verbusen I have watched Laurel and Hardy since when I was a child (thankfully) back in the early 70's. But I had never watched Pack Up Your Troubles before until today in 2015. It's crazy, but it is what it is. L&H was shown mostly as shorts in syndication and a few of their feature films, but only the ones that were their most juvenile ones (even as far as the shorts go). So where do I start? I just laughed at this one from start to finish. Stan looks very stoned or as I'm sure the times dictated dim witted, but in modern times he looks drunk or wasted. That in itself is funny. Then I am watching this as a Vet personally and it's hilarious for the recruitment Shanghai'd to the boot camp to the actual war. along the way there is a really really heavy drama trip put on us by a woman that would abandon a cute 3 year old blond girl, very sad, if you are into the film it may make you cry a little like I did (and of course, I cried later).Anyway, this is Laurel and Hardy in their still young days, connecting still as the common people, and not as total child buffoons. I like how Ollie stands up to the government to protect the child, and she is totally adorable, almost as much as Shirley Temple. Watching this has so many scenes in it that are memorable it''s like watching a 2 1/2 hour film instead of just 1 hour, and it's all good. If you never watched this before you should watch it and avoid spoilers because as much as it may fall into line, you will be surprised by this one. 10 of 10. God bless Laurel and Hardy and 1930's America.

tavm It was back in 1991 when I was shopping at Target in Jacksonville, FL, that I stumbled onto this VHS tape from Video Treasures. It was a Laurel & Hardy movie I hadn't heard of before and while I think I checked out Randy Skretvedt's book "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies" from the library there beforehand, I don't remember reading about the review of this particular movie at the time though I'm sure I read about it after seeing this when I checked the book out again afterward. Anyway, when the little girl-Jacquie Lyn-was doing the story of "The Three Bears" with sleepy Stan's reactions in close-up, I remember a relative I was living with laughing heartily at that and while it was funny to me as well, I don't remember laughing as loudly. I just watched it again this morning and I found myself laughing not only at that but most of the rest of the picture as Stan & Ollie join the army during World War I, make friends with a guy named Eddie Smith, and then try to find Eddie's parents after he dies in battle with his daughter I mentioned in tow. Hilarious supporting turns from usual L & H players like James Finlayson and Billy Gilbert as well as Grady Sutton and George Marshall who co-directed with Ray McCarey. In Skretvedt's review, he mentions a sequence cut from all reissued prints because of its too-violent-for-comedy status: Temporary guardian Rychard Cramer abuses his wife and Jacquie, then when L & H find out-he sends his goons after them but the boys manage to subdue them with boiling water! He also said a print survives dubbed in French. I'm not in a real hurry to see that one. So on that note, I highly recommend Pack Up Your Troubles. P.S. On this videotape I mentioned earlier in the review, Stan's daughter Lois put some home movies before the feature showing her on her fourth birthday and fifth birthday parties, and then showed her playing with Jacquie either in a sandbox or riding in a toy plane (cute seeing them kiss a couple of times there), a gift from her Uncle Babe (Hardy). She mentioned she hadn't seen her in a while and was looking for her. Well, a year later, Leonard Maltin & Richard W. Bann updated their book, "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang" and revealed in the C section of the Appendixes called The Rest: Their Glories and Their Ruin that Jacquie Lyn was given-by her son-a copy of this videotape for Christmas, saw those movies of her and Lois, and contacted her through The Sons of the Desert organization where she found out they only lived a couple of miles away! After Ms. Lyn left pictures after making a couple of Our Gang shorts-Free Wheeling and Birthday Blues-her family remained in Los Angeles where she eventually married a banker. I'll explain why she left when reviewing Birthday Blues. Update-12/26/14: I've now seen the deleted sequence which was colorized on YouTube. It's not as violent as I was afraid since we don't see Cramer hitting Jacquie. Also, that boiling water is from some pots that Stan uses to pour on the bad guys which is quite funny!

Neil Doyle PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES only begins to pick up at the point the boys decide to track down the father of a little girl in their care. The best scenes involve their relationship with the cute tyke, who has a wonderful scene with STAN LAUREL where she puts him to sleep with her own version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.Another highlight has the boys needing $2,000 and going to see a bank manager who has a good laugh when he sees that their restaurant business is nothing more than a traveling cart on wheels."I'd have to be unconscious to give you any money for that," he cries, and presto he knocks over a heavy vase that falls on his head. The boys escape with the money and even wackier developments follow.Finally, the situation is straightened out when they accidentally run into the girl's grandparents who intend to see that L&H get the proper award for finding their lost grandchild, just in time for the happy ending.A bit too plot heavy, but there are many scenes that are good for the kind of laughs you expect from any Laurel and Hardy film.Worth seeing, but not one of their best.

Jackson Booth-Millard 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. It is 1917, and war has begun, Ollie wants to go, but explains to Stan he has flat feet, but a Recruiting sergeant (Tom Kennedy), after believing they have no arms, gets them eventually. So the boys arrive at the army camp in their new uniforms, but are demoted after mucking up the marching orders. As garbage can men they also muck up, taking the trash to the General (James Finlayson) himself while he's having his breakfast, and are demoted again to kitchen staff, with a stressed chef. Their friend Eddie Smith (Donald 'Don' Dillaway) gets a letter from his wife saying he's leaving him for another man, and he is unsure what is happening to his baby daughter (Jackie Lyn Dufton). In their trench shelter, the boys hear the explosions outside, and get out their pyjamas with uniforms already on underneath, cleaning up in a helmet full of coffee, chucking it on the Sergeant. They notice Eddie, and they want to write to his father, but he leaves for raid, and the boys end up accidentally volunteering to capture some prisoners, which they succeed in doing with the help of an accidentally driven tank and tangled barbed wire. Eddie's daughter is wanting her daddy, and living with mean relatives, and Ollie and Stan show up at their door asking to take her away as Eddie is dead. Out of uniform the boys start looking for Eddie's father, "Mr. Smith", to take the daughter to him, and they knock on a few Smiths doors, a black man, a boxer, and a wedding groom (Grady Sutton). After no success, they decide to the rest by telephone, with Ollie having called thousands of Smiths, and Stan went to one (and only one) Smith, and misses that there is The Mr. Smith in the newspaper. You see Stan happy with the daughter, falling asleep as she tells a fairytale, while Ollie does the washing and ironing, and after telling Stan to put the baby to bed slips on a baseball, landing with the wash bowl on his head. While the mean male relative reports the boys taking the baby, Stan and Ollie open their sandwich van, with a mean man telling them he wants to put the daughter in an orphanage, so they go to the bank to get a loan to move away, and the bank manager is Eddie's father, Mr. Smith. With their poor business, he says he'd only give them a loan if he is unconscious, which he becomes, and they take the money they need. As they get packing to leave, the mean orphanage man comes round to take the daughter, but she and the boys escape down the dumb waiter. They are caught though and taken to Mr. Smith, and when he sees Stan and Ollie in a photo with his son Eddie everything is explained, the daughter finds her true family, while the boys are chased by the stressed chef from earlier. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Very good!