Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"The Tree in a Test Tube" is a color short film from 1943. It is World War II and there were so many American propaganda films out there. This is one of these. And it is more known than many of the others because of the inclusion of Laurel & Hardy (both around the age of 50 here). But they only show up in the first couple minutes and afterward, it becomes even more bland than it already was early on. Not even this duo can turn mediocrity to gold. I don't know who I would recommend this film to, maybe foresters I guess. Pete Smith, an Academy Award darling, also worked on this one here and I cannot say that it made m e curious about any of his many many other works. There's 6-minute and 10 minute versions (restored DVD) of this one out there and I can only say the shorter the better, even if I watched the 10-minute version. Thumbs down from me. Don't check it out unless you really love Laurel & Hardy.

Just about every reviewer on this board calls this a propaganda film, but that word carries a highly negative connotation to me. I found this more in line with what I'd call a documentary style narration that happens to feature one of the funniest comedy duos of all time - Laurel and Hardy. At a mere five or six minutes, this doesn't give you much except for a quickie education on the wonder of wood products, and in that respect is an eye opener even today. For example, Stan's hat band utilizes tan bark and wood fiber, and a host of products we consider primarily plastic contain such things as cellulose fiber and wood pulp. The picture, made during World War II, was produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and commends the U.S. Forest Service for the work done by it's product laboratories in developing products made from wood. Not the most interesting of subjects to be sure, made somewhat annoying by the narration of Pete Smith. But fans of Laurel and Hardy will certainly want to catch the duo in their only color footage, even if their wordless performances, excuse the pun, are somewhat wooden.

This was part of a 3-DVD box-set, and this disc came with the Laurel and Hardy shorts Mud & Sand, Just Rambling Along, Oranges and Lemons and the Three Stooges ones Brideless Groom and Sing a Song of Six Pants; it also came with Malice in the Palace, and the features Atoll K(or Utopia) and Flying Deuces. It is the only L&H piece in color, and that makes it interesting for collectors. All they do is show what products they have on them for the jackass of a narrator to claim are made from trees, and it was reportedly shot on their lunch-break. For being propaganda, it could be far worse(no one is hugging the ground in an effort to protect themselves from a nuclear blast, for one thing). This was made during WWII, and during war-time, certain governments decide that lying to their people is fine. With five and a half minutes just barely edited at all, this probably won't inspire any laughter; it's silly and at times suggestive, but never funny. It does bear the distinction of, for what it is, not being terribly offensive or embarrassing today. The title is awkwardly fit in so that they could call this something catchy. This is a great cure for insomnia, as it is astonishingly dull. I recommend this solely for those curious of it. 5/10

This is your only chance to see The Boys in full color. Reportedly shot on their lunch break, it IS a weak entry, a film in which Stan and Ollie do nothing more than open their luggage and respond to Pete Smith's jackass narration about how many of their toiletries bow to the timber industry. Taken as a film of its time, this is no embarrassment to Stan and Ollie. As the only film they ever made in color, it becomes an odd little collector's item, which is really where its only interest lies. Completest should have this in their collection, but fans who only want to see a Laurel & Hardy comedy should probably pass this up.