTH TALKING PICTURE’.

In a story written by H M Walker, they are sent to jail for selling home-brewed beer  to a policeman during Prohibition, meet all the usual stereotypes and escape, putting on black faces and picking cotton while Ollie sings ‘Lazy Moon’.

Playing themselves as usual, Laurel and Hardy are not yet on peak form, but Pardon Us is always amusing, with some hilarious sequences and few slow or weak sections. James Finlayson delights as a school teacher who rehabilitates prisoners and Wilfred Lucas also makes his mark as the Warden, with Walter Long as the rough prisoner The Tiger, June Marlowe as the Warden’s Daughter and Tiny Sandford [Stanley J Sanford] as Shields the prison guard.

Also in the cast are Charlie Hall as Dentist’s Assistant, Babby Burns, Otto Fries and Frank Austin.

Pardon Us (Jailbirds) is directed by James Parrott, runs 56 minutes, is made by Hal Roach Studios, is distributed by MGM, is written by H M Walker (dialogue by), is shot in black and white by George Stevens, is produced by Hal Roach and is scored by LeRoy Shield.

Other than the 56 minute classic cut, two other versions circulate today. They are the 64 minute extended cut based on the preview print of Pardon Us (containing additional scenes with the warden, solitary confinement, and a second performance of ‘Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet Gabriel’) and the 70 minute director’s cut (the complete 1930 preview version, including added scenes taken from preview copies, issued by Universal Studios on DVD in 2004.

Laurel and Hardy followed it with Pack Up Your Troubles (1932).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7364

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