OVP: Block-Heads (1938)

Film: Block-Heads (1938)

Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell

Director: John G. Blystone

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Score)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

If you've been on this blog for a while (and bravo to you for keeping up), you might've noticed that our reviews generally follow the same format.  There's an opening paragraph providing a window into my thought process headed into watching a film (sometimes related, sometimes arbitrary), a paragraph devoted to me summing up the plot of the film, and then two (sometimes more if I have a lot to say) paragraphs going through the film, both my thoughts on it as a whole, as well as any tidbits I found interesting (and an appraisal of its Oscar nominations).  That works well for most films, and I try to keep with that pattern because it helps me understand what's going on with a picture & my feelings toward it, but I will admit as I try to write about Block-Heads, my first(?) film with Laurel & Hardy where they play the leads rather than supporting parts, I am struggling entirely how to write about such a movie.

(Spoilers Ahead...I guess?) The reason for this is that Block-Heads is not really a movie.  It is, at best a series of comic vignettes.  It has a plot-this isn't just a bunch of short films tied together, but it's a completely ludicrous one, even for a slapstick comedy.  Stan (Laurel) and Ollie (Hardy) were both in World War I together, but Stan never got the order that the war was over, and as a result has somehow spent twenty years in the trench without anyone telling him he's no longer on duty.  He goes back, and his old pal Ollie takes him in, but their madcap affairs get in the way of his wife, Mrs. Hardy (Gombell), who doesn't like the influence that Stan has on Ollie.  The film also involves a lot of accidental assumptions that neighbor Mrs. Gilbert (Ellis) is having an affair with Ollie, even though it's just a bunch of misunderstandings.  The film ends with Mrs. Gilbert's husband running down the street with a shotgun chasing Stan & Ollie after the latter have destroyed their apartment & his wife's car.

That's the plot, but it's not really anything resembling an actual story.  It's all just an excuse to have Laurel & Hardy do a series of bits, some of which are hilarious.  My favorite of the bunch was one where Stan is confused about why the chair he keeps sitting on (which is actually Mrs. Gilbert in disguise) is slapping him, and eventually walks away.  It's the sort of stuff modern audiences would enjoy, but need some sort of violence or sexual entendre to feel like it was worthwhile.  Without it, though, you get to see what gifted comedians these men were and why they were truly beloved in their era, and I liked it.  This isn't a movie-it's a comedy act, but that doesn't mean it's not fun.

The film somehow received an Oscar nomination for Best Score (that category frequently had as many as twenty nominations in a field during the first couple of decades of the Academy due to a quirk in the Oscar bylaws), so it is an entry in our OVP.  The score itself is fun, playful, and bouncy, if it's exactly what you'd expect from a movie like this (it has sound effects that even in 1938 would've read as cliched).  I honestly have no explanation for this accolade (the composer, Marvin Hatley, was a three-time nominee but was already cited in 1938 for a different film & would never be nominated again after this and in fact would basically stop working within a year or two despite living until the mid-1980's), but am glad I got to spend an hour of fun with this pair as a result of the nomination.