A Chump at Oxford (1940)

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Since in a couple of days, school would be in session again (though here in Baton Rouge, it had already started in mid-August), I thought I'd watch a couple of comedies that take place in the institute of higher learning. So it is that I just watched A Chump at Oxford again which has Stan & Ollie going to that English university after foiling a robbery and the bank head wanting to give them a reward. Plenty of fun follows especially when some students (L & H regular Charlie Hall, Peter Cushing in an early role as Johnson before his horror movie fame) plan some pranks on them with the dean (Wilfred Lucas, previously the warden in the boys' Pardon Us) a victim and then Stan getting his memory back from previously being Lord Paddington, an Oxford alumni. That last bit is a rare instance of Stan playing someone other than himself during the years of his teaming with Babe (Ollie's nickname). He's hilarious playing the complete opposite of the usual dumb characterization for that role but when things switch back, it's great having Ollie overjoyed at the result especially after having to suffer the humiliation of being called "Fatty"! When first released, this was originally a "streamliner"-40 minutes in length-producer Hal Roach made in his dealings with the double feature program. But he decided to add a couple of reels in order to give it a more respectable length in Europe. So the movie now begins with Stan & Ollie being hired as a butler and a maid (Stan plays Agnes without changing his voice!) for Baldy and Mrs. Vandevere (James Finlayson and Anita Garvin in her last L & H role). This reworking of their previous short From Soup to Nuts is almost as funny here with the ending gag of this sequence having cop Harry Bernard suffering the same indignity as in another of the boys' short, Wrong Again! So on that note, I highly recommend A Chump at Oxford. P.S. The VHS tape I viewed from Video Treasures had some extra rarities of Lois Laurel, Stan's daughter, narrating some photos and home movie footage of her as a young child and her mother, Lois Neilson, with Stan. Of her playing in the snow in early '30s Los Angeles. Of James Finlayson, in glasses and clean-shaven, with companion Stephanie-perhaps the one with the last name of Insall that he often had breakfast with. And a color one of Stan at his home after receiving his honorary Oscar-which he dubbed "Mr. Clean"-at his desk where he wrote to his many fans.

Chump at Oxford, A (1940) *** (out of 4) After stopping a bank robber Laurel and Hardy get the reward of an education at Oxford. This was the European version, which added a 20-minute prologue, which was a remake of From Soup to Nuts but it really doesn't work. The original is a lot better and contains a lot more laughs. The rest of the actual film here is very funny especially the maze sequence, which had tears coming from my eyes.County Hospital (1932) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Hardy in the hospital with a broken leg so Laurel comes to pay a visit and gets him kicked out. I think this was my first L&H film and it remains one of my favorites. The stunt with the window and Hardy being thrown in the air is the highlight as is the final gag with the wrecked car.Them Thar Hills (1934)** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel and Hardy head out into the mountains for some fresh air and come across a well that bootleggers have filled with moonshine. There were some very funny moments here and there but overall this here really isn't anything too special.

Before this, I've elephant fly and monkeys explaining the Theorem of Pythagoras but that all is nothing compared to seeing Peter Cushing in a Laurel & Hardy movie.This is a good and fair, late effort from the boys, who already clearly had their best years behind them. This movie still reminded me at times of some of the good old Laurel & Hardy pictures from the early '30's. But there also lays a problem; the movie its originality. In multiple movies Laurel & Hardy reused some jokes or even situations but the fact that this movie is from 1940, multiple years after their glory years, leaves an even worse aftertaste. Nevertheless it as always still works effective so it's not really a big complaint about this movie, at least not the biggest.Basically the movie can be divided into three separate parts. The boys trying to get a job, the boys getting a job at the Finlayson residence and the boys at Oxford. Perhaps if the movie really was divided into three separate parts, each of them would work out better. As a whole its a bit too much. Each part is really great on their own and provides some good slapstick entertainment but as a whole it doesn't always connect. This is the biggest problem of the movie and the reason why it's nothing more than an above average Laurel & Hardy movie, despite having some great comical premises and situations.The sequences at the Finlayson residence are certainly the most 'Laurel & Hardy' ones, also of course thanks to the presence of James Finlayson. It's in the middle of the movie but in my opinion it's the best part of the movie. It's not really ever a good sign when the middle is better than the ending. The end part at Oxford is also most definitely good and enjoyable but the humor is a bit stretched out at times. Some sequences last too long, which sorts of drags down the amusement level of the movie with it. Nevertheless those parts still provide some good amusing entertainment, with a couple of fellow student who are giving the dumb and naive Laurel & Hardy a hard time. One of the students giving the boys a hard time is Peter Cushing, in one of his very first movie roles.Definitely worth seeing but a bit too stretched thin and disjointed at certain moments.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This may be the only fine mess that Laurel and Hardy get themselves into that actually benefits them. After stopping a bank robber, they get sent to Oxford for a proper education, and a knock on the head makes Stan remember that he's actually Lord Paddington, an effete Brit who makes Ollie his servant.I think that my two favorite parts were the maze ghost, and the whole scene in the dean's room. Maybe "A Chump at Oxford" wasn't Laurel and Hardy's best movie ever, but it was still a hoot. It just goes to show that those guys were truly one of the classic comedy teams.Dizzy spells. Ha!