Saps at Sea (1940) - film review

Stan and Ollie work in a horn factory, but the relentless honking of horns soon drives the sensitive Ollie to a nervous breakdown.  The doctor prescribes a sea voyage but Ollie’s fear of horns is surpassed by his fear of the sea.  Instead, the boys rent a boat moored in the dock.  Unfortunately, their boat is boarded by an escaped convict and, thanks to their pet goat, Stan and Ollie find themselves adrift and menaced by a gun-toting thug...

Saps at Sea marked the end of an era – the last film that Laurel and Hardy made for Hal Roach.  After this, the legendary duo would be reduced to caricatures of their former selves, making films for other producers who were eager to cash in on their worldwide celebrity without capitalising on their talent.  Although Saps at Sea is far superior to Stan and Ollie’s later offerings, it is far from being their best work.  The comics were eager to part company with Hal Roach and there is a sense that they are just going through the motions, repeating jokes from previous films without much panache or enthusiasm.

The film is not all bad, although some of the jokes (such as the sequence in which the boys prepare and eat a synthetic meal) are painfully laboured.  The cross-wired apartment sequence affords some memorable slapstick moments and Ollie’s transformation into a killer whenever Stan plays his trumpet never ceases to get a laugh.  But it is clear that neither the boys nor their director have their heart in this film.  The humour is as synthetic as the painted string spaghetti supper that Stan and Ollie end up having to digest, the jokes more suitable for young children than adults.  One could have wished for a better end to the duo’s association with Hal Roach, but the film still manages to be mildly entertaining, and far more memorable than anything the comics or their producer made afterwards.

© Brian Evans 2010

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