The Big Noise

Director: Malcolm St. Clair Malcolm St. Clair

Overview

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play janitors for a detective agency who pose as super-sleuths when they're hired to protect inventor Alva P. Hartley (Arthur Space). Moving bag and baggage into Hartley's gadget-laden house, Stan and Ollie must first contend with the inventor's bratty son Egbert (Bobby Blake, aka Robert Blake) and much-married Aunt Sophie (Esther Howard). More problems ensue when Hartley's next door neighbors Charlton (Frank Fenton), Hartman (James Bush), Dutchy (Phil Van Zandt) and Mayme (Veda Ann Borg) reveal themselves as the crooks they really are. Entrusted with Hartley's latest invention, super-bomb called "The Big Noise," Stan and Ollie skeedaddle to Washington, just one step ahead of the criminals. Escaping the villains, the boys take flight in a balky airplane, only to find that they're the targets for Army gunnery practice. Our heroes save themselves-and the day-when they use the bomb to destroy a Japanese submarine. Long regarded as the worst of Laurel & Hardy's feature films, The Big Noise has in recent years been championed by several of the team's fans, not least because the admittedly patchy storyline incorporates several of their classic routines from such earlier 2-reelers as Habeas Corpus, Wrong Again and Berth Marks. Arguably the film's best scene finds Stan and Ollie trying to gorge themselves on a "banquet" consisting of dehydrated food capsules.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/27/2018
UPC:	0024543587316
Original Release:	1944
Rating:	NR
Source:	Fox Mod

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Oliver Hardy	Oliver
Stan Laurel	Stanley
Doris Merrick	Evelyn
Arthur Space	Alva P. Hartley
Veda Ann Borg	Mayme
Frank Fenton	Charlton
James Bush	Hartman
Philip Van Zandt	Dutchy
Esther Howard	Aunt Sophie
Robert Dudley	Grandpa
Edgar Dearing	Motor Policeman
Selmar Jackson	Manning
Harry Hayden	Butler
Francis Ford	Station Attendant
Jack Norton	Drunk
Charles Wilson	Conductor
Ken Christy	Speaker
Beal Wong	Japanese Officer
Louis Arco	German Officer
Robert Blake	Egbert

Technical Credits

W. Scott Darling

Malcolm St. Clair	Director
Norman Colbert	Editor
W. Scott Darling	Screenwriter
John Ewing	Art Director
Thomas K. Little	Set Decoration/Design
Joe MacDonald	Cinematographer
Cyril Mockridge	Score Composer
Emil Newman	Musical Direction/Supervision
Al Orenbach	Set Decoration/Design
Guy Pearce	Makeup
Fred Sersen	Special Effects
Lyle Wheeler	Art Director
Yvonne Wood	Costumes/Costume Designer
Sol Wurtzel	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Although not nearly as bad as its reputation, this latter-day Laurel and Hardy comedy isn't very good either, merely a rehash of many of the team's old routines that includes the always welcome derby hat confusion and the cramped sleeping car arrangement from Berth Marks (1929). The beloved comedians are beginning to show their age, however, and the supporting cast, which includes a rather irritating Robert Blake, is more a hindrance than a help. Fox starlet Helene Reynolds reputedly walked off the film in midstream, incensed at being dragged into what was decidedly a minor B-movie, and was replaced with that broadest of 1940s broads Veda Ann Borg. The latter, unfortunately, shares no scenes with Stan and Ollie, but only appears in an unnecessary subplot. But despite its flaws -- and they are legion -- The Big Noise is saved for purists by a charmingly non sequitur closing; after dropping a bomb on an enemy submarine, Stan and Ollie are seen sitting contentedly on a buoy in the middle of the ocean, the former playing "Mairzy Doats" on a concertina as a school of fish dances around them. Perhaps this bizarre but completely disarming closing gag is one of the reasons why Stan Laurel later counted The Big Noise as his favorite among the team's Fox comedies.

All Movie Guide - Hans J. Wollstein