The Dancing Masters *** (1943, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Trudy Marshall, Trudy Marshall, Robert Bailey, Margaret Dumont, Matt Briggs, Allan Lane, Robert Mitchum) – Classic Movie Review 8497

Though director Malcolm [Mal] St Clair’s 1943 comedy The Dancing Masters is not the best of Laurel and Hardy, there is plenty of busy story taken at a fast lick and Stan and Ollie are on amusing form.

Unlikely lads Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play bumbling dance teachers who head a dancing school and run foul of a gang of insurance crooks as they try to help an awkward young inventor to sell his new invention and promote his romance with a beautiful socialite, in this moderate but still appealing effort. Because Stan and Ollie cannot pay the rent, they are thrown out, and try to get cash by swindling an insurance company.

Even if the pair are past their prime, this late period outing is still genial and worth while – if only for Stan appearing in a ballet skirt and the runaway bus sequence.

The Marx Brothers’ regular stooge Margaret Dumont gives her usual unflappable performance (as Louise Harlan) and there is the added bonus of a young Robert Mitchum appearing briefly (uncredited) as a tough guy called Mickey Halligan.

Also in the cast are Trudy Marshall, Robert Bailey, Matt Briggs, Allan Lane, Nestor Paiva, George Lloyd, Edward Earle, Charles Rogers, Robert Emmett Keane, William Haade, Emory Parnell, Daphne Pollard, Cyril Ring, Arthur Space, Harry Tyler, Hank Mann, Brooks Benedict, Sam Ash and Sherry Hall.

The Dancing Masters, is directed by Mal St Clair, runs 64 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by W Scott Darling, based on a story by George Bricker, is shot in black and white by Norbert Brodine, produced by Lee Marcus, scored by Arthur Lang and Emil Newman, and designed by James Basevi.

The Laurel and Hardy Collection, Vol. 2 DVD contains A Haunting We Will Go, Dancing Masters and The Bullfighters.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8497

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