Oliver the Eighth (1934)
Directed by Lloyd French

Film Review

Oliver the Eighth was the last of Laurel and Hardy's three reel pictures and is not one of their better offerings.   The plot is essentially a reworking of an earlier misfire, The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930) and suffers from the same basic failings - a deficit of really good gags and a dismal cop out ending.  Although the boys are below par (presumably they were drained after working on their previous feature Sons of the Desert (1933)), they do manage to turn in one hilarious slapstick routine.  When Ollie sets up the gag, with a gold-painted brick, a piece of string and a candle, you just know how it is going to end, but it still manages to get a full-blown belly laugh.  Even in their weaker offerings, the impeccable comedy duo still manage, somehow, to get the laughs.  Who needs Prozac when you can sit back and watch a Laurel and Hardy film?

Film Synopsis

Stan and Ollie are amicably running a barber's shop when yet another incident arises to threaten their friendship.  It begins when Stan spots a personal ad in the newspaper from a rich widow who is keen to find a new husband.  In a spirit of friendly rivalry, the two men decide to write separate replies to the ad, but Ollie hides his friend's letter as he posts his own.  Ollie is naturally delighted when the widow invites him to her mansion. Already he anticipates a grand wedding and a glittering future in high society.  In fact, the widow is a homicidal maniac who intends murdering Ollie on account of his name.  It was some years ago that the woman was to marry her first husband, Oliver.  After he jilted her at the altar, the woman went mad and has since been on a killing spree, luring men named Oliver to her house and murdering them in their sleep.  Poor hapless Ollie is to be victim number eight.  Fortunately, Stan is close at hand to thwart the mad woman's scheme.  At least he tries to...