Berth Marks (1929)

Powerful

Just perfect...

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The laughs are as solid as classical music in this comedy short that is not just directed. It's choreographed. Stan and Ollie are vaudevillians heading to Pottsville with one fiddle and no music. "Why do you want to go to Pottsville?", they are asked aboard the train, and explain their profession. "I bet you're good", the conductor tells them in a deadpan manner, obviously dubious about their act. For 20 minutes, the train ride they take is the track to comic disaster, and no passenger will have any peace as long as they are aboard. There won't be any room left for marks in their berth, but hopefully there'll be oxygen near by for viewers laughing non- stop. I rank this among their top two reelers, and one of the great early talkie comedies period. Imagine the sight of chubby Stanley and skinny Laurel trying to undress, literally cheek to cheek.This deserves solid attention, because the funniest bits are so subtle that distracted viewers could easily miss them. I didn't spot the young Paulette Goddard, but it'll be fun to go through the train sequences and pause the DVD (excellently transferred on a beautiful collection of Laurel & Hardy shorts and features from their Hal Roach days) to find her.

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 meeting each other at a train station, they are fiddler players, on their way to Pottsville, and they obviously start off badly with incomprehensible droning from the Stationmaster (Pat Harmon), and dropping all their music sheets before running for the train. As they go to their bed, Stan manages to go into the wrong room, and thinking another man was him, the man rips another man's jacket, then he rips the jacket of another man, and so begins a train full of people ripping each others clothes. Anyway, Stan and Ollie get to their bed, but they obviously complicate getting onto it, and getting undressed to sleep. When they finally do, their station is next up, and it ends with the conclusion that Stan forgot the fiddle, and it ends with Ollie losing his temper and chasing Stan. Also starring Charlie Hall as Train passenger and Silas D. Wilcox as Conductor. 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!

I just recently got into collecting really old films in their original format--16mm--to be viewed on a projector. And I just won a print of this on eBay, to arrive in a few days.I'm curious how the experience will differ watching it blown up on a large screen in my backyard... with the noise of the projector...and those real grey tones and unaltered sound.As opposed to just watching a DVD of it.Yeah, progress is great, but I have a feeling that watching it via film is gonna feel more like living a little bit of history. When it arrives and I finally view it, I'll give a review.But I have a feeling that it's going to be magic.

Laurel and Hardy are back again in this talkie train adventure. The duo have a gig and they take the train, unknowingly create mayhem, try to get some sleep but encounter some trouble with wardrobe and when they're finally ready, they reach their destination only to forget the cello in the train. It's got the usual slapstick element and again Hardy does more of the talking while Laurel remains quiet. It's a simple little film of the typical Laurel and Hardy humour (for which they are loved). It's finely executed and provides several laugh out loud moments such as the bed scene or the sequence where the passengers start ripping each others clothes off and this starts multiplying (till the point where the conductor's clothes are tattered). Paulette Goddard and Baldwin Cooke provide great support. I love most of the things this wonderful comedy duo have done and 'Berth Marks' ranks among my favourites.