Roach/M-G-M. Director James Parrott; Producer Hal Roach; Screenplay H.M. Walker; Camera George Stevens; Editor Richard Currier
Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Walter Long
James Finlayson
June Marlowe
Another two-reel idea on a six-reel frame with the usual strain resulting. Pardon Us proves nothing for Laurel and Hardy.
First 20-odd minutes are brimming with solid laughs. During that period the film is technically in the two-reel short class. What's in it seems funny. Just after the quarter-hour mark of so the hokum starts kicking itself in the back.
Opening is an excellent piece of comedy business. Boys are jotting down a recipe outside a malt and hop store. They decide to make some beer. Laurel's idea is to sell what they don't drink. In the next scene they're being waltzed into jail.
Second best laugh comes pretty early and nothing else that follows deserves to be in the same scenario. This is when the two attempt to get comfortable in a single upper berth in the cell.
Only girl is on for only three or four minutes and speaks about a dozen words in all. She's June Marlowe, playing the warden's daughter.
(B&W) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1931. Running time: 56 MIN.
Contact Variety Staff at
news@variety.com