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Laurel and Hardy in Night Owls (1930) starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, James Finlayson

Night Owls is a funny short film that has Edgar Kennedy playing the part of an inept police officer, who’s on the verge of being fired by his police chief after a string of 42 unsolved burglaries have happened on his beat in the last week. In order to get back in his chief’s good graces, Kennedy has the idea of staging a robbery of the chief’s house, which Kennedy will interrupt and arrest the ‘robbers’—but where will Kennedy find two fools to play the part of the burglars?

That same night, Kennedy comes upon a pair of vagrants, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, asleep on a park bench—and he coerces them into playing the part of the burglars. The bulk of the film deals with Laurel and Hardy‘s attempt at breaking into the house, over and over ... and over. Although there are some very funny moments—I laughed out loud at the ‘hat fight’ at the beginning of this, and the running joke of Oliver Hardy’s pants getting ripped every time Stan Laurel tries to help him over the wall, this simply takes too long. Someone has said that it would have been twice as funny had it been half as long, and I have to agree.

Laurel and Hardy in 'Night Owls' Having said that, there are some very funny moments here—such as Stan and Ollie pretending to be meowing cats in the backyard, in order to cover up the noise they’ve been making, and having their regular foil, Jimmy Finlayson, throw a slipper out the window at the ‘cats’—only to have Stan throw it back! Rather than stopping to think about how a cat could throw a slipper, Fin throws something else out the window—literally breaking the glass.

Eventually, Stan and Ollie make it into the house, trying to be quiet—and failing miserably, culminating in accidentally turning on the chief’s player piano, and comically trying to turn it off—eventually shoving a bear skin rug into the piano. Eventually, the chief rouses himself out of bed to investigate, just as Stan and Ollie have fled and Officer Kennedy having come in—leaving the chief to wrongly accuse Kennedy of being the burglar!

A funny short film, although not one of their funniest—still recommended viewing.

Trivia for Laurel and Hardy’s Night Owls

The Spanish language version of this film, “Ladrones”, became the very first talkie in Spanish ever shown in Argentina when its exhibitor, Max Glücksmann, presented it in the city of Mar del Plata in February, 1930.
When Laurel and Hardy toured British music halls in the 1950s, Stan Laurel reworked the plot of this short into a stage sketch titled “A Spot of Trouble”.
This was Edgar Kennedy’s final supporting role in a Laurel and Hardy film at the Roach film studio; he would not appear with the team again until Air Raid Wardens, released 13 years later.
It was the first film to use their celebrated theme tune, the ‘ku-ku’ song, written by Marvin Hatley.

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About the Author

Tom Raymond, aka. Raynbow the Clown, is a professional clown working out of Madison, Wisconsin, and is available for ministry events, conventions and conferences.

Posted by Tom Raymond, aka Raynbow on 09/16 at 07:35 PM
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