Movie Review "They Go Boom!"

Hal Roach ( 1929 ) Two Reels
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: James Parrott

Ollie has a cold. While trying to sleep he sneezes so hard that a window shade rolls up. He tells Stan to close the shade, but another sneeze causes the shade to fall off the window, and the next sneeze causes a picture hanging over their bed to fall on Ollie's head. Ollie asks Stan to hang it back up, and when Stan hammers the nail through the wall it punctures a water pipe. The water begins to leak through the wall and pour all over Ollie. He leaps up and after pushing a handkerchief into the part of the wall the water is coming through he complains that by being wet his cold has turned into the pneumonia. Stan goes into the kitchen to heat some water for a foot bath remedies and steps on a glue paper mouse trap and gets glue stuck to his sock. As he begins to leave the kitchen with a tub his sock sticks to the floor. Looking at the layer of glue on the bottom of the sock Stan turns it inside out and puts it back on. Stan puts the foot tub next to the bed and pours mustard powder into it which he claims is a good cold remedy. He then pours a kettle of hot water in it and stirs it with a broom. Ollie complains the water is too hot and orders Stan to get a bucket of cold water to mix into the tub.

Stan gets the cold water but trips on his way into the room and throws the water all over Ollie who leaps backwards and causes the picture to fall off the wall and water to pour through the hole in the wall. Ollie pushes the handkerchief through the hole in the wall again then charges at Stan. He steps into the tub with hot water and recoils in pain. Ollie then charges at Stan again who is now in the kitchen. Stan opens the door the exact second Ollie is behind it and hits him in the face sending him backwards into the hot tub again. ( This is a continuity error. The shot before this happens shows the door open. The next shot is at a different angle and the door is suddenly closed. ) Stan is carrying a bowl of cold water and pours it into the tub. Now that it is warm Ollie sticks his feet into it, but the mustard powder quickly solidifies into goo. As Stan prepares a chest plaster Ollie demands that he give him a towel to wipe his feet off with. Once he has cleaned his feet he asks Stan where the plaster is. Stan says he gave it to him. They look around the room for it and find it on the back of Ollie's night gown where he had sat on it. Stan goes to pull it off and rips a hole in the rear of the night gown. Stan then takes a wad of cotton on the end of a stick and dips it into a cup of cough syrup. He tells Ollie that he is doing it this way to coat the back of his throat. But after Stan tries this he removes the stick without the cotton. This leads to a shoving match between Stan and Ollie which leads to Ollie falling onto the bed, which in turn causes their air mattress to deflate. Ollie begins blowing it up again and a bulge forms in the middle of the mattress. Stan pushes the bulge down and the air rushes back into Ollie causing his stomach to expand. Ollie chases after Stan and bangs his leg on the tub of mustard. Stan jumps into bed just as the landlord ( Charlie Hall ) walks into the room. He yells at Ollie for making so much noise, then points at Stan and asks Ollie why he can't be quiet like his friend. He then threatens to throw them out if they are not quiet. Once the landlord is gone Ollie decides to blow up the mattress by hooking it up to a gas valve. When the mattress is inflated and Ollie shuts off the valve Stan complains that it is lumpy. Ollie gets into bed and Stan rolls out the other side. Stan gets out of the bed and causes Ollie to roll off the other side. In anger Ollie throws a pillow across in Stan's direction and it hits the top of the doorway and bursts open just as the landlord is walking in and covering him with feathers. He walks over and kicks Ollie in the rear. Ollie pushes the landlord backwards and he falls into the tub with the mustard. The landlord tells Stan and Ollie that he is getting a police officer to throw them out of the building. After he leaves Ollie suggests that they pretend to be asleep by the time the landlord returns. As they get into bed Ollie's bathrobe catches on the gas valve which is still attached to the mattress. The mattress over inflates to a giant size until both Stan and Ollie are within inches of the ceiling. Ollie starts calling out for help. The landlord returns with the police but they all run out when they see the size of the mattress. Ollie sneezes and the mattress explodes, blowing a hole through the ceiling so that the neighbor's bed on the floor above hangs halfway down. As the police rush back in to arrest the boys Ollie sneezes again and causes the remaining plaster on the ceiling to fall on everyone.

This is one of the teams forgotten sound movies due to no sound print being available for years. The version being distributed was the silent movie release and no one seemed interested in the expense of taking the existing sound disc and restoring a sound version until the 1980's. Because of this it was released as part of the series "The Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy"