A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. A cop finds himself in trouble for not making any arrests during a robbery spree. So, he talks vagrants Stan & Ollie into breaking into the Chief's home, where he can then arrest them. Like a couple of NIGHT OWLS, the Boys descend upon the house. Chaos erupts during their attempt to scale the wall & get through a window. But matters only get worse when they finally get inside...
A good little comedy, filled with hardy slapstick. Edgar Kennedy plays the cop; that's James Finlayson as the Chief's butler.
Night Owls
1930
Action / Comedy
Night Owls
1930
Action / Comedy
Keywords: black and whiteshort filmpre-code
Plot summary
After getting lambasted by the Police Chief for the 42 unsolved robberies committed on his watch, Officer Kennedy bamboozles vagrants Stanley and Oliver into a plan to recover his reputation, in exchange for not jailing them for sleeping on park benches. Kennedy sets them to burgling the Police Chief's own house, planning to arrest them in front of his boss, and later "fixing it" for the boys.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Tech specs
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Breaking And Entering With Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy
Laurel & Hardy are the worst burglars ever
Stan Laurel makes most of the gags in 'Night Owls' work. In this comedy short a police officer (Edgar Kennedy) will be fired when he screws up one more time. He finds Laurel & Hardy sleeping on a bench in a public park. They have a choice. They can spend some time in jail or help the police officer. He wants them to break in with his chief. He will save the day and the chief will like him again.
The short, with sound, shows us Laurel & Hardy as burglars most of the time. They must be the worst burglars ever. They enter the house over and over again but they also manage to lock themselves out every single time. We have some laughs, all because of Laurel. Although this is definitely not the best Laurel & Hardy comedy short, it is another fine little movie.
Simple short, that provides some good entertainment.
By no means this is the best short Laurel & Hardy film but it still one that offers some decent entertainment, which is thanks to the stupidity and clumsiness of the boys, especially Laurel's.
The movie and its story are rather simple. It relies on simple one comical premise; The boys trying to break in at the police chief's house, at the request of Officer Kennedy, so he can capture the boys later on and impress his chief, who is not very pleased with the 42 unsolved robberies committed on Officer Kennedy's watch. If the boys don't help Officer Kennedy out, they'll go to jail for 90 days for sleeping in a public park. Sometimes one simple comical premise is enough to fill an entire entertaining and hilarious movie with but the slapstick and moments in this movie begin to get rather tiresome after a while, since it's mostly more of the same, when the boys begin to try and break-in. The movie is perhaps lacking in great true comical originality but yet it's perfectly executed in the movie, which still makes sure that this movie is a very good and fun one to watch.
The Laurel & Hardy regulars also make sure that this movie provides some great entertainment, such as James Finlayson as Meadows, the police chief's aid and Edgar Kennedy. Kennedy's role is rather limited down, almost to an non-comical one. Baldwin Cooke also shows up in a small part as one of the police officers.
The comical situations and slapstick in the movie works out well, though it's never anything too original. It's one of the reasons why this movie is not really more than a slightly above average Laurel & Hardy short, that is perhaps a bit disappointing, despite its entertainment value.
7/10
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