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Pack Up Your Troubles (1932) starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Billy Gilbert

Pack Up Your Trouble, Laurel and Hardy‘s second feature-length film, is set in the days of World War I. The film is broken into 3 major sections—first, prior to the war, where in a very funny segment Oliver Hardy, despite his protests to the contrary, tries to avoid military service by pretending that he and Stan Laurel are amputees. Stan accidentally reveals the truth in a very funny routine, and the boys are soon in the Army. The second part of the movie deals with their time in the Army, where much of the movie takes place. Laurel and Hardy are as inept in the Army as anywhere else, and are soon on KP (kitchen police) duty, where they ask the cook where to take the garbage—“Take it to the General!” is the response, and Stan and Ollie obediently do just that, delivering the garbage to the General, played by James Finlayson. The chef gets in trouble for telling the boys what to do, and he swears revenge on them. Soon the boys are off to the battlefield, where an extended scene of Laurel and Hardy as doughboys is one of the funniest bits in the movie, with them sleeping in nightgowns and nightcaps, emptying out a hot water bottle filled with tea into the face of their superior officer, etc. It’s while there that they make friends with Eddie Smith, whose wife has died, and is estranged from his parents since they didn’t approve of the marriage. Shortly after a slapstick scene involving Stanley driving a tank while poor Oliver is left clinging to the outside, the war ends and the boys return to the United States of America.

Sadly, their friend Eddie has died, and they go to collect Eddie’s daughter from the cruel couple that’s been taking care of her, in a scene straight out of Les Miserables. There’s a very funny scene where Stan and Ollie are trying to rescue the little girl, only to get into a slapstick fight with the cruel man (and some neighborhood toughs). With Stanley’s creative use of a teapot, however, they succeed in rescuing the little girl, and embark on the third part of the movie—trying to reunite the little girl with her grandparents, which is a larger problem than it should be, since all they know is the family name, Smith; and there are a lot of “Smiths” in New York City!

The final part of the movie has the boys, in a series of vignettes, looking for the right “Smith” family—one of the extended scenes has Stanley, putting the adorable little girl to bed, only she tells the story and puts Stan to sleep! Another extended bit has them using the phone book to find Smiths, and go to an address, where a ‘Smith’ used to live—but unknown to Laurel and Hardy, a different family is living there now, where the son, Eddie, is preparing to get married, until the boys arrive with “Eddie’s daughter”. This leads to several slapstick moments, until the father of the family, played by Billy Gilbert, realizes what’s happening, and retrieves his rifle!

The boys run afoul of a mean-spirited Child Protection Services worker ("How much would you charge me to haunt a house?") and decide to get a loan from the bank to finance their moving out of town until things quiet down. They go to a bank, where the bank president, after realizing that their “restaurant empire” consists of a single hot lunch wagon, turns down their loan—but in a far-fetched coincidence, the boys get the money anyway. Later, they are captured by the police while trying to get away with the little girl, and taken to the home of the bank president, in order for him to make a positive identification. Thankfully, the bank president turns out to be Eddie’s father, and he and his wife are delighted to invite the little girl (and Stan and Ollie) to stay with them. All seems to be leading towards a happy ending, until the family cook comes out—and it’s the same army chef that Stan and Ollie got in trouble with their General during the war, and the film ends with him chasing the pair off-screen.

In all, Pack Up Your Troubles is a funny Laurel and Hardy movie, perhaps not in their top tier of movies, but decidedly in their second. It’s a very funny movie, although some of the scenes with the little girl seem to rely on the ‘cute factor’ a little too much. I rate it 4 clowns out of 5.

Funny movie quotes from Laurel and Hardy’s Pack Up Your Troubles

Oliver (Oliver Hardy): Well, looks like we’re in it. Gee, I wish I could go.
Stan (Stan Laurel): Go where?
Oliver (Oliver Hardy): Why to war!
Stan (Stan Laurel): Why can’t ya go?
Oliver (Oliver Hardy): There you are, I knew you’d take that selfish attitude. I’d go in a minute if it wasn’t for my flat feet!

Oliver (Oliver Hardy): What do we do with this stuff?
Cook: What do you think you do with it? Take it to the General.

Oliver (Oliver Hardy): This is your son’s baby.
Eddie “Steamboat”: Oh, blackmailers, huh?
[punches Ollie in the face]

Oliver (Oliver Hardy): Hey, how much would you charge me to haunt a house?

Oliver (Oliver Hardy): Why didn’t you tell me it was you?
Stan (Stan Laurel): It was so dark, I didn’t think you would hear me.

[last lines]
Cook: Well… if it ain’t the snitchers.
[bends knife back causing it to make sound effect]
Cook: I’ve got my knife.
[chases Laurel & Hardy off-screen]

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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 03/06 at 09:33 PM
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