Babes in Toyland

I know many people will not watch this for many reasons. The excuses range from "I Hate Black and White Movies", "I Do Not Like Old Movies" ,"I herd this was stupid", "I never Herd of this", and so many others. Well this film is "Dated" but its also part of its charm. This film stars "Laurel and Hardy" and it is a delightful surprise. Think of this film as the inspiration for the "Shrek" films. In this film A woman is about to lose her home. Stannie Dumb (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy), live in a shoe (as in the nursery rhyme There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe), along with Mother Peep (the Old Woman), Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry), a mouse resembling Mickey Mouse (and actually played by a live monkey in a costume), and many other children. The mortgage on the shoe is owned by the villainous Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon), who is looking to marry Bo Peep. Knowing the Widow Peep is having a difficult time paying the mortgage, Barnaby offers the old woman an ultimatum – unless Bo Peep agrees to marry him he will foreclose on the shoe. Widow Peep refuses, but is worried about where she'll get the money to pay the mortgage. Ollie offers her all the money he has stored away in his savings can, only to learn that Stannie has taken it to buy peewees (a favored toy consisting of a wooden peg with tapered ends that rises in the air when struck with a stick near one end and is then caused to fly through the air by being struck again with the stick). He and Stannie set out to get the money for the mortgage from their boss, the Toymaker (William Burress). But Stannie has mixed up an order from Santa Claus (building 100 wooden soldiers at six feet tall, instead of 600 soldiers at one foot tall) and one of the soldiers, when activated, wrecks the toy shop. Stannie and Ollie are fired without getting the money. I don't want to tell too much more but truest me the film is fast paced and its never boring. Give it a try!

source: March of the Wooden Soldiers

Trailer—Babes in Toyland

Babes in Toyland

I saw this movie on the small screen and like the other holiday staple "Wizard of Oz", this became an anticipation during the Thanksgiving Season! It was so much fun to watch, the ingenious way Laurel and Hardy thwarted Barnaby was just the best! Featuring all the nursery rhymes come to life was just spectacular movie magic! It's the best you can see and feel by the incredible Laurel and Hardy at their best!

I have read some of the other comments about this movie and it seems some think it is a childish movie and doesn't do justice to Stan and Ollie. If you ever saw this movie as a youngster, you would not think so. I remember it in black and white back in the sixties and the first time I saw it, it was scary to see the bogeymen and Barnaby's twisted demeanor. I still watch it and I am fifty years old. It almost takes me back to those younger days when life was more simpler and there weren't so many worries. For a little over an hour it is a welcome escape and as far as I am concerned, it is as much a part of Thankgiving as turkey dinner. I can really relate to the toymaker's attitude after years of working and surely we have ALL met enough real life Barnabys and that is what makes the movie still very entertaining and amusing. So I urge you all that while that turkey is cooking to kick back and be a kid again for just a little while.

I am a huge Laurel and Hardy fan, and while this may not be considered one of their great feature length films, I love to get this out for the December holidays. After the rest of the family watches "Wonderful Life", "Scrooge" and the Nutcracker, I pull this out and laugh until I cry. The only link to the holiday is the use of the "March of the Soldiers" music - but that's enough for me. Stan Laurel's ingenious battle tactics just send me into a fit.