"Our Relations"*** 1/2 (out of ****)
Family relations turn into double trouble in the Laurel & Hardy comedy, "Our Relations" (1936).
With the release of the Laurel & Hardy biopic, "Stan & Ollie" (2018), some younger movie fans may become curious to seek out the comedy team, to experience the real deal. What could I review to entice them? I've already reviewed some of the team's critically celebrated comedies; "Sons of the Desert" (1933) and "Way Out West" (1937). "Stan & Ollie" is set during the later years of their careers and I've reviewed some of those comedies as well; "Nothing But Trouble" (1944) and "The Bullfighters" (1945). What's left to introduce readers to?
I've settled on "Our Relations", which may be a comedy that gets lost in the shuffle. You might not come across anyone that will praise it as Laurel & Hardy's best comedy (I haven't). That is misleading though. "Our Relations" may not be the team's best effort but it does feature a lot of good visual gags.
The gags in the movie however haven't become part of mainstream culture the way routines in "Way Out West" have; the soft shoe dance routine, the "Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia" duet, the block and tackle sequence...ect. Nothing in "Our Relations" is as iconic. But, the movie is consistently funny.
Essentially the movie is a one trick pony, an elongated mistaken identity sketch. However, at 73 minutes, the movie remains fresh and entertaining and doesn't ware out its welcome.
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play their iconic Stan & Ollie characters but with a twist. They are two happily married men; Oliver is married to Daphne (Daphne Pollard) and Stan to Betty, whom he calls "bubbles" (Betty Brown). They are financially stable and well respected in the community. Although there is a dark family secret they are hiding. They each have a twin brother that has taken the wrong path in life; Alf (Laurel) and Bert (Hardy). They are a couple of sailors that joined a mutiny and reportedly died, according to a letter Oliver receives from his mother. Desperate to save face the boys agree to burn the letter and never mention their brothers to their wives.
Of course, unless the boys are newlyweds, has the existence of their siblings never come up before? But, you don't ask such logical questions when watching a Laurel & Hardy comedy. You take all information at face value and go along for the laughs.
Naturally, Alf and Bert have not died. In fact, they have unknowingly set port in the same town Stan & Ollie live in. And, as you can imagine, there will be a lot of confusion among the residents of the town and lots of characters doing double takes.
While the twin plot device is not exactly original, fans of the boys will recall the two-reeler, "Twice Two" (1933), in which they play their own twin sisters, "officially" the movie is credited as "suggested by" W.W. Jacobs' short story "The Money Box". There may also be a whiff of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors".
Coincidentally "Our Relations" may have served as an inspiration for the Three Stooges comedy "A Merry Mix Up" (1957), with the Stooges playing three sets of identical triplets, and the Bette Milder / Lily Tomlin comedy, "Big Business" (1988).
"Our Relations" though may out do them all in the big-laughs department. What would you expect with writers Charley Rogers and Felix Adler behind the script? Rogers and Alder often worked on Laurel & Hardy scripts. They both co-wrote "Swiss Miss" (1938), "Block-Heads" (1938) and "A Chump at Oxford" (1939). Rogers even directed some of the boys' two-reelers, among them, the Oscar nominated "Tit for Tat" (1935). Besides Laurel & Hardy, Felix Adler wrote for Harold Lloyd, Abbott & Costello, and the Three Stooges. In fact he wrote "A Merry Mix Up", which may explain its "Our Relations" influence.
The script is pretty lean with not much screen time wasted. When Rogers and Adler aren't creating comedy hi-jinks resulting from the mistaken identity, they create some great original bits along the way. A great one has Alf and Bert inside a telephone booth. There is barely enough room for the both of them but when a local drunk (Arthur Housman) needs to call his wife and enters the booth, chaos ensues.
Others humorous bits involve Laurel & Hardy's feet stuck in cement, goofy breakfast table banter, Oliver not realizing he can see just as good without his glasses than with them on, Alf and Bert getting conned into pawning their clothes, and a wild nightclub chase sequence.
What makes "Our Relations" work as well as it does is it resembles the team's two-reelers. The movie is a series of vignettes strung together. There is no time for a social message or moral. Except perhaps, life is better when you don't have a twin. The main objective is to make people laugh. That may stop the movie from being a masterpiece to some. It lacks ambition they will say. But, since when is trying to create a hilarious, non-stop comedy not ambitious? Can you do it?
The movie also provides supporting players a lot of screen time. James Finlayson, a regular Laurel & Hardy foil, plays Alf amd Bert's cunning best friend Finn. Alan Hale is a wise-talking waiter and Housman as the drunk has a lot of interaction with the boys.
The one thing missing is the use of a strong heavy to antagonize the boys. I suppose on some level that may have been Finlayon but that role doesn't suite his diminutive stature. Where's Walter Long when we need him?
So as not to confuse audiences too much when trying to keep track if they are seeing Alf and Bert or Laurel & Hardy, the movie plays musical cues. When Alf and Bert are on-screen the tune "The Sailor's Hornpipe" plays. When it is Laurel & Hardy, their theme song, "Dance of the Cuckoos" plays.
The movie was directed by Harry Lachman, a director of no great distinction. He directed the Shirley Temple vehicle "Baby, Take A Bow" (1934), "Charlie Chan at the Circus" (1936), and "Dante's Inferno" (1935). Believe it or not the cinematography was done by Rudolph Mate, his brillance is not on display here but he shoot movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Carl Theodor Dreyer, and Ernst Lubitsch. Through-out his career he received five Academy Award nominations, all in succession from 1941 - 1945.
Also worth mentioning is this was the first of two occasions when Stan Laurel would receive credit for his work behind the camera. Although the dim-witted one of the team, Laurel was the brains behind the scenes, writing their gags and serving as an unofficial editor and director. For his efforts he was given the screen credit " A Stan Laurel Production". The second, and final time, would be for Laurel & Hardy's next comedy, "Way Out West".
"Our Relations" is a fast moving, tightly structured comedy. Filled with plenty of visual gags it is one of the team's hidden gems.
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