Going Bye-Bye! (1934)

I wanted to but couldn't!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This time, Stan and Ollie help convict a criminal who swears revenge on them, forcing them to try and leave town. Sure enough, all manner of mishaps result. I think that my favorite part of "Going Bye-Bye" was the whole scene with the telephone. It's the sort of movie where you could turn off the sound and it would still be a riot.One can see Laurel and Hardy's influence on the relationship between Gilligan and the Skipper. The characters in Gore Verbinski's "Mouse Hunt" also do a lot of things that are similar to Laurel and Hardy. It just goes to show that these guys were a comedy team for the ages. I understand that they co-starred in a movie in the early 1920s a few years before they became a team - and Hardy had appeared in a number of shorts, billed as Babe - but once they became a team, things took off.Anyway, really funny.

A two reel short produced by Hal Roach for M-G-M, this piece utilizes a well-worn Laurel and Hardy plot line gambit: an outrageous sequence of physical affronts being heaped one upon another, targeting various victims, with the action opening here within a court room setting where "Butch" Long (Walter Long), a brutal criminal, is being tried for murder, and is convicted based upon testimony given by Stan and Ollie, although the former's tendency to speak according to whim occurs after the presiding justice imposes a sentence of life imprisonment upon Butch, and Laurel loudly asks of the judge: "Aren't you going to hang him?" Stan's less than discreet utterance effectually guarantees Butch's unremitting hatred, and the comical pair elect to leave town in case prison fails to contain the maddened felon who, while yet in the court room, vows to escape, track down the "squealers", tear off their legs, and wind them around their necks. In order to gain assistance with travel expenses, Stan and Ollie place a newspaper advertisement requesting a solvent companion for their upcoming trip, the ad catching the eye of an attractive woman (Mae Busch) who meets with their approval, and the trio is about to leave when we learn that she is, in fact, the girl friend of Butch who has freshly escaped from prison. Most of this work is composed of merely silly slapstick, although there are some episodes during which Laurel and Hardy engage in dialogue that is enhanced by Stan's non-sequiturs, and craggy-faced Walter Long is always a valuable addition to a film. Weak development and erratic pacing result in a short that is inferior as a whole to the cinema standard established by the two comics.

This is a wonderful little Laurel and Hardy film. Stan and Ollie do their civic duty and testify against criminal Walter Long (who, by the way, played the scariest looking criminal in several Laurel and Hardy films). The thug is convicted and as he's being drug off to prison, he threatens to get even--saying he'll "tie their legs around their heads like a bow-tie!". Well, despite being pretty dumb, the boys wisely decide to leave town. But, because they are short of funds, they advertise for someone to come along and share driving expenses. Because this is a comedy short, it's no surprise that the person that answers their ad is the girlfriend of Walter Long! And just before the boys arrive at the lady's house to pick her up, Long escapes and heads to her house as well. However, Long and the boys don't meet up right away. When Stan and Ollie ring the bell, Long hides in a trunk (not realizing who's at the door) and gets locked inside. Not knowing who is inside, Stan and Ollie try their best (which means, they do a horrible job) of trying to get him out--and in the process make you feel sorry for Long! Eventually, he gets out and this leads to one of the better sight gags to end a Laurel and Hardy film.The short is well written and acted and has excellent pacing. All-in-all, it's one of their better shorts and well worth seeing.

"Going Bye-Bye !" shows the screen's greatest comic double-act in brilliant form. It is in fact their last short comedy film classic - another five more two-reelers followed followed (though only one of these - "Them Thar Hills" - approaches the standard of this one). Long is at his fearsome best, and the dialogue ("Excuse me, I have milk in my ear"), characterisations and slapstick are wonderful. This is up there with Stan and Ollie's best. A must.