User Reviews

WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

There are superb stunts, Stan pulling some of his most gormless expressions, and an absolutely hysterical brick throwing competition. There are also some surreal gags, like the police headquarters several blocks away radioing their car to tell them their spare tyre is being stolen.

The timing of the duo is impeccable, and even the opening titles – the credits being swished from side to side by a car windscreen wiper as it races through city streets – are excellent. Perhaps the only sticking point is that, while usually more suited to the shorter length pictures, this Stan and Ollie film ends a little abruptly, with a rather sick ending that sees them being murdered. Still it's a minor issue, and doesn't really get in the way of what is tremendous fun.

Laurel and Hardy are police officers on the night shift patrol. They get a call about a robbery, only to find that two men are trying to steal the spare wheel from their car. They get past this to find they have forgotten the address. Laurel goes to find a phone to ring the station but gets involved in a safe cracking. When they eventually get to the address of the reported robbery things go from bad to worse.

Opening with a rolling title sequence, this short made me think I had walking into the wrong screen, however, despite the gritty noir opening, this is Laurel and Hardy. The actual plot is filled out by several scenes on their way to the robbery, before eventually getting to the scenes of them trying to get into the house. All of these work quite well and all scenes make good use of their physical comedy skills – the scenes involving a locked door and a pond being the best.

The low point of the film is the final shot (literally!) which is probably the worst judged ending of any short of theirs I've seen. Basically the film ends with the Police Commissioner borrowing a gun, firing two shorts at the backs of our fleeing heroes and then saying `call the morgue'. I was waiting for the final short of L&H holding their backsides in pain or something, but no, so the end of the film sees them shot dead! I couldn't help feel that this was totally against the idea of the comedy that had gone before.

Laurel and Hardy both do good work and make the physical stuff look easier than it really is. The support cast of criminals are amusing – although the tyre thieves are just tough, the safe cracker has his share of disbelieving double takes.

Overall this is an amusing little short. The major downside here is the fact that the ending leaves a sour taste and is very badly done.

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. Officers Stan and Ollie pull over to open up their police telephone and take out their lunch of sandwiches and milk bottles, and Stan manages to snap the phone cord. Just after tucking in, they get a radio report that some men (Bob Kortman and Charlie Hall) are trying to steal their spare tyre, so Stan gets out and chases these men away and threatening arrest next time he sees them. They mock him, so he throws a brick through their brick, and they it back through the back window of their car, hitting Ollie on the back of the head and cracking on open his milk bottle to squirt him in the face. Then the police radio reports a man trying to break into 24 Walnut Avenue, but they quickly forget this address when the car stalls, and with their phone cord broken Stan goes into the near jewellery store. He fails to notice the man inside trying to crack open a safe is a crook (Frank Terry) as he makes he phone call to get the address again, and when Ollie comes in the crook gets his gun out. The crook gets a ticket to appear in court at his convenience, and after making the phone call again with Stan losing half the address, the crook trying to steal their car is told to appear in court the next day, no excuses. So the boys get to the address reported, and they see a man (Frank Brownlee) banging on the windows and going down into the basement, while they follow him, the man has a word with his Butler (Al Corporal), as he is the owner of the house. The boys find he has locked the door to the basement, so after Ollie has a little tumble going up the wrong set of steps, they go outside to the front door. Stan suggests if they want to get through it they should step back ten paces, so as Ollie steps back he ends up in the near pond on step nine, and when he gets out soaked, he also gets squirted by his water filled gun. While Ollie and Stan grab and lift the near heavy bench, the house owner is getting dressed to investigate the noises outside, and the boys mess up swinging the bench into the door when Stan makes Ollie fall in the pond again, and Stan gets splashed too. After lifting up the bench which Ollie was trapped under in the pond, and taking a pond weed and fish out of their clothes, Stan and he have a quandary about which direction to swing and move the bench. After swapping ends of the bench, they count three and swing the bench forward, crashing through the door and going up a few stairs before the floor gives way, and they go into the basement landing in a barrel of sauerkraut. The house owner comes down with a long barrelled shot gun, and he also goes through the hole in the staircase landing in a wardrobe, and it is only when he is knocked on the head by a bottle that he is quiet. So Stan and Ollie take what they think is the criminal to headquarters, but everyone is shocked to see it is Police Chief Ramsbottom, and he has no hesitation to shoot the boys as they walk out, but is good enough to call the coroner. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Good!

