Such a frustrating disappointment

Charming and brutal

Best movie of this year hands down!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I've probably seen this Laurel & Hardy short more than any other. I watched it with my dad in the early Fifties. I have to admit, I really felt for Oliver in this one. He is really in bad shape and his good buddy comes along and ruins it for him. From the beginning when Stanley brings him a gift of some hard boiled eggs and some nuts, it's all over. Stan causes so much trouble that they are both thrown out of the hospital. After several harrowing moments, Stan sits on a hypodermic needle that contains a sedative. Of course, he has to drive Oliver home. There is a great line when Oliver asks his friend why he didn't bring a box of candy. He says Ollie never paid him for the last one.

"County Hospital" is a perfectly fine L&H short until the final sequence. I always enjoyed the scenes where Stan roams the hospital halls looking for his buddy (trying to figure out what a "solarium" is) and accidentally wanders into the maternity ward; he's mightily relieved when he finds out he's on the wrong floor! I also very much enjoy Ollie's scenes with doctor Billy Gilbert and silly Englishman William Austin. The film is also enlivened by the nurses, played by Estelle Etterre (who laughs hysterically when she finds that Stan has accidentally injected himself with a sedative) and May Wallace (who joins in the laughter and says, "He'll sleep for a month!" -- so much for medical ethics). Personally, I always liked the scene where Dr. Gilbert is flung out the window of Ollie's room on the top floor--it adds a little action to a film where the longest scene is a single take of Stan trying to eat a hard-boiled egg. Also, the gag with the egg dropping into an unseen container by Ollie's bed and making a metallic clunk is NOT a mistake--the joke is that we think at first the egg has dropped into a chamber pot (ask your grandparents what that is), but as Stan brings it up into view we're relieved to see it's only a pitcher. The same gag happens in the team's earlier short "Helpmates," where Stan drops an alarm clock into an unseen container under his bed.As for the final sequence with the back projection, it's not so much the quality of the film running behind the boys as a problem of sluggish editing. If the shots had been much shorter--and if we'd had a few more cutaways outdoors than just the one of the car skidding on a wet road--the sequence might have worked. Roy Seawright, who did the special effects scenes at Roach's, was a good friend of mine and his crew generally did top-notch work-- check out the split-screen scenes in "Our Relations" and "Brats," the animated bubbles in "Swiss Miss," and all of the effects work in Hal Roach's feature "Topper."

The premise of the movie might sounds very simple and limited: Oliver is in the hospital recovering from a broken leg and his good old pal Stanley pays him a visit. Stan of course causes some serious and hilarious havoc during his visit. The comical ideas and jokes set in a hospital room, with one of the character lying in bed with his leg up, might sound very limited but its amazing what the boys came up with. With such a simple premise and limited room to move- and resources. In one hilarious sequence they even manage to have Oliver hanging on the ceiling of his hospital room, while the doctor is hanging out of the window, at the same time.This movie basically features every visual comical aspect that makes a Laurel & Hardy movie so great. It's amazing, even such a simple thing as Stanley eating a hard boiled egg can work hilarious on the screen, even though very little is actually happening. But the movie also features some typical slapstick humor, as well as some over-the-top comical moments, such as the end driving sequence, that perhaps feels a bit out of place and is too fake looking to truly find it hilarious.The characters are also great and hilarious. Aside from the boys the movie also features Billy Gilbert as the doctor and William Austin in a fun over-the-top role as Olivers' roommate.The movie might not feel as fresh or fun as most other Laurel & Hardy shorts. Maybe it's because of the depressing atmosphere of an hospital, perhaps it's because of the limited room, perhaps it's because of the limited input of Oliver Hardy. Whatever the reason is, it is a fact but it however doesn't make this movie any less pleasant or hilarious, just a little bit different but that, in this case, is not a negative thing.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I don't see why others haven't rated this one as high as say, Busy Bodies or whatever. It's great! Ollie in the hospital bed does his usual slow burn routine to a T, Laurel is pretty fun as the unlikely catalyst for disaster, Billy Gilbert overacts horribly as the Dr. who winds up hanging outside the window, etc you know the drill.Loved the drive home--someone complained that the rear-screen projection stunk? Really? I thought it looked quite good Especially for something from 1932. The vaunted Bank Dick chase w/ W C Fields for example wasn't honestly much better, and that came c. 1941 ya know? Check this one out. There's not much to it but it's enjoyable.*** outta ****