Jitterbugs (1943)

Truly Dreadful Film

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Disappointment for a huge fan!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

. . . JITTERBUGS appeared on the big screen, with Stan Laurel trying to supplant Betty Grable as a pin-up gal for the Allied troops during WWII in 1943. Stan's effort falls totally flat, as he seemingly cannot even raise his voice to simulate the "fair sex" (a feat easily accomplished later by Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams in the aforementioned flicks). Mr. Laurel and his frequent sidekick Oliver Hardy mostly are adrift here in a plot which makes less sense than their usual, and doesn't perk up until the last five minutes when the showboat Gen. Fremont drifts away from its New Orleans pier during rush hour on the Mississippi. JITTERBUGS' opening desert scene and its follow-up two-man band episode are okay, but the rest of this story quickly bogs down during the lengthy "New Orleans" sequence. Film rookie Vivian Blaine warbles rather well, but her shoulders are not broad enough to carry the entire flick.

Stan & Ollie are travelling musicians who run out of gas in the middle of nowhere and are helped out by a travelling salesman, Chester (Bob Bailey). He gives them one of his gas pills to put in their car and they decide to go into business combining their music act with selling these pills. When they try their luck in the next town, Chester meets Susan (Vivian Blaine) and she joins the gang. The plot then changes direction as we learn that Susan's aunt has had $10,000 dollars stolen by crooks. Chester, Susan, Stan & Ollie are determined to get the money back and the film follows their efforts to do this as Stan & Ollie pose as different characters at a hotel, while Susan takes a job as a singer at a club.There are some funny scenes and Vivian Blaine sings 3 songs. Its all completely unbelievable nonsense but at the end of the film you feel that you have been entertained.

I admit that I find Laurel and Hardy tiresome. If you do too, you might find some relief in this rather unusual project.The "boys" as a two man jazz band. As the foils in a scheme to bilk people using "gas pills," (some of which are still legally sold to suckers today in the US).And third in elaborate disguises to bilk another group of con men out of their unearned rewards. Its this last where the payoff is: two by now tired old men playing their scampy characters, playing film stereotypes: a Texas oilman and a rich spinster.Its not a memorable film experience, but it is likely the best I know of them other than what I think is one of their first film appearances as inmates of an asylum in "Call of the Cuckoo." Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

"Jitterbugs" (20th Century-Fox, 1943) features the comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as themselves who meet up with an enterprising man (Robert Bailey) who has a formula that changes water into gasoline, and later all getting involved with swindlers. The movie is an update remake to an old Fox film, "Arizona to Broadway" (1933) with James Dunn and Joan Bennett, with this comedy given the Laurel and Hardy treatment. I have fond memories of this particular movie mainly because it is the film that introduced me to Stan and Ollie way back when I was a fourth grader in 1969. Since then, I've wanted to see their other movies. I would later be in for a treat when I got to watch the comedies Stan and Ollie did for Hal Roach in the 1930s. It's a pity they didn't get the freedom to be creative at 20th Century-Fox as they were for Roach. "Jitterbugs" co-stars Vivian Blaine, who sings like Fox's own Alice Faye in a deep and throaty manner, but has a personality all her own. A likable screen personality, she adds something to this comedy without being a dull romantic interest supporter. She sings "The Moon Kissed the Mississippi" and "I Gotta See for Myself" (good lively tune). Directed by Malcolm St.Clair, with Douglas Fowley, Lee Patrick and Noel Madison in support. Laurel disguised as "Aunt Emily" and Hardy's Southern gentleman interpretation as "Colonel Bixby" are one of the comedy highlights here. To date this is the only Laurel and Hardy/ 20th-Fox movie to air on American Movie Classics. It premiered on that cable station February 7, 1997. It's nice having it brought back once in a while since it's not, as of this writing, available on video cassette.(**)