Movie Review "Night Owls"

Hal Roach Studios ( 1930 ) Two Reels
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, James Finlayson, Anders Randolf
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: James Parrott

Officer Kennedy is chastised by his chief ( Anders Randolf ) because there has been 42 burglaries on his beat during the hours he is on duty with no arrests. He is told that if he does not arrest the next burglar then he will be fired. When the chief leaves the other officers laugh at Kennedy telling him the only way he could catch a burglar is if he framed the guy. This gives Kennedy an idea. The next night he catches Stan and Ollie asleep on a park bench and tells them he is arresting them for vagrancy unless they agree to participate in a scheme. He wants to get in good with the chief so he needs them to break in and rob the chief's house. Kennedy will show up and arrest them. Ollie asks then what will happen to them and Kennedy tells them not to worry, he will fix things. Given a choice between possibly going to jail for burglary and definitely going to jail for vagrancy Ollie agrees to do it. At 12 midnight Kennedy leads Stan and Ollie to the chief's house. While climbing over the wall a cat runs past Stan causing him to scream and fall on top of Ollie. A second attempt at climbing over the wall has Stan ripping Ollie's pants while pulling him up. They both fall off the wall and through a small glass greenhouse on the other side. Inside the house the chief wants to know what is causing the racket outside and tells his butler ( James Finlayson ) to look out the window. Two cats run by on the wall and the butler says "It's cats sir". Ollie hears this and tells Stan that they should pretend they are cats. They both begin meowing and the butler throws a shoe at them hitting Ollie on the head. The continue meowing and the butler throws his other shoe out the window and hits Satan in the head. Stan picks the shoe up and throws it back hitting the butler. The butler throws the shoe back just as the window slips shut, breaking it. Stan is about to throw a brick at the house when Ollie stops him.

They head to an open window and Stan climbs in. Ollie hands him a candle and tan accidentally sets fire to the curtains. Ollie rips them off the window and attempts to put the fire out when Stan throws an entire fish bowl full of water all over him and the curtains. Ollie goes to punch Stan but Stan quickly slams the window shut causing it to lock. Ollie then signals him to open the front door to let him in. Ollie walks to the front and Stan walks through the door, closing it behind him. Now they will have to go through the window again. They get to the window and as Ollie tries to pry it open with a crowbar Stan walks around the corner of the house and finds another open window. He goes through it and opens the front door, happily making a meow sound to let Ollie know he has opened the door. Angered that Stan is acting cocky Ollie charges at him and Stan quickly goes back into the house closing the door behind him. When Stan opens the door Ollie pulls him outside which causes the door to close again. Ollie takes the crowbar and attempts to pry the left front door open. While he is doing this Stan tries the right front door and seeing that it is open walks into the house and opens the window. He whistles over to Ollie to let him know the window is now open and Ollie signals him to be quiet. As Ollie walks into the front door Stan climbs out the window to follow him. Thinking Stan is still in the house Ollie closes the door behind him. When Stan walks up to the closed door he knocks on it, then rings the doorbell. The butler is now spooked by all the odd noises coming from the yard and comes downstairs with a shotgun. slipping on the stairs he falls and the gun goes off hitting a vase. Ollie runs out of the house screaming and they both run around the corner of the house. The butler opens the front door, looks around, then goes back in closing the door behind him. Ollie then tries to pry open the window and asks Stan to get him the hammer. Stan walks around the corner to where their bag of tools is and realizes he left that window open. He climbs through it and opens Ollie's window handing him the hammer, startling him at the same time. Stan tries to pull Ollie through the window but rips his jacket. Once Ollie is finally in they put some silverware in a bag and sit down and wait for Kennedy to show up. But Ollie leans against a player piano and sets it off. The chief hears the commotion downstairs and telling his butler to call the police gets his revolver and heads downstairs. Kennedy has also heard the commotion and breaks in the door to get into the house to make the arrest. He falls onto the floor and his gun goes off. Stan and Ollie are spooked by this and jump out the window. Kennedy picks up their bag of stolen silverware and tries to wave to them to come back when the chief enters the room holding his gun and accuses Kennedy of being the burglar all along. As Stan and Ollie climb the wall they can hear the approaching police sirens. Stan tries to pull Ollie over and instead rips his pants completely off before he falls into a garbage can.

This was their 6th sound movie for Hal Roach and the first where they were asked to film foreign language versions. With sound movies Laurel and Hardy could not be understood in countries that did not speak English. This had not been a problem with silent films as the title cards could easily be replaced. The only practical solution at the time was for each individual scene to be reshot in a foreign language. Laurel and Hardy would have to speak lines they did not understand. Millions of Spanish speaking audiences found Laurel and Hardy's mispronunciation of their language hysterical and were sad when Roach stopped making the foreign versions and switched to dubbing the American versions using voice actors who spoke the language. Up until "Night Owls" Laurel and Hardy had avoided having to go through the extra trouble of making foreign language versions for the overseas markets. Now they were simultaneously making three films at the same time, "Night Owls" for the American and British market, "Ladornes" for Mexico and Spain, and "Ladorni" for Italy. For decades no one bothered comparing the different language versions as everyone assumed they were identical. When English speaking Laurel and Hardy fans finally began watching the foreign made versions they discovered that they were longer. "Ladornes" runs for four reels while it's American version "Night Owls" only runs for two. Entire scenes that Stan was forced to cut out of the American version to keep it down to two reels were left in. "Ladornes" has a different ending than the American. Stan and Ollie are arrested by the Chief and Kennedy arrives late. As Stan and Ollie are being lead away they tell the chief that Kennedy had come up with the plan to burgle his house and Kennedy is arrested too. Stan and Ollie are put into the back of an open top police car and driven off to the station. As they pass under a low hanging tree branch Stan and Ollie jump up and grab it. But the car behind them is driven by the Chief and his now armed butler ( Named Juan in this version but still played by James Finlayson ) and Stan and Ollie fall into that car's back seat winding up in custody again. Because the American version had run long by 15 minutes and Stan was forced to cut it down to from 35 to 20 minutes. This inevitably involved filming a new ending to wrap things up sooner. Many other moments were also cut from the American version including a scene where Ollie gets his head caught in a vase. The foreign version was allowed to run as long as the story needed. This would be the last time Roach ordered the American version cut. In the months to come he would allow the domestic print to run an extra reel or two. This possibly because he realized the potential in editing the foreign prints into feature films.