|
There is virtually no plot, rather a series of slapstick sequences are tied together by one premise: The Boys are working in a wood-working shop where they are supposedly correcting faults in window frames. Instead, they start the day's work in good humor, but become involved in a series of mishaps that deteriorate to a disaster. Along the way Ollie suffers most of the indignities, having the seat of his trousers ripped by a block plane, a paint brush glued to his chin, his necktie cut while Stan tries to remove the paint brush with the block plane, etc. Ollie gets his head knocked by a large circular saw, his fingers caught in a window frame, knocked into a sawdust vent and propelled onto the roof of a shed, causing it to collapse on the foreman (Tiny Sanford). As a final indignity, as the Boys drive off in their model T Ford, they drive through a band saw which neatly cuts the car in half. Although there was originally a script, the final film shows many variations from the original. There were many ad-libs, gags that were made up on the set. There were also some interesting special effects, like the image of Ollie traveling through the sawdust ducts propelled by the drive paddles, and in the final sequence in which the car was cut in half, actually accomplished by use of a traveling matte and split screen. Another special effect was the use of a large circular saw to wipe from one title frame to another, an effect that is omitted by many later releases.
>>Top of Page | Return to Films Index
|
Many Laurel and Hardy buffs consider Busy Bodies to be one of The Boys' best short sound films. Randy Skretvedt in Laurel and Hardy; The Magic Behind the Movies calls it "the team at their best." Bill Everson pronounces it to be "one of the team's best sound comedies, and easily the best of their Lloyd French-directed films." It is also one of my personal favorites.