It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The first must-see film of the year.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It's not the first Oliver Hardy "tie-twiddle" that's supposed to be in this film, it's the first "camera-look," and even that's not quite true. In 1954, Oliver Hardy gave an interview to John McCabe in which he recounted what he remembered as the first of his long-suffering gazes into the camera. The scene he recalled--being hit in the face by buckets of water immediately after opening a door, and then staring into the camera in disgust--is in this film, although Hardy mistakenly remembered it as being in "Why Girls Love Sailors." He doesn't actually stare into the camera after being hit with the water so much as glance a few times at us. What's interesting is that Stan Laurel is playing directly to the camera throughout this entire film, both in long shots and close ups. With their next film, "Do Detectives Think?," the process is more like what it would be in their mature films, with only Ollie breaking the fourth wall and looking directly into the camera.The credited director of this film was Hal Yates, although he actually only directed one day's worth of retakes (April 18, 1927). I know this to be a fact as I am the author of "Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies" and spent years doing research on the team, locating the precise shooting dates for most of their films. The actual director for most of the filming (April 4 through 14) was Hal Roach. The reason that Fred Guiol is credited as the director on the available DVD is because the producer of that disc created new main titles (they were missing on the available print, which was from a foreign source) and substituted a director credit title from "With Love and Hisses."This is quite an excellent film, with fine support from Anita Garvin and Viola Richard. The production values are surprisingly elaborate, which isn't really apparent in the battered print that's currently available on DVD.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were not deliberately planned to be a comedy team. They did several films together over the years starting with LUCKY DOG and Hal Roach Studios didn't realize they'd be a good team until they just happen to make about a dozen films together. The fact that they appeared together pre-official teaming wasn't surprising, as studios like Roach tended to use the same groups of actors again and again. It was only by chance that they slowly evolved into a team.SAILORS BEWARE is one of these earlier films where Stan and Ollie are not yet a bone fide team. Like so many of these movies, their parts are very separate and they play against each other more than with each other. Because of this their chemistry is all wrong compared to what we are used to and most of these earlier films are sub-par for the boys. However, in the case of SAILORS BEWARE, the film is still excellent--one of the best before they became an official team. In fact, it is better than quite a few of their later films as well due to an excellent and exciting script.The film begins with cabbie Laurel getting stuck on a cruise ship after bringing aboard a rich lady and her baby. Because Laurel isn't able to afford the fare, he is made to work on board--with Ollie as his not particularly nice boss. At about the same time, there are a number of thefts on the ship and it's up to Stan to get to the bottom of it.Seeing that the baby is played by Harry Earles--a somewhat famous dwarf who acted in several films--it isn't too surprising to guess who's behind the thefts. Interestingly, Earles plays much the same character he played in both the silent and sound versions of THE UNHOLY THREE (with Lon Chaney). Still, despite me recognizing him, it still was an exciting and funny film--one worth seeing by anyone--not just Laurel and Hardy fans.

Although I just adore Laurel & Hardy, I can't say that I was very amused by this early attempt of the two.It's definitely true that this movie can't really be labeled as a Laurel & Hardy movie, since they don't appear in this movie as a comical duo. They play two separate roles, although they also interact with each other during some of movie its moments.It's one of the earliest movie starring the two boys. Their later trademark style of slapstick humor and chemistry is not yet fully notable in this movie. Instead the movie features some highly predictable and far from original comedy moments. The movie isn't even ashamed to recycle some of its own jokes time after time.Of course it's true that the movie also does have its moments. It's still fun enough to consider this a watchable movie but I have the feeling that Laurel & Hardy fans will probably be disappointed with this movie. It's not a movie that made me laugh a lot, though I think I smiled a lot. Especially the moments with the 'baby' were amusing. Kind of spooky to find out that the 'baby' was actually being played by an actual adult. Freaky!The movie is a bit longer than other Laurel & Hardy silent comedy shorts. The movie is 26 minutes long (so the 20 minutes runtime shown on this site is false!). It definitely shows on screen that this movie is longer than average. Some moments are overlong and tiresome. Seemed that 20 minutes was really the ideal length for a comedy short, at that time period. Perhaps if the movie had been shorter, I would also had been more positive about it.Obviously the boys and Hal Roach were still searching for the right comedy style, timing and pacing.This movie just does not yet fully show the Laurel & Hardy we all love.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

One of the better shorts made with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before their celebrated teaming;well produced,some amusing sequences,though frustratingly the boys don't share that many scenes in the film.Still,we get the the first known camera-look from Hardy(although he had performed this trait in previous films,notably STICK AROUND,made in 1925),and Anita Garvin and Harry Earles are fine as an improbable man and wife jewel thieving team.Hal Yates is credited with the direction,though in fact Hal Roach is thought to have been the director,with Yates filming one day's worth of retakes.Later in the year,he directed HATS OFF,when the teaming was becoming an item;sadly no copy of HATS OFF is known to exist.