Stan and Ollie usually were at great odds with the defenders of law and order. In their early feature film, PARDON US, they end up in prison when Stan sells their first batch of prohibition booze to a police officer. In THE HOOSEGOW they are on a chain gang, and manage to make a visit by the state governor (Jimmy Finlayson) a total disaster for their warden (Tiny Stanford). In SCRAM they run afoul of a no-nonsenses judge as vagrants, and end up getting drunk in his home, wearing his pajamas and clothes, while apparently playing house with his wife. There are plenty of other examples - even the scene in BABES IN TOYLAND (a fantasy mind you) where the boys are found guilty of trying to burglarize Barnaby's (Henry Kleinbach's) home, and are dunked as a result.

Therefore, THE MIDNIGHT PATROL is quite unique in that Stan and Ollie are now members of the town police force. And they are just as incompetent here as as when they sold that hooch in PARDON US. Driving around in their patrol car, they manage to get their tires stolen. They confront Charlie Hall in a jewelry store robbing it, and only belatedly realize he is not the owner. What follows is particularly amusing and surreal. The boys can't find the time to bring Hall in to the precinct for booking, and ask him to turn himself in the next day. The problem is that Hall (checking his schedule in a pocket record book) finds he can't do it, because he is planning a robbery on that date. They manage to find a date shortly afterward.

They are sent to investigate an address where a person was seen by neighbors (it is nighttime, after all) who may be a burglar. In the course of checking this tip off, the boys manage to have a variety of mishaps reminiscent of their problems (a year before) in their Oscar winning short THE MUSIC BOX (particularly Ollie's mishaps with a bench and a fountain). They do get the mysterious person - who turns out to be less mysterious then they expected - and far more dangerous than anyone expected. I won't say anymore than that.

Despite a type of downer conclusion, the film is quite a funny one, and among the best of their talkie shorts.

"The Midnight Patrol" is an American black-and-white short film from 1933, so this one has its 85th anniversary this year. The title sounds a bit like a Hollywood full feature film with Oscar attention, but no, this is another of oh so many Stan and Laurel short films and even given how old it is, it is still not one of their earlier career efforts, but from the days of the duo making a successful transition to sound motion pictures. And it does not sound bad at all, I have seen and heard worse. Well, the running time is typical for them, around 18-19 minutes and so is the action. The duo plays police officers in here. Oh my who gave them guns??? But yeah, this should not be a subject here as it is rather about solving burglaries and crimes. The film already starts with a highlight that the two don't recognize that somebody is stealing their tires while they are actually sitting in the police car, but need radio police channel to inform them before messing up the way they always do. Afterward, the film can be divided in two parts: the first where they let a criminal get away thinking he is the owner and eventually the other way around when they arrest a burglar not knowing he is the one who owns the house and as if that wasn't enough already, he is their boss, the chief of police even. I think this was a good funny movie. The quantity of screen time given supporting actors was enough to add quality, but not too much to take attention away from this oh so talented comedy duo. They were already in their early 40s here by the way, but yeah both have a tendency to look older anyway, at least during their earlier films. The slapstick scenes are funny like the running gag with Ollie falling into the pool, usually casued by Stan, even if it was only really funny the very first time it happens. The plot was okay for such a short film, even if the story did not always feel plausible. But yeah it is a comedy movie. You can forgive them, it is still really entertaining. I like these two, even if I do not adore all their movies I have seen, also some of their big hits, but this one here is a winner and I think it should be seen by more people as it is far from being among the group of their most known efforts. I hope the new movie about them starring Coogan and Reilly can get this film some attention too. I think it deserves to be seen and I was well-entertained.

A couple of moronic rookie cops prove that they live in the state of confusion which explains how they got their badges. Thieves steal their spare tire while they eat in their squad car; they allow a jewelry robber to escape, mistaking him for the proprietor, and then destroy a mansion where a break-in was in progress. Amusing in spots, I still didn't laugh a that much, although there are the usual pratfalls that do create smiles, especially concerning the safecracker who continues to work while Officer Laurel calls the station. The best parts are more ironic than funny. The conclusion is really questionable and just left me cold.

