a5c7b9f00b Although they are only janitors at a detective agency, the boys pass themselves offsleuths and are engaged to guard an inventor delivering a new bomb. They outwit enemy agents after the bomb and wind up sinking a Japanese submarine. During World War II Stan and Ollie find themselvesimprobable bodyguards to an eccentric inventor and his strategically important new bomb. always good to see the Boys, in all their &quot;eras&quot;. by the 1940s, it was good to see them but not good to watch them and wait to laugh…and wait. there are very, very few laughs available in their 1941 to 1945 series. the pictures have been dissected by fans and critics alike…yes, it all comes down to: generally, these features are their worst. some happiness found in THE DANCING MASTERS and THE BULLFIGHTERS, two straight ahead comedies, no helping the fiancés, etc.<br/><br/>here we have the very infamous film which probably deserves that bad rep&#39;. it&#39;s mostly revisitations of gags from the &#39;20s and &#39;30s, one is excellent (the &quot;upper berth&quot; routine). one would hope that with a bigger budget this time they could make it even better..but no. no use going down the list of material which doesn&#39;t work eitherreminder of the old days orupdates, if they can be called that.<br/><br/>I say that this picture, on the other hand, should have been their best post-Roach because there are so many chances to get it right. 2 mention just 2, if ya don&#39;t mind my 2-cents: early in the film, L &amp; H are shownt5hird shift office cleaners. a phone call comers thru. Ollie picks up the phone. he tries to speak over Stan&#39;s messing with an unusually loud vacuum cleaner. OK. not bad. gotta be a joke coming up. (?) Ollie agrees to a job for he and his partner. the job is to worksecurity guards (for a very eccentric inventor). sounds good, yes! but…here&#39;s how it&#39;s totally ruined: the vacuum noise means nothing &gt; Ollie CAN understand the caller. PLUS, he and Stan are coincidentally striving to be Detectives. what Roach would have done? Stan&#39;s racket makes the call impossible and so Ollie believes he and Stan are being hiredCleaners, not Security Guards - of a new experimental bomb to be carried carefully by hand all the way to Washington. the humour is killed because Security guards carrying a bomb is not nearlyfunnyMaintenance men carrying a bomb. add this: Bobby Blake, yes Baretta in an early incarnation, is a mischievous little son of weird inventor &gt; does the script call for him to switch the real bomb with the fake one? WELL, NO SPOILER HERE…you get my drift. Another of the infamous &quot;Fox Laurel &amp; Hardy&quot; latter comedies, and in the running for one of the most enjoyable of the bunch in my book. Here, the older but no less amusing duo are hired to guard a bomb christened &quot;The Big Noise&quot; by its zany inventor. Some old tried and true classic funny routines are trotted out and revamped, with generally satisfactory results. Stan and Ollie seem like their old selves again in this, thankfully getting more screen time together.<br/><br/>After enjoying this I just had to post a positive show of support and say that I think it&#39;s vastly underrated. This was echoed on the DVD&#39;s commentary track by author Randy Skretvedt, who actually apologized for trashing it once upon a time in his book entitled LAUREL AND HARDY: THE MAGIC BEHIND THE MOVIES, and now admits that during the &#39;70s and &#39;80s, this was a rough film to see in good quality or in its entirety, and so a lot of critics relied only on memory and reputation. THE BIG NOISE has been one of the most unjustly maligned movies in history (Michael Medved even had the gall to list it among the &quot;Worst Films Ever Made&quot; in his dispensable GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS book). Luckily, the tide is presently turning for the bettermoviegoers and Laurel and Hardy aficionados everywhere are finally giving the movie its due. *** out of ****
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