Like their previous feature-Pack Up Your Troubles, this one has Laurel & Hardy in a World War I setting, only here while Ollie has gone back to a normal life, Stan is left still guarding his post 20 years after it ended! In the present time, Ollie has been married for a year to the day so he has an hour to go out. That's when he discovers Stan back from his duty at the soldiers home when someone shows his picture in the paper. I'll stop there and just say this was another of their hilarious movies from the late '30s complete with some of their regular supporting cast of James Finlayson and Billy Gilbert as well as some newbies like Minna Gombell and Patricia Ellis, who I just watched in Romance on the Run. I also liked Marvin Hatley's score as I always like his music in the other L & H pictures. So on that note, I highly recommend Block-Heads. P.S. This was Hal Roach's last film under his M-G-M contract before switching to United Artists afterward. He sold his Our Gang shorts series to his former distributor beforehand so this turned out to be one of those players-Tommy Bond's-last appearance for his former boss as he'd join the rest of the gang at his new Culver City neighbor. Also, if you'd read Randy Skretvedt's book, "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies", you probably know about Stan's original ending and his boss Roach vetoing it. Personally, I think I liked Hal's better.
Review of Block-Heads
