Air Raid Wardens

In the small town of Huxton, incompetent business owners Laurel (Stan Laurel) and Hardy (Oliver Hardy) intends to join the war effort. Only non of the military services are willing to accept them. They return home with no jobs and no store. They sign up to be air raid wardens. The boys try very hard but they are also very incompetent.

It's the first of two movies the boys made at MGM. The good news is that they are the stars of the movie. The bad news is that they're not doing their best work. The physical gags are basic and a little slow. The boys need to write some better gags. I still love them and that's why I like this movie. They are sweet and fun and that's what they make this film... even with the Nazis.

In 1940, L&H quit Hal Roach after twelve years of partnership that yielded some of the finest comedies ever made. Their departure for 20th Century Fox was meant to be a step towards more creative control and freedom in the process of making films; alas, the opposite was the case. Their first two films under the new production company showed that L&H should, by Fox's definition, appear in front of the cameras and leave cutting, directing etc. to the professionals. Consequently, these two films were pale shadows of their great Roach-produced companions. Desperately, L&H sought a newer rainbow at MGM but were to be disappointed again. Even the best scenes in this film, "Air Raid Wardens", like two tit-for-tat sequences with their old colleague Edgar "Slowburn" Kennedy, lacked the spontaneous and improvised look of similar scenes´in, say, "Bacon Grabbers". Likewise, other slapstick moments in ARW like a poster-hanging bit have a rather mechanical look and are destroyed by poor editing. Yes, Stan's creative genius was sadly missing behind the camera.

Furthermore, the whole patriotic atmosphere of the plot doesn't fit L&H's style one bit.

And still this excuse for a comedy, although far, far from features like "Way Out West" or "Sons Of The Desert", emerges as one of the better post-Roach films after all; firstly, in contrast to most of the other later films, the romantic subplot is pretty much in the background and Stan & Ollie remain the main attraction. Secondly, there are at least a few scenes which REMIND you of L&H's better days; there are no such scenes to be found in "A-Haunting We Will Go" or "Nothing But Trouble", for example.

So "Air Raid Wardens" is hardly a pain to sit through but is so vastly inferior to their Roach films that you regret once more that they left him for good in 1940.

This movie is a tome to all that is World War II, Real Patriotism, and of course our guys Laurel and Hardy........ The boys are grand, and whereas others may think that it was too "Deep" or not enough slapstick, I believe it shows the depth of skill that Stan and Ollie have. I must confess, I was a bit taken aback when seeing this the first time by Stanly's speech to the board of the Air Raid Wardens.... ,... between Stan's speech and Ollie's amazingly silent expressions,... I literally wept! I was simply stunned by the boys dramatic acting abilities... I recall Ollie as a bad guy in some silents, before Stan, and of course Stan also, but never had a clue as to the extent of their talent.

I have loved Stan and Ollie for years (I am actually a cousin of Rosina Lawrence..."mary roberts" in way out west) and I was in personal contact with John McCabe before his death... (I am from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and just a few miles from Mackinac Island where John resided).

I know of what I speak, and I say IF YOU ARE A STAN AND OLLIE FAN WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!

Yes, this is pretty anemic L & H, but as their '40s films go, I put it third behind THE BULLFIGHTERS and JITTERBUGS as their most tolerable (the fourth, THE BIG NOISE, has one of the best L & H fadeouts ever, but that's another entry).

Anyway, AIR WARDENS manages to eke out some effective comedic bits, especially some unexpectedly impressive pratfalls from an aging Laurel. The war time trappings can get tiresome, but at least there's neat payoff with one sight gag near the end. Edgar Kennedy is a big plus in this film, and though its flaws are many (why no background music?),it's hardly a catastrophe. That's a backhanded compliment, but I think accurate enough!

I tend to repeat this in all my reviews of the final eight 1940s films featuring the legendary comedy team of Laurel and Hardy, but the six pictures they made for 20th Century-Fox were generally underrated; the real sour lemons of all the latter-day Stan and Ollie movies from their twilight years were actually the two which were made by MGM --- the insufferable NOTHING BUT TROUBLE (1944), and then this one - AIR RAID WARDENS (1943). Here, Laurel and Hardy want desperately to aid the U.S.A. by contributing to the war effort, but nobody will have them. No matter what they attempt to accomplish, they keep putting their feet in everything and turn up mostly disastrous results. At least Edgar Kennedy is present this time as a good foil for L&H, and there are some funny spots now and then, but you can tell that this picture has more of a wholesome whitewash to it and doesn't really "feel" like a Laurel and Hardy comedy. It's at least average Stan and Ollie, though; and that's more than can be said for the film which was to follow. ** out of ****