Nothing but Trouble

Nothing but Trouble (1944)

Genres - Comedy, Children's/Family  |   Sub-Genres - Slapstick  |   Release Date - Dec 6, 1944 (USA - Unknown), Dec 6, 1944 (USA)  |   Run Time - 69 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Review by Hans J. Wollstein

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are starred in Nothing but Trouble only because it is nominally a Laurel and Hardy comedy. But the veteran team is in reality asked to play comedy relief to an insufferably prissy child actor -- David Leland -- whose faux British accent keeps slipping. The boy's accent isn't the only artificial thing about Nothing but Trouble, which only proves that hoity-toity MGM was not the ideal place for Stan and Ollie to roam around. (The team's earlier Hal Roach comedies were distributed only by Metro, not in-house productions.) And writers Russell Rouse and Ray Golden seem to have completely misunderstood what this most beloved comedy team was all about -- dignity in the face of adversity. The boys, of course, are failures in their chosen occupations (chef and butler, respectively), but this time they actually comment on their latest humiliation. "We're just no good, that's all," says Stan, when the boys find themselves without jobs and in an all-night mission. Without their dignity, Stan and Ollie are just two aged slapstick comics attempting to hang onto former glory. And that is not a little discouraging.