This was the 25th short as a team. I'm only now dipping into Laurel and Hardy in a serious way, but the whole 20 year collaboration seems to be based on two things: the comedy of destruction, and a sort of flummoxed humiliation.
We laugh at both, but it is the destruction (or sometimes a chase) that makes the best stories for these guys.
We see a door and we know they will do everything to that door that they can imagine. All the comic possibilities are exhausted. We see a ladder and know that clever minds will invent dozens of gags to surround it.
If there is a radio involved, and we know that each event increases the value of the thing, that it will be destroyed.
This was made the same year as "Big Business: which was the high point of the destructive model. Nothing so extreme here, but you can see how they think.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
We laugh at both, but it is the destruction (or sometimes a chase) that makes the best stories for these guys.
We see a door and we know they will do everything to that door that they can imagine. All the comic possibilities are exhausted. We see a ladder and know that clever minds will invent dozens of gags to surround it.
If there is a radio involved, and we know that each event increases the value of the thing, that it will be destroyed.
This was made the same year as "Big Business: which was the high point of the destructive model. Nothing so extreme here, but you can see how they think.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.