The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)
The boys think their days of fishing to feed themselves have come to an end, when Stan's rich uncle Ebenezer dies leaving a large estate. But they soon learn that Ebenezer was murdered and all the relatives, including Stan, are suspects.
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Wonderful character development!
Sick Product of a Sick System
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
It seems like manna from heaven when Stan and Ollie are sitting by the river with Laurel dropping in a line for some dinner and Ollie messing it up for a change. Then Ollie finds a stray newspaper with an advertisement for the relatives of the late Ebenezer Laurel to meet at the usual grim old mansion.But it ain't for a will reading it's the police wanting to sort through the relatives over who might have murdered the old guy for his loot.After that it's a series of haunted house gags that the boys go through, the highlight being a bat in a bedsheet that everyone thinks is a ghost. Laurel is even willing to give up his possible riches.In the end the boys find it all really doesn't matter.
A rare example of a three reel short that with less than a reel more could have been considered a "streamlined" feature. "Ollie, I'm scared" is a phrase I'm most familiar with, having remembered it from the Scooby Doo mysteries where actors pretending to be them kept the legend going when youngsters like me discovered them on T.V., an hour each day devoted to these family friendly comedies, followed by an hour of the Little Rascals, aka "Our Gang". I owe part of my love for classic cinema to these shorts, later rediscovered when AMC broadcasted a 24 hour marathon of these films.This one manages to be both chilling and funny, with down on his luck Laurel claiming to be an heir to a murdered miser's fortune, and forced to sleep in a creaky old house that appears to be haunted. Flying sheets flying around appear to be ghosts, scaring everybody including dumb detective Fred Kelsey. The supporting cast is presented to be quite creepy, adding more eerie fun into the mix. Stan and Ollie are the two least likely solvers of murder, but oh how they make it fun!
As a spoof of murder-mystery movies and plays this movie is great fun. It has all the clichés from that genre in it and perfectly spoofs those clichés and characters in this movie. The movie has the usual suspects in it and a police inspector (Fred Kelse) who tries to solve the case. Yes, like I said before, it perfectly spoofs some of the murder-mystery clichés. As a spoof it sill applies today.The 'spooky' elements of the movie are also a welcome addition and provides the movie with some fun moments. Seeing the boys being chased by a white-sheet is a pretty funny sighting. Frank Austin is also perfectly spooky as the stereotype old butler.Too bad that the pace of the movie isn't the best at times. The movie is dragging on for too long at times, which makes some of the jokes feel stretched out a bit too much.It overall does have its moments, especially when it spoofs the murder-mystery genre but it's a bit too much dragging movie to find it a hilarious one, or a must-see for the Laurel & Hardy lovers among us.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.Hoping to inherit the $3,000,000 left by the murdered Ebenezer Laurel, the Boys find themselves spending a terrified evening in haunted Laurel Mansion, full of things that go bump in the night & the usual (disappearing) suspects. Who will be left to solve THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE?An elaborate little film, somewhat longer than usual, with lots of fine Gothic touches. It's a shame it has such a weak ending. Highlight: the bat under the sheet. That's Frank Austin as the creepy butler & Fred Kelsey as the police detective.