Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I had BELOW ZERO on VHS as a kid, in a compilation with a few other Laurel & Hardy efforts. This one always stuck with me so that I went back to it over and over. Maybe it was the snowy setting, the relentless cold and misery that made it stand out from the rest.Watching it again recently, I was impressed how well it stands up today. The slapstick humour hasn't dated one bit, and the sight gags are top notch (the bit with Stan in the water barrel is hilarious). The continuity is strong throughout, Ollie plays the exasperated side of things well (he could sometimes come across as a bit mean, but not here) and Stan is as loveably dumb as ever.In amidst all the pitfalls, snowball fights and screw-ups, my favourite joke of all comes when the pair realise where they've been performing and why they aren't making any money. It's a beautifully understated moment with that one look from Ollie to the camera that says it all.

In this one, the boys are musicians who have trouble attracting customers for two hours. After they decide to move, Ollie finds out why when he looks at the building's name. At their next stop, one woman pays a dollar to "move a couple of streets" while others throw snowballs. Then there's a real large woman who puts a kibosh on the whole thing by throwing the instruments in the street. So with no means of getting paid, Stan discovers a wallet on the ground. Before a thug threatens to take that away from them, a cop arrests him and gets offered dinner from the grateful boys. I'll stop there and mention that with this being in the early talkie era, there's a minimum of dialogue between Laurel and Hardy as most of their humor is still visual with the gradual slapstick building in fine form throughout the first 10 minutes before the more dramatic part with the cop comes in. But there's one freak ending that Stan especially is fond of that ends this short hilariously. So on that note, I highly recommend Below Zero. P.S. Look for L & H regulars Blanche Payson, Tiny Sandford, Baldwin Cooke and Charlie Hall in their supporting parts.

Below Zero (1930)*** (out of 4) Street musicians Laurel and Hardy find a wallet full of money in the street so they offer to take a policeman to dinner. After eating they discover that the wallet belongs to the cop. Here's an entertaining short, which doesn't rank as one of the duos best or funniest but it remains fun throughout.Tiembla Y Titubea (1930)** 1/2 (out of 4) Spanish version of Below Zero has the same storyline of the American version but this one here features a few additional scenes as well as an extended ending, which was cut from the American version. Like other Spanish L&H films, this here doesn't quite work because you can tell the two aren't really comfortable speaking Spanish. The added joke at the end however is the best gag and it's a shame it was cut from the American version.

Strange early L&H-Talkie. The first half is almost completely silent and the second part is filled with many surrealistic gags.Laurel & Hardy are street-musicians in the winter of 1929. They don't have any success, perhaps because of the kinda unfitting song they play, "In The Good Old Summertime" or the place they've chosen to perform at, the deaf and dumb-institute. Their luck seems to change when they find a wallet, but a suspicious looking guy obeys them and chases them down the street until a cop holds him up. Thankful, L&H spend him a lunch at a nearby restaurant. When it comes to paying, they find a photo of the cop in the wallet. The cop sees it too, misunderstands the situation, thinking L&H had stolen the wallet from him. He pays his check with his money and L&H are left to the wrath of the waiter.A strange film, but one of my favourites L&H-shorts.