Memorable, crazy movie

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

There's more storyline in this 75-minutes than L&H's usual slapstick, Typically, the classic narratives amount to just a series of set-ups for their style pratfalls. Here, however, the boys are called upon to do more straight "acting" than usual. Ollie's a fake southern aristocrat, while Stan's a female impersonating sidekick. Together, they're trying to get back $10,000 that ruthless con-men have fleeced from a needy young woman (Blaine). Thus they're trying to con con-men, which leads to some amusing, if not hilarious, situations. All in all, the result amounts to an entertaining trifle. Still, I could have used more jitterbugging than the one round. Too bad we didn't send some of these Hollywood jitterbug scenes to Hitler and Tojo. That way they would know they couldn't win—after all, how could such an energized American home front possibly lose! But, apart from the plot and its shenanigans, is a good look at how rationing affected common folk during WWII's early years. That gasoline pill set-up is both amusing and revealing, showing how precious the fuel was to ordinary drivers, once the bulk was going to the war effort. To me, the first 10-minutes are the funniest; that is, before the plot really takes hold, and the boys get more subdued. Anyway, it's not classic L&H, but on a rainy night, it'll sure do.

Jitterbugs (1943) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel and Hardy meets a nice con man and the three set out to con back $10,000 which was stolen from a local girl. This is a decent comedy from the duo that has some nice laugh but not enough to match their classic titles from the 1930s. One of the best moments include a scene where Laurel gets caught up in the con and is drinking with a married woman. Other highlights include Laurel in drag and another scene involving the gas pills. Not all of the gags work and some of the musical numbers are rather lame but overall this wasn't too bad.

Following 1940's SAPS AT SEA, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy became free agents--selling their talents to studios such as Fox and RKO. While these and other studios were willing to pay them more than they'd been getting from Hal Roach Studio, the quality of all these post-Roach films took a significant hit. Unless you are a die-hard fan of the team, you really should watch their earlier stuff--it's just so much funnier and better.While JITTERBUGS isn't a bad film, it's a mere shadow of their former style and glory--mostly because it has too much plot and too much singing. The beauty of the older Laurel and Hardy films was that they could take very simple plots and milk it for all it was worth just by allowing them to slowly do their thing. Here, however, the film is very plot-heavy and like all these later lesser films, the duo are more supporting actors instead of the whole show. Here, Vivian Blaine and Robert Bailey take away from the focus on Stan and Ollie--with Blaine singing (way too much) and Bailey as a smooth-talking grifter. In the older films, Stan and Ollie were THE focus--supporting characters were never intended to have much personality and were there merely for the use and abuse of the team. Here, the audience is simply distracted by these lesser talents--and I wanted much more Stan and Ollie!! Now despite these distractions, the film works very well on occasion. First, when the boys are performing as a two-man band, this scene is very clever and the music very catchy--so, of course, this small scene is never repeated and apart from this tiny scene, there is not Jitterbugging at all--despite the title! Second, there are some funny moments--particularly when Stan dresses up like Ms. Blaine's aunt. While it may not sound all that funny, Stanley handles it well and you can't help but laugh--especially when he utters the line "I feel so gay"--you gotta see it to appreciate it! So overall, it's a very, very mixed bag but an overall product that still has you wondering why the studio didn't just let Stan and Ollie "do their thing"? Why insert other characters or include lots of distracting singing and show tunes?! With the greatest movie duo in history, it was insulting to given them material that just wasn't up to snuff. And speaking of not being up to snuff, how about that floating gas scene where the wires were so obvious and visible?! Didn't Laurel and Hardy deserve better than just some cheap stunt than looked third-rate?

This is an enjoyable well written comedy that has some great comical moments in it.This is not a comedy movie that relies on the slapstick antics from Laurel & Hardy but it rather relies on its written comedy moments. It might disappoint the most hardened fans but to everyone well this should be a movie that you can find much joy and fun in. Especially when the boys have to play different characters in the movie; Oliver is forced to play a southern gentleman named colonel Bixby and Stan has to play Aunt Emily. In those sequence it shows how great the boys actually could act. They play the different actors without much difficulties and in a convincing way.The movie is mostly carried by its story. It's not the best story ever written but it works effective for a simple little comedy movie like this one. It's well written and features some great comedy moments and situations. The movie starts to fall apart before the ending but the good beginning and fun middle compensate for this.Obvisouly not the greatest and best example of a Laurel & Hardy comedy but it's definitely better than most of their usual work from the '40's. Maybe if it had different actors than Laurel & Hardy in it, this movie would have a better reputation.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/