Tit for Tat (1935)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Stan and Ollie run an electrical shop (I'm sure they are stellar businessmen). Unfortunately, they have had previous dealings with the guy next door who runs a grocery store. Somehow the guy gets it into his head that Ollie has a thing for his wife (Mae Busch) and decides to start a war (a tit for tat kind of thing) with the boys. Soon they are trying to outdo one another in their cruel attacks. What is also going on is a man who goes into Stan and Ollie's store and starts stealing their stuff. At first he takes little things. As time goes by, he is utterly ignored because the parties are so involved in their discord. Soon he is hauling out huge amounts of stuff, using a wheelbarrow. The timing and interaction between these people is delightful and, as usual, things don't go well.

This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short (Comedy), losing to Robert Benchley's How To Sleep. There will be spoilers ahead:This short is a sequel to Them Thar Hills but can be watched without having seen that one. The short begins with Stan and Ollie opening an electronics store. This turns out to be an unwise move, because they are clearly not businessmen. There's a nice bit involving the beat cop and Stan creating a bit of friction there.There's a grocer next door and the two go over to introduce themselves, not knowing that they'd already met them on vacation and that meeting did not go well. Neither does this one. It will get much worse.Our heroes go back to their store and the running gag starts with a very persistent shoplifter who says "How d'ya do" as he robs them blind. Ollie decides to put more light-bulbs in their signage and winds up getting stuck outside the upstairs apartment over the grocer's and he comes down the steps with the grocer's wife, which burns up the grocer even more.Thus begins a "war" of sorts, with the grocer and the boys basically destroying each other's stores, escalating each round until the beat cop finally forces a settlement. The boys return to their store-an empty storefront, because their shoplifter has backed up a truck and loaded everything up quite thoroughly. Out of business on the day you opened.This short can be found on the Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection and is well worth getting. The collection is wonderful and so is the short. Recommended.

Tit for Tat concerns Laurel and Hardy as entrepreneurs, opening an electrical goods store in a strip mall next door to another shop owner (Charlie Hall), who is weary of their behavior after seeing Hardy with his wife (Mae Busch). In response, the shop owner triggers a fight with them by breaking items in their store, which prompts Laurel and Hardy to conduct "eye-for-an-eye" treatment on the man by destroying his shop, a small little grocery outlet. In the mix of senseless fighting, a shoplifter (Bobby Dunn) repeatedly enters Laurel and Hardy's shop, taking more and more items each time, rendering the entire situation increasingly maddening for all parties.While Tit for Tat is a sequel to the Laurel and Hardy short Them Thar Hills (unseen by me), it almost plays like a remake of Big Business (from 1929) in style, where Laurel and Hardy were feuding with the next door neighbor, taking turns demolishing each other's homes. While I have been critical of the more slapstick-infused shorts of Laurel and Hardy, these types of "eye for an eye" shorts work largely because they are competitions between the characters for how far they want to take their situational humor. In addition, it's also a pleasure to see how wise the characters can be under the circumstances of revenge while simultaneously remaining so dumb and foolish throughout the entire time. There's a great amount of pleasure that comes in watching Laurel and Hardy compete for superiority when the prize is nothing more than another crack in their fragile dignity.Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall, Mae Busch, and Bobby Dunn. Directed by: Charles Rogers.

Like another reviewer, I saw "Tit for Tat" shortly after viewing "Them Thar Hills," (a crackerjack short in its own right) and was pleasantly surprised to see Busch and Hall back as the same characters; I didn't realize that this was a sequel until Stan referred to meeting them in the hills."Tit for Tat" is essentially a simple, one-joke outing. But, much like "The Music Box", Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy wring every last possible laugh out of the situation. Their battle with grocer Charley Hall starts small, but doesn't stay small for long.There's no need to see "Hills" before this one; the story really can stand alone...but is enhanced if you know about the previous antics.Other reviewers had remarked about Ollie's rather salacious-sounding comment to Mae Busch. Oddly enough, the Hays (censorship) code was in effect at the time; it was one of the reasons that Betty Boop ended up with collared, long-hem/long-sleeve dresses. Pre-Code, Ollie's remark wouldn't have been noticed. But with censorship rules in place, I too, am surprised that the line was kept in.Superior work from all involved makes "Tit for Tat" one of my favorite Stan and Ollie films.How do you do!