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Liberty proves that comedy doesn't need a plot to work -- it just needs great gags, arranged in some sort of semi-cohesive manner. In this case, putting energy into a plot would have been a waste of time and footage, because this Laurel and Hardy film is a classic just as it is. From the pseudo-pompous beginning, which enumerates important historical figures who have fought for victory, to the end, when the freight elevator carrying Laurel and Hardy back to the ground smashes a cop down to midget size, it is hilarious all the way through. There are loads of details that make this comedy work as well as it does -- Stan and Ollie mixing up their hats before discovering they've put on each other's pants, and the presence of the crab in Ollie's pants throughout most of the picture, for example. And it's definitely a film of a more innocent era -- Laurel and Hardy can be caught over and over again in alleyways with their pants down and no one ever wonders about their gender preference, as would happen in one of today's comedies. The scenes on the girders are every bit as hilariously hair-raising as Harold Lloyd's were in Safety Last. It's interesting to note that the only reason this timeless Laurel and Hardy silent was made in the first place is because the trouser-exchanging scenes were cut out of an earlier film, We Faw Down. The studio apparently thought this gag was too good to remain on the cutting room floor, and created a film that could include it.