BEING AN EXAMPLE of the old switcheroo, this entry into the Laurel & Hardy series of 2 reelers puts the Boys into the role of Cops; rather than their being at odds with the Law. The resulting mayhem is pleasant and more than mildly amusing; even if it is decidedly on the predictable side.

TO START WITH, the night scene filming is really impressive and does give us the feel of what has long been called "the Dog Watch" in Big City police department circles. The street scenes are authentic in appearance and make for a high classed, impressive and convincing setting. The sets, including the sight of a residential burglary call, do seem to be familiar. No doubt they were the very same shoot sights that were used in so many of Mr. Hal Roach's productions; dating back to the Silents.

THE SITUATIONS THAT make up the scenario (such as it is) are mainly unrelated; held together only by their being the assignments of the rookie L & H cop team. Of course, this may be an unintentional concession to reality; for a real tour of duty day would be made up of many different assignments, which would be seldom related.

THE CAST OF this one is quite sparse, with only three other players in the early goings on. The burglary suspect and the radio dispatcher's voice are the most prominently featured, other than the store burglar. The largest number of on screen actors appear at the end of the story in the police station. Though unbilled, the actors that filled out the cast are names familiar to the Hal Roach comedies, such as: James C. Morton, Tiny Sanford, Harry Bernard, Billy Bletcher (dispatcher's voice) and Charlie Hall.

THE ENDING IS one that we would have to stretch to view as being truly a funny way to leave us laughing. Rather, it could be said to be an example of the surreal on the screen.

For once, the boys are the cops, not running from the cops. But, they are rookies, haven't met the police chief, and prove incompetent enough to cause the police chief to execute them, vigilante style. They begin on their night shift patrol, stopping at a phone box ,where they had stashed their milk and sandwiches (?). While eating, they get a radio message that someone is stealing their spare tire! Stan gets out to take a look. Two men run away, toward their car, then stop, as Stan quietly admonishes them. They disrespect him, so he throws a brick he found through their windshield. They return the favor, throwing it through Stan's back window, where it continues , to hit Ollie in the head. I guess they took off, as this ends the incident...... Ollie can't get the car started, so fiddles under the hood. Meanwhile, Stan gets it started, and they drive to find a phone that works. (What's wrong with their radio? Only one way?). They see a light in a jewelry store, so check it out for a possible phone. Stan goes in, and sees a man hammering noisily on the safe. Stupid Stan assumes he's the owner, who forgot his combination. The man calmly says he can use the phone to get the address of a robbery they forgot the address to. Ollie comes in and immediately recognizes that the man is probably a thief, although a dim-witted one, who is making a lot of racket in a futile effort to open the safe. Instead of arresting him, Ollie gives him an order to appear in court , on suspicion of robbery, not knowing his name nor anything else about him! He gives him a date, but the burglar says he can't make it that day, as he has a haircut scheduled. He gives lame excuses for various other days, but they agree on next week. Incredibly, while the boys are making a phone call, the burglar gets in their car, and asks for a push when they come out. They shoo him out, and give him an order to appear in court the next day. No arrest for attempting to steal a police car! .......They drive to an address, and see a man trying to open a window. Then, he opens the hatch to the basement and disappears. Eventually, the boys get up the courage to go in the hatch. They don't find him, and can't get to the above floor. So, they exit and decide they will try the front door. Ollie steps back 10 paces to get a running start, but falls in the lily pond on the 9th step. He decides they need a battering ram and focuses on the cement seat of a bench near the pond. Fortunately, the seat is not attached to the legs, so they pick it up and try to get a running start, but Ollie falls in the pond again, with the seat on top of him. Stan is very calm and takes his time getting the seat off Ollie before he drowns. After recuperating, they try again to get a running start, and easily crash through the flimsy door, their momentum carrying them up the stairs a ways, before the weight is too much, and they crash through the flimsy stairs to the basement, one landing in a big barrel of sauerkraut. The 'burglar' hears them and descends from the upstairs, until he falls through the hole in the stairs(Not very observant, is he). The boys soon knock him out, and this time they take the suspect in to the station. When he awakens, the other officers salute him, as they recognize he is the chief! The boys decide to exit, but on the way, we hear 2 shots, and the chief says "Send for the coroner", a rather draconian punishment for their stupidity and inexperience. See it at YouTube, in color(as I did), or B&W.