The Tree in a Test Tube (1942)

Fresh and Exciting

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This was part of a 3-DVD box-set, and this disc came with the Laurel and Hardy shorts Mud & Sand, Just Rambling Along, Oranges and Lemons and the Three Stooges ones Brideless Groom and Sing a Song of Six Pants; it also came with Malice in the Palace, and the features Atoll K(or Utopia) and Flying Deuces. It is the only L&H piece in color, and that makes it interesting for collectors. All they do is show what products they have on them for the jackass of a narrator to claim are made from trees, and it was reportedly shot on their lunch-break. For being propaganda, it could be far worse(no one is hugging the ground in an effort to protect themselves from a nuclear blast, for one thing). This was made during WWII, and during war-time, certain governments decide that lying to their people is fine. With five and a half minutes just barely edited at all, this probably won't inspire any laughter; it's silly and at times suggestive, but never funny. It does bear the distinction of, for what it is, not being terribly offensive or embarrassing today. The title is awkwardly fit in so that they could call this something catchy. This is a great cure for insomnia, as it is astonishingly dull. I recommend this solely for those curious of it. 5/10

It's surprising how old Laurel and Hardy look in this wartime propaganda short. They were only a few years past the prime of their career, but they looked like that period was about twenty years behind them.Made in their lunch hour according to IMDb's trivia section, you can't help thinking they could have probably found more interesting ways of filling their time. The film consists of Pete Smith's voice telling them all about the different things wood is used for. There must have been a reason the US government felt it was important that the country should know about this, but you have to wonder why. Was it so people would be kinder to wood? Or perhaps they wanted people to stop hoarding it. Whatever the reason, the boredom quotient of the subject matter is counter-balanced by Stan and Ollie's presence - they're definitely the best thing about this short.

The film consists of a narrator talking to Laurel and Hardy. The boys say nothing much (other than a laugh) and it was made on grainy color film for release in the theaters during WWII to educate (and bore) audiences on the importance of having wood.This was a Pete Smith Specialty--one of many Pete Smith shorts made during the 1940s. Compared to the other Pete Smith shorts I have seen, this one manages to be even duller--even though it uses Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to demonstrate that they've got wood in practically everything they are carrying--such as rayons, pressed wood, etc. In many ways, it looks like a film that should have been made for a wood products convention, as no other human beings could possibly find this interesting. In fact, tedious is probably the best description of the short. Even die-hard fans of Laurel and Hardy (like myself) would find this excruciating and you can't detect even the faintest whiff of a laugh.

While I had seen the Laurel and Hardy segment of this educational short in various bargain basement VHS tapes and some of the Lee Vickers serious stuff in a bargain basement DVD, it's not until now when I played the Fox DVD of A-Haunting We Will Go that I watched the entire thing as it appeared in various classrooms and corporate meetings. The print hardly seemed an improvement on the other tapes or disc but I guess Fox did the best they could find. I found myself smiling a bit at some of the doings of the boys as they show beginning narrator Pete Smith all the various wood products they have on themselves but the results were hardly hilarious. Still, it was a nice rare look at Stan and Ollie in color. After their bit, Vickers shows us how important wood is for the war effort as this film ends with the patriotic music playing with the American flag flying on screen. All in all, an interesting curio for any fan of L & H.