Watch A Chump at Oxford For Free

Strictly average movie

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Stan Laurel is the number one star in this Laurel and Hardy entry from producer, Hal Roach. Not only is Laurel the instigator of the plot, and not only does he have a champion share of the funny business in the hilariously daffy three-handed jape with the "ghost", but for the first of only two occasions in his entire sound career, he essays a character role. And he plays this one most effectively too! (The other occasion was his Don Sebastion in 1945's The Bullfighters). Lord Paddington is no mere impersonation, but a complete reversal of Laurel's customary character. Speaking in a splendidly snooty, upper-crust accent, Paddington puts the maladroit Hardy through some marvelous paces. Even his dialogue is urbanely droll and keenly condescending. He argues, for example, that Hardy's ineptitudes "break the monotony" and that Babe "helps fill up the room, you know." There was never a funnier or more perfectly attuned team than Laurel and Hardy. Even when the situation is more piquant than usual, both can rise to the occasion. For personality, charisma and sheer vitality, they leave all the other twosomes far behind. I can never forget Paddington instructing Fatty in the proper deportment of a valet: "Lift up that chin! Both of them!"; and Babe's final, wildly exasperated response: "And another thing: I didn't like that double chin crack either!" Now that's acting!

A CHUMP AT OXFORD was one of the last films Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made for their longtime producer Hal Roach. Originally shot and released as forty minute "Streamliner," an additional ten or so minutes was later added onto the beginning of the film, and other scenes were extended, turning the film into a standard feature.The basic premise is that Stan and Ollie, after unwittingly stopping a bank robbery, are rewarded a scholarship at Oxford University. Once there, the duo find themselves the victim of a series of practical jokes from the other students (one of whom is future horror star Peter Cushing). Later, it is revealed that Stan was once Lord Paddington, the greatest scholar to attend Oxford. A bump on the head turned him into Stan, and another bump turns him back into Paddington. Now, poor Ollie has to act as Stan's valet.This isn't one of their best films, but it's decent enough. The opening sequence (in the extended version, anyway) borrows heavily from the team's classic silent short FROM SOUP TO NUTS. This remade version isn't quite as good as its predecessor, but the inclusion of old favorite costars Jimmy Finlayson and Anita Garvin helps keep things interesting. The film admittedly falls apart once Stan and Ollie wind up at Oxford. Immediately, they are frowned down on by the school's more intelligent students, who put the duo through a series of practical jokers. Seeing Laurel and Hardy depicted as dopey misfits in a more adult world isn't incredibly funny, and would sadly become more common for their characters in future films. One of the students' many pranks leads to a sequence in a maze that goes on much longer than needs to.By far, the highlight is the entire Lord Paddington sequence. Stan Laurel is excellent in his role, and proves that he was a darn good actor.Other supporting players include old favorites Charlie Hall and Wilfred Lucas, as well Forrester Harvey as Meredith, Lord Paddington's right hand man.

This is one of the better Laurel and Hardy films and it features a young Peter Cushing, well there are ghosts involved so no surprise that a future Hammer Horror specialist will feature.Arriving at Oxford University for further education, Stan and Ollie fall victim to a number of pranks from their fellow students who resent them but later a knock on the head changes Stan into Lord Paddington a brilliant aristocratic scholar and athlete.Its the Lord Paddington part of the story and the accompanying ear wiggle which raises this story to another level and makes it so memorable.

As mentioned earlier except for BLOCK-HEADS most aficionados might consider A CHUMP AT OXFORD to be the final great Laurel & Hardy feature length comedy. It's main weakness is it's structure - BLOCK-HEADS is a series of disasters rising to a crescendo from Stan to Ollie to everyone around them. A CHUMP is really two or three shorts (all very funny) that are united by the thinnest of plot threads. In fact it can be split into three shorts without difficulty.First there is the repeat of the story from FROM SOUP TO NUTS (then a long forgotten silent short they made in 1928), where they are hired to serve a dinner at Jimmy Finleyson's home one evening and destroy the dinner. The high point is when Stan is told to serve the salad undressed and does so - of course too literally for Finleyson's taste. He chases the two of them out with a rifle (shades of Billy Gilbert in PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES and BLOCK-HEADS). Finn fires his rifle, and then an angry policeman shows up warning him to be careful or he will go to jail - "You could have blown somebody's brains out!" Unfortunately, the policemen turns around and we see that Finn shot a big hole into the cop's pants.Next we see the boys at a new job as street cleaners, and Hardy launches into one of those semi-sensible speeches he gives, "Well we've reached bottom now!...What's wrong with us?" Ollie figures it's a lack of education (partly it is - though it's hard to see how Stan could comprehend any book). They foil a bank robbery (the bank is called the FINLEYSON NATIONAL, which sounds reasonable as Finn was a canny Scotsman usually). As a reward they get their wish - they get the finest education possible at Oxford.The final segment is when they reach Oxford and fall victims to a series of pranks played by the students (led by Peter Cushing - far from his future as Dr. Frankenstein - and Charlie Hall). The best part of this is the business of the boys getting lost (even from each other) in the maze at Oxford, where Ollie is carrying their trunk on his back, and yelling for Stan, who is yelling back, just around the corner! There is also the student dressed as the bogeyman and sitting between Stan and Ollie on the trunk. There is also the boys settling into their rooms (actually the rooms of the Dean of Oxford, Wilfred Lucas), ending with them shooting soda water into what they think is the face of an old goat in a portrait, and end up hitting the original face (Lucas, of course). A battle of the expelled students (the Dean catches them trying to leave his rooms) and the boys ("dirty rotten snitches" Cushing and Hall call them) completes this segment - but introduces us to the biggest change in the history of Laurel & Hardy: Stan's revelation of his "real" personality. A tremendously creative and brilliant comic genius, Stan Laurel (when busy constructing his films) was all serious business - like Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Fields, the Marxes, and Lou Costello, his peers. In this mode he was not the nincompoop he played opposite Hardy. He was very serious and intelligent sounding. This is his persona, with a degree of haughtiness, when playing his alter ego, Lord Paddington. Paddington was Oxford's greatest scholar and athlete. He proves the latter by throwing Cushing and the others (unfortunately including Hardy and Lucas) out his window one after another. He also demonstrates his brilliance quickly (all these awards and trophies are on display shortly after his restoration - and worse when his new butler, Ollie, is overwhelmed hearing that Einstein is coming to discuss a problem about the relativity theory that Paddington can settle!). Stan never tried this revelation again - and probably wisely. Stan and Ollie (to work) needs Ollie to be a bit more with it in terms of what the world expects - Stan follows, and upsets the easily toppled Ollie. It is similar to their silent film short, EARLY TO BED, where Ollie becomes a wealthy man about town, tormenting his butler Stan - we don't like this Ollie that much, and approve when Stan starts smashing Ollie's brick-a-bra-ck. The "Paddington" bit was better than the man-about-town Ollie in the earlier film. Wisely, Paddington leaves before the film ends, and Stan returns. We are glad to have him back.