A Chump at Oxford

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source: A Chump at Oxford

Stan Laurel is the number one star in this Laurel and Hardy entry from producer, Hal Roach. Not only is Laurel the instigator of the plot, and not only does he have a champion share of the funny business in the hilariously daffy three-handed jape with the "ghost", but for the first of only two occasions in his entire sound career, he essays a character role. And he plays this one most effectively too! (The other occasion was his Don Sebastion in 1945's The Bullfighters). Lord Paddington is no mere impersonation, but a complete reversal of Laurel's customary character. Speaking in a splendidly snooty, upper-crust accent, Paddington puts the maladroit Hardy through some marvelous paces. Even his dialogue is urbanely droll and keenly condescending. He argues, for example, that Hardy's ineptitudes "break the monotony" and that Babe "helps fill up the room, you know." There was never a funnier or more perfectly attuned team than Laurel and Hardy. Even when the situation is more piquant than usual, both can rise to the occasion. For personality, charisma and sheer vitality, they leave all the other twosomes far behind. I can never forget Paddington instructing Fatty in the proper deportment of a valet: "Lift up that chin! Both of them!"; and Babe's final, wildly exasperated response: "And another thing: I didn't like that double chin crack either!" Now that's acting!

This is Stan Laurel's show all the way, sure enough Ollie plays his part, but in this double package it's the genius of Laurel that comes to the fore. The double package in question is the now widely available European release of this film, the first 20 minutes sees the boys making their way to an employment agency where they jump at the chance of a job as maid and butler to the Vandevere family. Yes, this sees Stan dress up as a woman {Agnes} with hilarious results, not only does he buffoon his way thru serving dinner, he gets drunk into the bargain as well !. After being chased off the property by Mr Vandevere, the guys end up road sweeping and whilst taking a break they inadvertently foil a bank robbery and as a reward they get to fulfil their wish of a better education. This sends the guys to England and a place at Oxford, the fun starts straight away as they are dressed for Eton !, upon seeing that these two are candidates for pranks being played on them, some of their fellow students send them into a big maze on the bluff that it's the way to the Deans office. This sets us up for a number of great sequences, most notably a brilliant set of events that sees Stan with three hands, from here we see the boys set up {as a prank} in the Deans own quarters and this of course causes much mirth when the Dean shows up to find the guys boozing away in his bedroom. Roll onto Stan banging his head and suddenly being transformed into an aristocrat called Lord Paddington and you just know that Laurel is getting a pure mania role to get his teeth into, the results are excellent, especially as Stan gets to boss Ollie around. One of the best films the boys ever did in my honest opinion, 9/10.

I remember watching this on BBC2 when I was about 8 years old and finding it hysterical. So, much to my pleasure, Universal has released it on DVD (Region 2 only) along with many other Laurel and Hardy movies. I chose to watch the black and white version as that is how I originally saw it. There is an extended opening featuring a remake of 1928's 'From Soup to Nuts' short in which Stan and Ollie cause havoc at a swanky dinner party before being employed as street sweepers. During their sweeping lunch break they inadvertently foil a bank robbery and as a reward they are sent to Oxford for a good education, perhaps finally getting them out of the gutter. Once there, the students (including a young Peter Cushing) play all sorts of pranks on them and Stan loses (or restores) his memory when he is hit on the back of the head. Now he's Lord Paddington (I must add he does brilliantly with the accent) and he gives Ollie some amount of grief for his weight. Very funny indeed, I suggest you check it out whenever it comes on TV.

In A Chump at Oxford the duo dream of gaining a good education as a means to escape from the string of dead end, boring jobs by which they have been consistently exploited for a measly pay cheque which no doubt gives them just enough money to 'get by' on. Having only enough money to get by on means that the duo are denied the best education. Then by chance the duo inadvertently foil a bank robbery and are duly rewarded with that elitist education they were dreaming of, but otherwise couldn't afford from a grateful bank president. For the duo to obtain this elitist education the grateful bank president sends them to Oxford University in England which is then exposed for its upper class haughtiness via Laural and Hardy's enrolment at this ancient medieval institute of higher education, which has been dominated for centuries by upper class nitwits who think an elitist education here is their right alone, because they have the correct breeding. This means that those people such as Laural and Hardy are viewed by the traditional Oxford student with disdain, because they are among the common 'new rich' who have no breeding, and who have merely bought their way to Oxford with so called 'new money' which is viewed by them as vulgar. So, the traditional elitist students' endeavour to evict the common pair that is Laural and Hardy from Oxford by way of student pranks, which are in fact a form of bullying . However, it is because Laurel and Hardy may well have the brains, - but lack the education - that they actually win through by seeing how institutes of learning, such as Oxford University are ensuring that higher education remains in the hands of the ancient upper classes, and escape it by heading back to the USA!

