Stanley stays in the trenches for twenty years not realising the war is over. Oliver rescues him from the veterans' home and takes him back to his luxury apartment. This disappointing feature harks back to the cruder slapstick style of Stan and Ollie's shorts. There is an interminable running joke about going up and down 13 flights of stairs to Ollie's apartment. There is one touch of genius when Ollie first encounters Stan in the veterans' home: he assumes Stan has lost a leg in the war because he is sitting in a wheelchair with one leg tucked underneath him. Ollie offers to carry Stan to his car and Stan cheerfully accepts. There follows a long and painfully funny sequence where Ollie carries Stan around, drops him, picks him up and puts him down again without realising that Stan has the normal complement of legs.
Review of Block-Heads
