An absolute waste of money

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"Come Clean" is an American black-and-white short film from 1931, so this one is already over 85 years old and the names Horne and especially Walker (or Hal Roach as producer) maybe make it obvious to you that this 20-minute movie is another Laurel/Hardy film from back in the day. They brought their wives here or maybe I should say their characters'. And still of course it is all about the comedy and not about the romance as back then, the comedy greats were rather pushed around by their significant others instead of showing each other their feelings. In terms of Stan & Ollie, this is probably neither among their most or least known works, something in-between, and it is also already from their days of starring in sound films, so far from their oldest material. They were the big exception by managing a successful transition from silent to sound, even if admittedly the audio site is so clumsy that you feel that this is really from the early days of sound movies. And certainly not on the level of the greatest sound cartoons from that time. Let me also add that I somewhat enjoyed the awkward beginning as the Hardys don't want to let the Laurels in, but of course, eventually they do as otherwise the film would have been over after 2 and not after 20 minutes. Sadly the solid level from the start deteriorates more and more the longer the film goes. The balcony and bathroom/bathtub scenes are not half as funny as they were intended to regardless of all the splish splash going on. Quite a shame as the 2 protagonists and also their supporting actors are definitely more talented than the material they are given here. At some point, it just turns into loud hullabaloo or klamauk as we say here in Germany and the cinematic value is down to zero. I give the overall product a thumbs-down here. Not recommended unless you really love L&H.

Keep fooling those women. Stan and Ollie are married and living in relative luxury. They see so much of each other that when the Laurels want to come over, the Hardys try to avoid them. It doesn't work and they end up together. Soon the boys go out for ice cream (apparently a regular event because this is not the only time). They end up with the miserable Charlie Hall making this a hard proposition. While out, they save a suicidal woman from drowning. Instead of gratitude, she begins to extort them for money to be quiet about having dealings with her. Modern audiences would recognize her as a hooker. The police are after her and are offering a huge reward. The fun starts as she makes her way to their home and dresses in the wive's clothing. Of course, the job now is to hide this woman from the wives till they can pay her off. Mae Busch is sort of tragic as the woman. Ollie does get the last word in the final scene.

James W. Horne does what he does best as a director of Laurel and Hardy shorts with Come Clean, a spry comedic short, which is erect a story and short film on the opportunities that naturally arise from situational comedy. His directorial style, combined with H.M. Walker's writing, is often comprised of coming up with a ridiculous story and continuing to feed its inanity by seeing just how far one could take it. This results in a short that is more than just endless bouts of physical comedy with no real humor whatsoever, but a showcase of two charismatic comedy talents and a screen writing exercise that serves as a fulfilling laugh-riot.Come Clean may not live up to Horne's other Laurel and Hardy shorts, like Big Business and Thicker Than Water, but there is still an incomparable amount of energy and liveliness within the screenplay and the characters. The short begins by Mr. and Mrs. Hardy wishing they could have a restful, quiet evening in their apartment, but are interrupted, per usual, by the well-meaning but troublemaking Mr. and Mrs. Laurel. After trying to refuse entry, the Hardy's give up and decide to let them in, to which Laurel replies by hanging with his old pal Hardy and the wives are left to mingle in the frontroom. When Laurel and Hardy decide to venture out to get ice cream, they wind up preventing a woman from committing suicide off a bridge, to which she is ungrateful and begins making threats to both men if they dare leave her company. What results is a manic evening between the two men and the shrewish woman, as they try to get back to their wives for a dinner, while preventing the woman from screaming whenever she is unsatisfied with what's happening.This is the first Laurel and Hardy short I've encountered where little sense is made in regards to the short's narrative or its cause-and-effect relationship. Why would this woman try and commit suicide? Was it all just a ploy to get the attention of someone she could blackmail? Why are Laurel and Hardy's wives so bitter and shrewish themselves? Writer H.M. Walker doesn't concern himself with that information so much as he does try his best to quietly obscure details by making such a ridiculous and wild short film, one that operates with the one-thing-leads-to-another formula of early comedy filmmaking, without so much as clearing up why one thing leads to another.It's all in the name of comedy, and in that spirit, Come Clean is pretty funny, especially during the last ten minutes of its nineteen-minute runtime, where, per usual, all hell breaks loose and Laurel and Hardy are left to their own thoughtful wits, as lackluster as those often are. Come Clean provides for fun and enjoyment, which is precisely what most of these shorts have been giving me, so far.Starring: Stan Laurel and Olive Hardy. Directed by: James W. Horne.

The Hardy's are planning for a nice evening in when the Laurels come knocking. When they can't pretend to be out any longer, they let the Laurel's in and Stan and Oliver go out to buy some ice cream. On the way home they see a woman drowning in the river and save her. Less than grateful the woman follows them home and the duo try to hide her from their wives. Meanwhile the police continue their hunt for a wanted woman.In terms of plot, this short is quite weak. The main plot doesn't really happen till the end of the short and, even then, it doesn't really make any sense and it feels like the writers had an idea about L&H hiding a woman in their home but couldn't work out a better way of setting it up. Aside from this the opening of the film is good, as is the scene in the ice cream shop. The scenes involving hiding Kate from their wives are OK but the final short is quite underplayed considering how quite funny it is.Laurel and Hardy play their parts well. Laurel has some very good scenes of his trademark confusion early on and Hardy does well without dominating the film in the way it is often easy for him to do. Busch does OK as the wanted woman but I couldn't understand her part one little bit!Aside from these complaints the short still contained enough funny moments to be worth watching. It's just a little distracting that the writers came up with the basic sequences first then trying to crow bar them into a poor plot.