I saw this movie several times as a child and only recently I saw it again. I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the movie and this surprised me, as this was completed as the pair's career was heading downhill. Shortly after making this movie, then Saps at Sea, they made the mistake of signing with 20th Century Fox and made a string of completely forgettable and unfortunate comedies (they simply deserved better material). The story is a takeoff on the MGM film A YANK AT OXFORD and so much of it parodies this film. Stan and Ollie accidentally help a rich guy and are rewarded by receiving an all expense paid admission to Oxford! Talk about being in the wrong element! The movie then moves at a very leisurely pace in their adventures trying to fit in to this fancy-schmancy school. It's not the best they did, but a nice well-worth seeing picture nonetheless. Another decent movie they did in this same period is Blockheads--it's well worth a look as well.

Before this, I've elephant fly and monkeys explaining the Theorem of Pythagoras but that all is nothing compared to seeing Peter Cushing in a Laurel & Hardy movie. This is a good and fair, late effort from the boys, who already clearly had their best years behind them. This movie still reminded me at times of some of the good old Laurel & Hardy pictures from the early '30's. But there also lays a problem; the movie its originality. In multiple movies Laurel & Hardy reused some jokes or even situations but the fact that this movie is from 1940, multiple years after their glory years, leaves an even worse aftertaste. Nevertheless it as always still works effective so it's not really a big complaint about this movie, at least not the biggest. Basically the movie can be divided into three separate parts. The boys trying to get a job, the boys getting a job at the Finlayson residence and the boys at Oxford. Perhaps if the movie really was divided into three separate parts, each of them would work out better. As a whole its a bit too much. Each part is really great on their own and provides some good slapstick entertainment but as a whole it doesn't always connect. This is the biggest problem of the movie and the reason why it's nothing more than an above average Laurel & Hardy movie, despite having some great comical premises and situations. The sequences at the Finlayson residence are certainly the most 'Laurel & Hardy' ones, also of course thanks to the presence of James Finlayson. It's in the middle of the movie but in my opinion it's the best part of the movie. It's not really ever a good sign when the middle is better than the ending. The end part at Oxford is also most definitely good and enjoyable but the humor is a bit stretched out at times. Some sequences last too long, which sorts of drags down the amusement level of the movie with it. Nevertheless those parts still provide some good amusing entertainment, with a couple of fellow student who are giving the dumb and naive Laurel & Hardy a hard time. One of the students giving the boys a hard time is Peter Cushing, in one of his very first movie roles. Definitely worth seeing but a bit too stretched thin and disjointed at certain moments. 7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

For the only time in their joint careers as a comic team, Stan Laurel slips out of character and into another guise. That's an integral part of A Chump At Oxford where the boys get a chance at the best kind of college education. No doubt that Hal Roach got the idea for this film from the highly successful MGM film A Yank At Oxford where Robert Taylor was an American fish out of the water across the pond. Of course Taylor was there on a rowing scholarship, what brought Stan and Ollie there was something quite different. On the jacket cover of my VHS copy of A Chump At Oxford, Hal Roach had a featurette film of about 40 minutes and decided to add on those extra 25 minutes at the beginning where Stan and Ollie are first serving as butler and maid as temporary help at a society bash. I did say maid because that was what the job required. It was Ollie's bright idea to put Stan in drag as a maid to get the job. Well, it worked for Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Anyway the highlight of that part of the film is Stan merely following orders to the letter and serving the salad undressed. It was an interesting end to that little bash. Their next job is as street cleaners and while sitting down just having their lunch in the doorway of a bank, they foil a bank robbery and in gratitude the bank president asks them what they want. Since right before the two had concluded their lack of education has held them back, they ask for an education. The bank president must have been David Rockefeller because he buys them an Oxford education. That's where Stan discovers that he's really Lord Paddington who got hit on the head several years ago and lost his memory. It turns out that Stan was the greatest scholar and athlete Oxford ever produced. And for a while Ollie is completely frazzled at the prospect of becoming Stan's lackey. Stan does go into an entirely different character than the sweet innocent we all know and love. Because of that A Chump At Oxford ranks among the best of their feature films. Ollie contributes his share as well, we've never seen Ollie before or since flumoxed the way he is in this film. A must for Laurel and Hardy fans.

I'm not a huge L&H fan, but I found this film very enjoyable. As others have pointed out, CHUMP was originally a 45-minute film, but European distributors demanded at least a full hour for features. You'll spot the REAL beginning of the movie about 20 minutes in, when Stan & Ollie appear as street cleaners. The rest of the opener, beginning with some funny business on various modes of transportation, was tacked on later. Although the maid/butler scene has some laughs, it's the kind of thing that the Three Stooges did with a lot more manic energy (and more often). The real film begins when Stan and Ollie receive scholarships to Oxford and arrive in England, where the native students decide to pick on them as much as possible. There's not much in the film about what students REALLY do at Oxford, but that's OK. An extended scene in a maze ends with a nicely-choreographed sequence in which a "third hand" from behind the bushes causes havoc with the boys. (Just think of how much rehearsal must have gone into that business to make it look natural.) And the crowning glory of this movie is Stan's brief transformation from his usual vacuous simpleton into a posh English lord, who makes "Fatty" his personal valet. All in all, a jolly good way to spend an hour.