Come Clean (1931)

Thanks for the memories!

Such a frustrating disappointment

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"Come Clean" is an American black-and-white short film from 1931, so this one is already over 85 years old and the names Horne and especially Walker (or Hal Roach as producer) maybe make it obvious to you that this 20-minute movie is another Laurel/Hardy film from back in the day. They brought their wives here or maybe I should say their characters'. And still of course it is all about the comedy and not about the romance as back then, the comedy greats were rather pushed around by their significant others instead of showing each other their feelings. In terms of Stan & Ollie, this is probably neither among their most or least known works, something in-between, and it is also already from their days of starring in sound films, so far from their oldest material. They were the big exception by managing a successful transition from silent to sound, even if admittedly the audio site is so clumsy that you feel that this is really from the early days of sound movies. And certainly not on the level of the greatest sound cartoons from that time. Let me also add that I somewhat enjoyed the awkward beginning as the Hardys don't want to let the Laurels in, but of course, eventually they do as otherwise the film would have been over after 2 and not after 20 minutes. Sadly the solid level from the start deteriorates more and more the longer the film goes. The balcony and bathroom/bathtub scenes are not half as funny as they were intended to regardless of all the splish splash going on. Quite a shame as the 2 protagonists and also their supporting actors are definitely more talented than the material they are given here. At some point, it just turns into loud hullabaloo or klamauk as we say here in Germany and the cinematic value is down to zero. I give the overall product a thumbs-down here. Not recommended unless you really love L&H.

Never save a woman from suicide; she'll end up ruining your life. That's the theme of this very adult entry in the Laurel and Hardy shorts series. And when that woman is Mae Busch, you know they are in trouble. She had already blackmailed Oliver in one short, and now she wants them to take care of her for interfering in her business. She's one of the biggest harpies to ever cross a man's path, this coming during an evening when the Hardy's and Laurel's were having a quiet evening together even though Mrs. Hardy didn't want them there. Loud and somewhat obnoxious, this is frenetic in it's actions, but the women characters are not at all sympathetic. There's a funny finale though that needed the perfect visual to go with it.

Laurel & Hardy return to a favourite plot device - that of blackmail - in this reasonably funny short. They save the life of a woman attempting to drown herself and are rewarded by having her threatening to have them arrested for attacking her if they don't take her home with them. Of course, being Stan & Ollie, this is what they do - with typically riotous results as they try to conceal her from their wives.This one has a couple of classic moments: the encounter with the ice cream salesman in which Stan wants mustachio with his chocolate ice cream, and the boy's noisy attempts to cover the music blaring from another room by banging their crockery and singing at the tops of their voices. Not quite vintage Laurel & Hardy but still extremely funny.

The Hardy's are planning for a nice evening in when the Laurels come knocking. When they can't pretend to be out any longer, they let the Laurel's in and Stan and Oliver go out to buy some ice cream. On the way home they see a woman drowning in the river and save her. Less than grateful the woman follows them home and the duo try to hide her from their wives. Meanwhile the police continue their hunt for a wanted woman.In terms of plot, this short is quite weak. The main plot doesn't really happen till the end of the short and, even then, it doesn't really make any sense and it feels like the writers had an idea about L&H hiding a woman in their home but couldn't work out a better way of setting it up. Aside from this the opening of the film is good, as is the scene in the ice cream shop. The scenes involving hiding Kate from their wives are OK but the final short is quite underplayed considering how quite funny it is.Laurel and Hardy play their parts well. Laurel has some very good scenes of his trademark confusion early on and Hardy does well without dominating the film in the way it is often easy for him to do. Busch does OK as the wanted woman but I couldn't understand her part one little bit!Aside from these complaints the short still contained enough funny moments to be worth watching. It's just a little distracting that the writers came up with the basic sequences first then trying to crow bar them into a poor plot.