Horst_In_Translation Review of Why Girls Love Sailors

Why Girls Love Sailors (1927)

Stan as a blonde curly female, not sure I like it or hate it

[4/10 · 2 March 2019]

"Why Girls Love Sailors" is an American short film from the days of black-and-white silent movies, which is not too surprising as this one is way over 90 years old already now. The director is Fred Guiol long before his Oscar nomination and the writers are Roach and Walker, some known names for sure especially back in the day. But the big stars here are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, even if they do not come in this one the way they usually do. Still, it runs for approximately 20 minutes like most their works. The difference is really that Stan is the lead actor here with by far the most screen time and it seems as if they were trying to build him up like one of the greats Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd etc. The material sure fit that idea. And Hardy? Well, he is there, but really just a supporting character with one scene in the first half early and one early in the second half. The latter he shares with Laurel, but they are far from peers. Hardy plays the first mate on a ship where Laurel is getting busy with his girl when the captain abducts her. The rest of the film is basically Laurel trying to find her and get her back. And it seems pretty unusual how witty he acts to achieve his goal at times. Oh well, you could also say how stupid everybody else acts I suppose. I mean that literally every man on the ship falls for his drag costume? Oh my. Some funny moments result from it, but most of it feels rather unrealistic and for the sake of it. I would say the film started okay, but got a bit worse. Laurel crushing on the girl early on certainly felt pretty cure in my opinion. He pulls off the character in my opinion, but given his talent, this should not surprise anybody. But not even the best actor can really make a weak story like that work and I felt the longer the film went, the worse it became. So my suggestion is to skip it unless you really love Stan and Ollie, who were by the way also already in their mid-30s and late 30s, so far from young, even if this is way before their glory years and career peak. Watch something else instead, even if beardless and scruff-looking Hardy was something else too.