Blotto (1930) - film review

Stan and Ollie are planning to enjoy an evening of heavy drinking at a posh night club.  This being prohibition era, they have to supply their own alcoholic refreshment, but luckily Stan’s wife has a bottle hidden away.  Unfortunately, Mrs Laurel  has no intention of letting her husband go out.  Ollie phones his friend and suggests that he fakes a telegram requesting him to go off on urgent business.  The deception appears to work, but what Stan doesn’t know is that his wife has switched her bottle of liquor for one containing a vile assortment of tea and condiments.  Unaware that what they are drinking is non-alcoholic, the two boys still manage to get uproariously drunk, although their festive mood soon abates when Mrs Laurel shows up with a shotgun...

The first of Laurel and Hardy’s three reelers is a joyous concoction including some of the team’s best material.  This short film gets off to a flying start with a variant of the telephone gag which Stan and Ollie used many times, always with hilarious results.  Things do not get seriously funny until the boys start to get drunk in a fancy Art Deco themed nightclub.  There is a genuine warmth to this film which comes from the fact that Stan and Ollie behave as though they really enjoy each other’s company.  When Stan is moved to tears by a nightclub singer’s crooning, Ollie comforts him like a real friend, and you wonder if they will ever get round to beating each other over the head again.  The film’s uneven pacing weakens the impact of some of the jokes, but this is made up for by a brilliant punch line, one of the best you will find in any Laurel and Hardy film.

© Brian Evans 2010

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