Scram!

source: Scram!

Continuing on with my Laurel and Hardy marathon, I have now come to the 1932 short film "Scram!", and I don't think I've actually ever seen that one before. However, I will say that of all the Laurel and Hardy movies I've seen so far, this was by far the weakest and most boring of movies. The storyline here was just somewhat of a swing and a miss in terms of providing me with entertainment and laughs. It was perhaps because there was a more of a serious tone to the storyline, thus forcing the comedy somewhat in the background. It should be noted, however, that the acting was good and the comedy was good, as it always was with Laurel and Hardy. But the storyline just didn't fall into my particular taste all that well. Sure, "Scram!" was watchable, don't get me wrong. And I am sure that diehard fans of the comedy duo will enjoy this particular short film. My rating of "Scram!" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

That is William Everson's comment on "Scram!" from his book "The Films of Laurel and Hardy," and after watching this, I concur. Plot In a Nutshell: Two vagrants (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) are ordered to leave town, but through a series of mishaps, by the film's end wind up not only in the judge's house, but in his pajamas and in his bed, with his wife! Why I rated it a '6': I have to admit that actually sounds funny. But this is a 20-minute film and that scene described above only comes at the very end. What we get before that is pretty routine. The low-light is a rehash of a bit L&H already used in "Night Owls," where they have considerable difficulty climbing through a window, finally get into a house, only to lock themselves out the front door. Been there, done that, guys. There is also a scene where a drunk man transfers his jug of alcohol to an empty pitcher, and of course that pitcher of firewater will play a role later in the film. But why transfer the alcohol at all? It's more transportable in the jug. So that's somewhat contrived. There are a few laughs when L&H (and the drunk guy) run into a beat cop, and the best scene of the film is surely at the end, when the judge comes home to find the mess described above. His facial expressions at seeing his wife, drunk in bed, with the very vagrants he ordered out of town, are truly funny. But it took a long time with considerable stretches of pretty mundane stuff to get there, unfortunately. So, better than average. But not much more. 6/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Only in parts. Definitely the last scene when the judge comes home. Other parts I'd skip.

. . . drink as a skink well before SCRAM! concludes. The reason for her lapse is that a drunken stranger has wandered into her mansion briefly, emptied the downstairs water pitcher onto a potted plant, refilled it with a half gallon of Vodka and left the booze on a night stand near her bed. After chugging a few cups of this fire "water," Mrs. B. gets as stoned as a cheating Afghani wife. Though it's the height of Prohibition, no one explains WHY a notorious anti-liquor justice would have a stock of high-end hooch in his front parlor to begin with.

What I especially like about this L&H short is that the comedy depends on events that are rather different from their usual menagerie of slapstick, pratfalls, verbal humor, etc........It starts with the boys in court, being admonished by the judge(played by Richard Cramer), for being vagrants, sleeping on park benches. He would like to give them 6 months in the slammer, but the jail is full. So, he gives them 1 hr. to get out of town(or else ?). Unfortunately, the boys don't get out of town, and, ironically, are destined to meet up with the judge that evening, under very compromising conditions : They're cavorting with the judge's wife, while all were in bed clothes in the judge's house, all inebriated from the 'water' in the water pitcher. Certainly a riskay scene. . I dare say they couldn't have gotten away with some parts of the scene a few years later, and the film was banned in the Netherlands for this scene. First, in the wife's bedroom, they all laugh themselves silly, which hopefully induces the audience to join in. Then, the wife wants to dance with them, turning on the player piano. But, it turns out to be more like wrestling, as the boys are reluctant to dance with her. Eventually, they are 'wrestling' on the floor. The judge arrives home and is not pleased with what he sees and hears. The boys are scared to death, and Stan flips the light switch. We hear crashes and screams, as the film ends........... So, how did the boys manage to end up in the judge's house, cavorting with his wife? When the boys exited from the court house, they encountered a falling down drunk(Arthur Houseman), who complained he dropped his car key. The boys spy it under the grating, and offer to help. Stan puts s piece of chewed gum on the end of his umbrella, and pushes his umbrella through the grating(Must have been extraordinarily skinny.) He catches the key, but the umbrella keeps opening when it touches the grating. So, Ollie manages to lift the grating to get at the end of the umbrella. Unfortunately, he falls in this now much deeper pit below the grating(?). In a running gag, Stan and the drunk conk heads and fall into the hole together. Ollie sees a policeman coming, and replaces the grating. when the cop walks by, the drunk gives out a raspberry. The cop assumes it came from Ollie, and gives him a rap, before turning around. The drunk utters another raspberry.. This time, Ollie runs around the block, with the cop chasing. Meanwhile, Stan and the drunk have managed to push the grating away, and are standing on the sidewalk. The cop falls into the grating hole, and the men get into the drunk's car, he having invited them to spend the night in his house, since it's raining a bit. The drunk drives((heaven forbid!) to a house he claims is his, but it's not. He wants to unlock the front door, but can't find his key. So, the boys try to reach a slightly open window. They make it. Meanwhile, the drunk has fallen against the door, and it opens! The drunk tells the boys to go upstairs and make themselves comfortable. Eventually, he goes upstairs too, and pours some of his gin into the water pitcher, after he pours out the water. Then, he encounters the butler, who awoke from some noise. The butler tells him he must be in the wrong house. So, the goes downstairs and we don't see him again. Meanwhile, the wife also is awakened, and the boys come out of their room for some reason. She screams and faints. The boys try to revive her with some of the 'water'. She invites them into her room, as company, until her husband comes home. I've already related the rest of the screenplay.........See it at YouTube.

