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Brats is considered one of Laurel & Hardy's best films and it is directed by one of their best directors, James Parrott (the younger brother of Charley Chase. This film heralded a dramatic improvement in the sound quality of the Laurel & Hardy films. Although it has no plot as such, it is a carefully contrived medium in which the boys render a number of sight gags, matching the full-sized adult Stan and Ollie with their diminutive children (played also by Stan and Ollie). Stan and Babe are called upon to serve as sitters for their own sons. Their principle effort was trying to get their sons to take their bath and go to bed. The wives do not appear in the film, although a photograph on the fireplace mantel shows a young Jean Harlow, suggesting that she may be one of the missing wives. Most of the film consists of a series of childish pranks in which the full-sized fathers take the most serious falls. Stan and Ollie try to get the children to go to sleep, and Ollie almost succeeds by singing a lullaby, "Go to sleep, my babies," but Stan manages to cripple that effort by stepping on a toy horn. At the end of the film Ollie goes to the bathroom to fetch a class of water for Ollie Jr. Upon opening the bathroom door he is met by a wall of water that floods the house. Using normal sets and erecting them in a grander scale creates an illusion that makes the antics of the younger generation of Stan and Ollie more believable. Originally, this short had opening subtitles which read "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy remained home to take care of the children…Their wives had gone out to target practice". Unfortunately, these funny subtitles were eliminated when the film was reissued in 1937. Also, a more modern musical score was recorded by Marvin Hatley for the newer prints in circulation. Reportedly, the original has been found (although I haven't seen it), and it would be fascinating to screen this short in its superior original form. >>Top of Page | Return to Films Index
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