Busy Bodies (1933) - film review

Stan and Ollie begin their first day’s work at a sawmill with a spring in their step.  But it isn’t long before things start to go wrong.  Having trapped his friend in a window frame, Stan then glues a brush to his chin.  The only way to remove the brush is by shaving it off with a wood plane.  Ollie then falls into a ventilator duct and is propelled at great speed towards the exit vent.  Realising that carpentry isn’t perhaps their metier, Stan and Ollie try to make a quick getaway.  Unfortunately, they drive their old car into a large band saw and manage to slice it in two...

One of the most perfectly constructed of Laurel and Hardy’s short films, Busy Bodies is a masterpiece of slapstick comedy that somehow gets funnier the more times you watch it.  There isn’t even so much as a whiff of a plot to this one, just a string of hilarious visual gags which allow Stan and Ollie to do what they do best, creating mayhem and muddle wherever they go, for our amusement.

Here, the duo repeat the formula that proved to be so successful in their earlier short Towed in a Hole (1932).  Starting out with good intentions, Stan and Ollie manage to prove their ineptitude with workman’s tools within about ten seconds.  In less time than it takes to hang his coat up, Stan gets his friend into another nice mess, but the more he tries to get him out of it, the worse things get.  Yet, no matter  what happens, there is no hint of malice between the two characters.  Whatever Stan does, with the best intentions but the worst possible outcome, Ollie accepts it with blithe stoicism and assumes that his friend will somehow redeem the situation.  The fact that Ollie retains his faith in Stan assures us that, underneath all that bluster, he is either a really nice guy or just incredibly dumb.  

Unlike the sad comic book caricatures they would become in later years, Laurel and Hardy have a reality in these early films which makes them more sympathetic as individuals and their comedy irresistibly funny, in fact so funny that you almost risk incurring bronchial torsion through uncontrollable laughter.  Busy Bodies exemplifies the duo at their best.  The jokes are inspired and perfectly executed, not a moment is wasted on unnecessary plot, and the whole thing ends with one of the team’s best visual gags.  What more could you ask for?

© Brian Evans 2010

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