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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Major Disappointment

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is another take on the plot of a couple of men having long lost twin brothers. Stan and Ollie have Bert and Al who they know are bad news. Well, those two are working on a ship and are on shore leave as our heroes take their wives out for dinner. This is a series of mistaken identity things where the good guys appear to be crooked and vice versa. Even the wives are confronted by a couple of sailors on the make. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie are seen to be jewel thieves. Jimmy Finlayson is superb as the long suffering ship's captain. This, of course, is a take on the Shakespeare play, "A Comedy of Errors." There is great fun and some of the encounters are wonderful. One of the best things is the boys got to be "bad" once in a while. One of their better efforts.

The sudden arrival of long lost twins creates a crisis for the clumsy but staid Laurel and Hardy that creates instant war in their marriages. Their brothers are irresponsible seamen whose inability to pay a restaurant check results in trouble for their twins when they show up at the same restaurant. The presence of the two young opportunistic females whom the other brothers wined and dined is issue enough, but when seaman James Finlayson shows up with an incriminating picture, the situation gets out of hand. It's only a matter of time before the wives encounter the twins, and more confusion explodes.Finlayson, with thick Scottish accent, is hysterical, while Alan Hale Sr. gets to take on the Edgar Kennedy slow burn as the restaurant owner. Arthur Housman adds more fun as a drunk who instantly considers sobriety when he begins seeing seeing double of everybody. Diminutive Daphne Pollard, a comic genius in her own right, is hysterical as Oliver's hot-headed wife, while Betty Brown is perfectly cast as Laurel's equally nitwit wife. Some of the gags are taken out of their classic shorts, but make sense in the context of an expanded storyline. Zany comedy rarely gets better than this.

A variation on Shakespeare's 'COMEDY OF ERRORS' (there are occasional references to the bard through the film),OUR RELATIONS is one of Laurel and Hardy's better features.It is certainly the most stylishly-produced film they ever made,and arguably the best from a technical viewpoint.If there is a fault it is with the overly-complex and overly-plotted storyline;it does rather mitigate against truly classic and hilarious routines that were evident in SONS OF THE DESERT and WAY OUT WEST(their best feature films),because there is so much story conveyed.And it's debatable if the familiar 'double' device,which was becoming hackneyed even in 1936,can squeeze that much humour out of it's various confusions and mistaken identities.The large number of characters supporting Stan and Ollie are also something of a distraction;some are relevant to the story,others are not so and abruptly depart somewhat improbably during the narrative.These quibbles aside,the film is consistently amusing throughout,with familiar L & H foils (Finlayson,Housman),and those not so familiar (Toler,Hale) giving fine support.The most impressive aspect of OUR RELATIONS is it's technical sheen;it is very handsomely produced;the nightclub set particularly is highly impressive,and possibly the most elaborate and polished production design ever seen in a Laurel and Hardy film.Behind the camera,aspects are pretty accomplished too.Director Harry Lachman,usually more comfortable with straight drama (DANTE'S INFERNO with Spencer Tracy was his other most notable cinematic achievement) handles the comic sequences nicely,and commendably directs with a slick,speedy pace.This quickness has a slight downside;it would have been better if Lachman had sat back on a few occasions to allow L & H to indulge in their slower,yet more nuanced and subtle routines.We do see this near the beginning when Ollie reads a letter from his mother,and Stan conspires to break Ollie's reading glasses.This familiar and intimate bit of business is possibly the funniest scene in the film;the welter of plot complication after means we see virtually none of this well-versed style of theirs from this point on.Their encounters with the various many characters are amusing alright (especially Fin,who is well and truly savaged in his battle with the boys on this occasion),but OUR RELATIONS may have been even superior if Lachman had utilised a more methodical pace and concentration on L & H.Rudolph Mate,one of Hollywood's best Black and White cinematographers of the 30's and 40's, does a very accomplished job on the visuals,with some unexpectedly dramatic lighting,especially with the latter gangster sequence.This scene itself is rather over-stretched and perhaps even a trifle intimidating,with Tiny Sandford,in his final L & H film,not entirely comfortable as a brutish thug here.After being dispatched(entirely by mistake)on the dockside,the gangsters involved unconvincingly vanish from the scene,though Stan,Ollie,Alf and Bert finally meet at the end after all these complications.OUR RELATIONS is not quite the best Laurel and Hardy feature,but only a small handful(WAY OUT WEST,SONS OF THE DESERT,BLOCKHEADS)could probably regard themselves as superior.There are no musical numbers or romantic sub-plots,perhaps because there's so much plot and incident abound! It would have been preferable had there been more emphasis on just L & H themselves,but from a technical and production point of view,OUR RELATIONS is Laurel and Hardy's most polished film;and while not their funniest,is still very amusing.Rating:7 and a half out of 10.

A couple of ordinary fellows find that life can get very complicated when they are mistaken for their long lost identical twins. Laurel & Hardy are a delight once more in OUR RELATIONS, an enjoyable film which lets the Boys simply do what they did best - just act silly. Looking very much like an expanded short subject, the fast moving plot rushes from one absurdity to another, pulling the happy viewer along with it. Highlight: in the tiny phone booth.Stan & Ollie are given great assistance from a supporting cast of old pros: Daphne Pollard & Betty Healy as their long-suffering wives; Arthur Housman in his familiar role of a hilarious drunk; Sidney Toler as a ferocious ship's captain; and no-nonsense Alan Hale, very humorous as a burly waiter encountered by the Boys at a local beer garden. Funny James Finlayson, the Boys' frequent foil, has a meatier role than usual as a parsimonious Scots.