The Big Noise (1944) - film review

Alva P. Hartley believes that with his new invention, the most powerful bomb in history, he can shorten the length of the war by years.  Fearful that the formidable weapon may fall into enemy hands, he hires a pair of private detectives to guard it until he can deliver it to the war office.  Hartley is blissfully unaware of the fact that the two men he engages for this crucial job are not detectives but janitors who work for a detective agency.   What Stan and Ollie lack in experience, they make up for in enthusiasm, and they are not deterred by Hartley’s obvious eccentricities and the unwelcome attentions of his aunt, who has a habit of acquiring husbands just before they die a sudden and brutal death.  Hartley is wise to take precautions, since his crooked neighbours plan to steal the bomb and sell it to the highest bidder.  Fortunately, these unpatriotic hoodlums have not reckoned on Stan and Ollie’s ingenuity...

The Big Noise has long been considered one of the worst of Laurel and Hardy’s features, although its reputation has less to do with its actual merits  (or otherwise) and more to do with the hostile reaction of the critics on its original release.  The fifth of the six films that the comedy duo made for Twentieth Century Fox near to the end of their career, The Big Noise reuses many of the gags from previous L&H films, but rarely, if ever, improves on the original.     

In common with virtually all of the films that Stan and Ollie made away from the Hal Roach Studios, the comedians are reduced to two-dimensional caricatures of their former selves and they are seldom given the space to develop the kind of character-based humour that was so effective in their earlier years.  The comics also had far less creative freedom than they did in their Hal Roach days, so their suggestions for improving gags (such as the berth scene, which Stan Laurel felt would work better in an aeroplane) were largely ignored.  The Big Noise is further weakened by its needlessly convoluted plot, in which characters are introduced for no apparent reason and numerous story ideas are thrown in with no real attempt to tie them together. This film’s only real sin is its mediocre screenplay.

The Big Noise is not as dire as some would have you believe; indeed, some parts of it are actually quite fun.  Even the recycled jokes still get a laugh and there are some juicy one-liners which hint at how good this film might have been if the script had gone through one or two more revisions.  Again, too much plot and too many irritating secondary characters get in the way of what audiences are paying to see, which is Stan and Ollie doing what they do best.  This may not be a classic but it is still mildly entertaining, although the ridiculous comic-book ending (an obscene excursion into flag-waving patriotism) will have you howling in despair.

© Brian Evans 2010

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