On the Loose (1931)

The girls, tired of being taken to Coney Island by all the local boys, meet up with two Englishmen who offer to take them on a date--to Coney Island.

Director:

Hal Roach

Writers:

Hal Roach (story), H.M. Walker

Stars:

Zasu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Oliver Hardy

Cast

Cast overview:
Zasu Pitts	...	Zasu Pitts
Thelma Todd	...	Thelma Todd
John Loder	...	Mr. Loder
Claud Allister	...	Mr. Loder's Friend
Billy Gilbert	...	Pierre, the Dressmaker (as William Gilbert)

Storyline

The girls, tired of being taken to Coney Island by all the local boys, meet up with two Englishmen who offer to take them on a date--to Coney Island.

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Plot Keywords:

shooting gallery | roller coaster | laurel and hardy

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 December 1931 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hot Dogs

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

20 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows War Mamas (1931)

User Reviews

Long on sight gags, short on laughs

ON THE LOOSE

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white - Short film)

Two young party girls (ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd) are romanced by a couple of clueless Brits (John Loder and Claud Allister) who take them out to their least favorite place on earth - Coney Island - where they suffer a series of adventures and indignities.

Part of an attempt by producer-director Hal Roach to recreate the successful Laurel and Hardy formula with other performers, this lumbering comedy is long on sight gags and short on laughs. Pitts and Todd - neither of them strangers to this kind of material - fail to strike many sparks as a potential 'comedy team', and the scenario is both obvious and heavy-handed. There's a surprising amount of risqué material, much of it revolving around gay stereotypes: Roach regular Billy Gilbert camps it up as an effeminate haute couturier, much embarrassed whenever he tries to describe the manner in which his dresses emphasize various parts of a woman's anatomy (however, a gruff aside to his staff reveals the campery to be a mere façade), and Allister plays his Brit character as a queenish fop, caught up in a running gag which finds him falling repeatedly into the arms of a young woman and her hot-tempered boyfriend, and he's more than happy to accommodate *both* of them! Laurel and Hardy make an unbilled appearance at the very end of the movie, and there's a brief cameo by frequent L&H co-star Charlie Hall.