User Reviews

This is definitely a "lesser known" comedy short from the 1920s. The only reason I saw it was because it was on a DVD by Kino Films featuring non-Laurel and Hardy shorts featuring Ollie. They are interesting and historically important, but also generally average to below average for the style film. Compared to shorts by Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle and Lloyd, they are definitely a step below them in quality and humor. Also, the accompanying music was pretty poor by the standards of other silent DVDs. I ended up turning OFF the sound due to the inappropriateness of the music to set the proper mood. But, despite this, they are still worth seeing.

The short is about a divorced couple that try to pretend they are still happily married in order to get $100,000 from their grouchy aunt. This general plot is good and could have really been funny. However, after a promising start, the film lost energy FAST and finally it just degenerated into people hitting each other--slapstick in its simplest form with no real regard to plot.

It's surprising how many silent comedies rely on the hoary old plot of warring couples having to pretend to be happily married in order to inherit a fortune from a wealthy relative. This one was co-written by Stan Laurel apparently but there's little up there to indicate so. Oliver Hardy has a fairly large part as Vivien Oakland's first husband, from whom she is divorced (although there's still a spark there). Ollie is Vivien's rich Auntie's favourite and her inheritance depends on Auntie believing they're still happily married. Vivien's real husband, played by Glenn Tryon, therefore has to pretend to be the lodger for the duration of Auntie's stay, a situation which he is not at all pleased about.

Tryon is a rather bland leading man and comic actor. It's no surprise his name has now largely been forgotten. Hardy certainly outshines him in every scene and provides the only few amusing moments the film contains. The story pretty much relies on the pair of them coming to blows every couple of minutes. It's not particularly funny in the first place so, when their frantic wrestling is repeated over and over it quickly begins to wear thin. It is interesting to see Ollie in an early role without Stan Laurel though.

First I should explain that despite my subject heading up above this is not a Laurel & Hardy film: Stan Laurel was one of the writers, and Oliver Hardy plays a prominent role, but it would be another year before their on-screen teaming took place. Meanwhile, and despite a promising opening sequence, this comedy is an unfortunate misfire, more like a lesser Sennett effort of the period than what we expect from the Hal Roach Studio. The story concerns a woman (Vivien Oakland) who has divorced and remarried, but pretends she's still married to her first husband (Hardy) in order to collect an inheritance from a puritanical aunt. Obviously the plot is farcical and not meant to be taken seriously, yet even on the level of sheer farce the filmmakers didn't make much of an effort to piece together a semi-plausible story. After a while all pretense of credibility falls apart and the piece turns silly and tedious, topped off with a genuinely coarse closing gag. Ollie has a couple of mildly amusing moments but was certainly given better material elsewhere; Laurel & Hardy would rework this premise as "That's My Wife" in 1929, a much more satisfying two-reeler. Still, "Along Came Auntie" bears a few points of interest for Laurel & Hardy buffs.

At the time this film was made producer Hal Roach was attempting to turn leading man Glenn Tryon into the next Harold Lloyd, but just what Roach saw in him is unclear to me. Based on the Tryon films I've seen the guy was a bland-looking juvenile type who suggested a silent era version of Bob Cummings. His attempt at a drag routine in this film only makes me wish that Laurel had taken his role. Not long after this comedy was finished, Tryon played the lead in "45 Minutes from Hollywood," the first film made on the Roach lot that featured both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, though not in the same scene at the same time. Thereafter Glenn Tryon disappears from the Laurel & Hardy saga as a performer, though he contributed to their great 1933 feature "Sons of the Desert" as a gag writer.

Leading lady Vivien Oakland would be a frequent co-star with Stan & Ollie in later years, perhaps most memorably as the judge's wife in "Scram!" But here she has little to do besides stand by and watch fearfully while the guys fight. And boy, is there a lot of fighting in this movie! It looks like whenever they ran out of inspiration, the script must've indicated: General Mayhem Breaks Out. The fighting gets tiresome after awhile. Hard to believe Stan Laurel was one of the writers, except for one title card that smacks of Laurelesqe wit: "Anything might have happened that night --And it did."

Speaking of fighting, there's one more figure of interest in the cast, actor Tyler Brooke, who plays the Under Sheriff in broad Sennett style. In 1929 Brooke was at the center of a real-life, non-comic battle with his one-time colleague Oliver Hardy that made the newspapers. Apparently a game of billiards between the two men turned unpleasant, leading to harsh words and fisticuffs. Brooke sued Hardy for supposedly breaking his arm with a pool-cue. It just goes to show that, "Along Came Auntie" notwithstanding, violence really isn't so funny. Incidentally, although Brooke went on to play several featured roles for director Ernst Lubitsch and worked steadily in bit parts in Hollywood through the '30s, he didn't work at the Hal Roach lot again until 1942, after Laurel & Hardy had departed.

Along Came Auntie (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Screwball comedy has a woman wanting to inherit $100,000 from her aunt so she must pretend to be married to her first husband (Oliver Hardy), which doesn't sit too well with her new husband. There's nothing overly funny or original here but the rather violent fighting gets a few laughs and Hardy is as energetic as ever.

On the Loose (1931)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd are tired of all their dates taking them to Coney Island. They finally meet a couple gentlemen who they think highly of but the surprise date turns out to be another trip to Coney Island. Pitts and Todd really don't bring too much to this film but things pick up once they arrive at Coney Island. The biggest laugh comes from the cameo by Laurel and Hardy.