Truly Dreadful Film

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

It seems like manna from heaven when Stan and Ollie are sitting by the river with Laurel dropping in a line for some dinner and Ollie messing it up for a change. Then Ollie finds a stray newspaper with an advertisement for the relatives of the late Ebenezer Laurel to meet at the usual grim old mansion.But it ain't for a will reading it's the police wanting to sort through the relatives over who might have murdered the old guy for his loot.After that it's a series of haunted house gags that the boys go through, the highlight being a bat in a bedsheet that everyone thinks is a ghost. Laurel is even willing to give up his possible riches.In the end the boys find it all really doesn't matter.

A rare example of a three reel short that with less than a reel more could have been considered a "streamlined" feature. "Ollie, I'm scared" is a phrase I'm most familiar with, having remembered it from the Scooby Doo mysteries where actors pretending to be them kept the legend going when youngsters like me discovered them on T.V., an hour each day devoted to these family friendly comedies, followed by an hour of the Little Rascals, aka "Our Gang". I owe part of my love for classic cinema to these shorts, later rediscovered when AMC broadcasted a 24 hour marathon of these films.This one manages to be both chilling and funny, with down on his luck Laurel claiming to be an heir to a murdered miser's fortune, and forced to sleep in a creaky old house that appears to be haunted. Flying sheets flying around appear to be ghosts, scaring everybody including dumb detective Fred Kelsey. The supporting cast is presented to be quite creepy, adding more eerie fun into the mix. Stan and Ollie are the two least likely solvers of murder, but oh how they make it fun!

Since my favorite type of screwball comedy is a mixture of horror and laughs, THE LAUREL HARDY MURDER CASE fits that bill nicely. After a beginning where the boys are penniless living on a pier, they hear about an inheritance when Stan's rich uncle dies. Off they go to a very haunted looking mansion where anything can happen--and does.It's really a spoof of all the old haunted house stories, while a heavy thunderstorm rages outside. The spooky butler is played by FRANK AUSTIN, a frightful looking man who makes the most of his butler role.But all of the laughs come courtesy of headliners Laurel and Hardy, especially good at looking straight at the camera after a misfired gag, or performing physical stunts while they think they're being chased by a white sheet (actually a bat has entered the house and flown under their bedsheets).Good horror atmosphere throughout and plenty of sight gags that should keep fans of the duo happy enough.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Stan and Ollie are sleeping on the docks, when they read a newspaper article, saying that all heirs of Ebeneezer Laurel need to attend the will reading at Laurel Masion, concerning a $3,000,000 estate. All other Laurel relatives have been told by the Chief of Detectives (Fred Kelsey) that Ebeneezer Laurel did not die naturally, he was murdered, and he is sure that one of the relatives is responsible, so he orders they all stay in the mansion until one of them cracks. Soon enough, Stan and Ollie show up, and are taken to a bedroom by the sneaky Butler (Frank Austin), they are taken to the room where Ebeneezer was murdered, and everything is covered with white sheets, so you can expect a lot of scares as they keep mistaking the room as being haunted. Soon enough, you realise the Butler and Housekeeper (Dell Henderson, in drag) are the ones that killed Ebeneezer, and one by one, all the other Laurel's meet their fate with a trap door activated by lifting a study desk phone. In the end, when it looks like Ollie and Stan are about to meet their fate, it fates out to them squabbling on the dock, and falling over it into the water, so it was all a dream. Also starring Tiny Sandford as Policeman and Stanley Blystone as Detective. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, at just over an hour, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!