"Duck Soup" is an American 20-minute live action short film from 1927, so this one is already over 90 years old. It was directed by Fred Guiol 3 decades before he became and Oscar nominee and the highly prolific H.M. Walker adapted the original material here. But even without Oscar nominations, the real big stars here are Laurel and Hardy in their early years, well relatively early as both are over the age of 30 already too, even if this is such an old film and from their silent movie days. The two don't want to work and are on the run as always pretty much and pose as owners of a big house, which quickly attracts people interested in the house. These other two were really just only there to propel L&H's comedy and sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. Honestly, the comedy here was a bit sub-par to me. Laurel running around in drag = women's clothes did get old pretty quickly and he is much better than this. Also this film lacked the S&O trademark close camera focus recordings on the duo's faces. It gets slightly, but not much better, when at the very end the real owner shows up accompanied by a gun and he sure ain't afraid to use it. Oh and those suitors from early on are back to, to our delight more than to Stan and Ollie's I suppose. The action inside the house comedy-wise throughout the entire film is not bad, but not too good either. This movie has nothing on the famous duo's better let alone best works. The hose escalation at the very end cannot save anything in terms of all the mediocrity before that. Only watch if you are a completionist for the perhaps still today world's most famous comedy duo. There is a reason nobody thinks of these two when hearing the words "Duck Soup", but of another group of comedies that made the much more known full feature film with the same title. It's also not even anywhere near Stan and Ollie's most known. And for good reason. Watch something else instead.
Review of Duck Soup