Released in 1932, "Scram" is 20 minutes of comedy joy! This time, Stan and Ollie are two vagrants who are ordered to leave town with immediate effect by a particularly harsh judge. After the court ruling, the boys befriend a drunk who invites them to his house to take shelter from the pouring rain. What Stan and Ollie don't realise, is that they have been invited into the wrong house! The dialogue and pace are both great. My favourite scene is when Laurel and Hardy share a laugh with the lady of the house. My goodness, I think Laurel's laugh must have the highest pitch of any man I have heard!

LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. An angry judge orders vagrants Stan & Ollie to `SCRAM!' or they'll be locked-up. Before they can obey, a good deed performed for an inebriated millionaire precipitates the Boys into a crazy series of misunderstandings. A hilarious little film. Highlight: the wild romp with the lady of the house. That's Richard Cramer as His Honor; Arthur Housman as the drunk; and Vivien Oakland portrays the lady.

I guess there is an undercurrent as to why we glorify alcoholism. I would be the last person to accept this as routine, based on family history. Nevertheless, one may also ask why a person, down on his or her luck, is being thrown out of a town for simply trying to find a place to sleep? Our boys find themselves in a predicament. The scenes of drunkenness are part of a series of events they get into after running into a man who has a serious drinking problem. They do him a favor and he invites them to his house. Once there, they display their comic genius. Of course, we come to realize that they are in the wrong house; the drunk has taken them to the wrong place. And, like the Dean in "A Chump at Oxford," they are in serious trouble.

Scram! (1932) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Since the jail is too full a judge orders Laurel and Hardy to get out of town within a hour. Outside the courthouse they help a drunk man who then offers to let them spend the night with him but the drunk takes them to the wrong house. Plenty a gags from start to finish in this very good short. The highlights include trying to get a key from a drain and the terrific ending where L&H get drunk with another man's wife. Saps at Sea (1940) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Terrific Laurel and Hardy feature has Hardy suffering a nervous breakdown so Laurel suggests they go to the sea for peace of quiet. This doesn't work as planned but things get worse when an escaped killer kidnaps them. Clocking in at just around 57-minutes this here basically plays out as two shorts with the first half taking place at home and the second half at sea. The first half is a lot funnier but the ending is among the funniest stuff I've seen from any L&H film.

The Laurel and Hardy short Scram! feels less like a new skit from the lovable and timeless comedy duo but a highlight reel of their most famous moments from all of their shorts. This particular short is packed with all the zaniness you can predict going into a Laurel and Hardy film, from repeated stumbles, difficulty getting sneaking into places, and a seriously deranged mix-up serving as the cherry on the sundae. Scram! opens with Laurel and Hardy being ordered out of town by a judge after finding them sleeping on a park bench. In the process of leaving town, they run into a congenial drunk (Arthur Housman, who plays a wildly convincing drunk) who invites them back to his home to spend the night after they retrieved his key when it fell into a sewer. Despite being incoherent, the man manages to drive the two of them to the home of Mrs. Beaumont (Vivien Oakland), mistaking it for his own home. While the drunk mindlessly stands outside searching for the key to his home, Laurel and Hardy barge in through the window, being greeted with Mrs. Beaumont and proceeding to get drunk themselves when they inform her they know her husband, who happens to really be someone Laurel and Hardy have already found themselves acquainted with. Scram! is all too familiar for a dedicated Laurel and Hardy fan, especially one who has seen their admittedly short range of physical comedy. All the aforementioned tropes make an appearance here or there, and their geniality could easily be mistaken for genuine humor. The moral of this particular short is just because you recognize the sight-gag or the ploy doesn't mean it's necessarily funny. If anything, the funniest part of the film is how much it got away with in 1932: drunk driving, breaking and entering, philandering, and two men in the same bed with one woman. Did the Motion Picture Association of America fall asleep when looking over the contents of the film making sure it was in line with the Hays Code? Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Arthur Housman, Vivien Oakland, and Richard Cramer. Directed by: Ray McCarey.