This black & white restoration is quite decent for a 1934 film, but I was able to enjoy both, the image and the sounds of the film, along with the Laurel & Hardy gags. It was undoubtedly a necessary film in the mid-thirties when the country faced the Great Depression it was a film that invited people to escape. The film strives for being an all-family or a children’s film at heart which is what makes this simple film worth watching. But none of this matters to a film that doesn’t fall into the path of wanting to be spectacular. Many of these costumes may seem a little crooked - just look at the Three Little Pigs - and Barnaby’s makeup may seen crudely done. Technically, the film may not be the Wizard of Oz, and its comedy as well as campy villainy may be dated for today’s generation nonetheless, I can’t help admiring the effort in building toyland and dressing with costumes characters only known through Mother Goose rhymes. Losing at every turn, Barnaby finally resorts by invading toyland with Bogeyman which ensues in the famous March of the Wooden Soldiers.
While Barnaby schemes to marry Little Bo Peep, Laurel and Hardy frustrate his plans.
In a town populated by Mother Goose characters, Laurel and Hardy are as frolicsome and silly as ever and the evil Silas Barnaby plays the ever-scheming villain that children would love to hate (he even replaces the Big Bad wolf role as he involves the three little pigs in one of his schemes).
Pure romp, this film is fun to watch only if you have the heart of a child.
0 kommentar(er)
