Them Thar Hills **** (1934, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall, Mae Busch) – Classic Movie Review 8109

Director Charles H Rogers [Charley Rogers]’s excellent, first rate 1934 short film Them Thar Hills stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on around their best form, with a fine support cast to back them.

The boys go hill camping, and Stan takes Ollie up in the ‘high multitudes’ as a cure for gout. They offer a stranded motoring couple, Mr and Mrs Hall (Charlie Hall, Mae Busch), hospitality and get the wife (Mae Busch) drunk, resulting in mayhem when enraged husband (Charlie Hall) returns.

Them Thar Hills is a carefully built, funny laughter-raiser with Stan and Ollie unstoppable, a hit turn in Hall, and several other very amusing performances.

Also in the cast are Billy Gilbert, Richard Alexander, Eddie Baker, Bobby Burns, Baldwin Cooke, Bobby Dunn and Sam Lufkin.

Them Thar Hills is directed by Charles H Rogers [Charley Rogers], runs 20 minutes, is made by Hal Roach Studios, is released by MGM, is written by Stan Laurel and H M Walker, is shot in black and white by Art Lloyd, is produced by Hal Roach, and is scored by Marvin Hatley and Leroy Shield.

Location filming was moved from Santa Ynez Canyon back home to the Roach Studios lot when heavy fog stopped the outside shooting.

Audiences loved it so much that Laurel and Hardy’s only sequel followed immediately: Tit for Tat (1935).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8109

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