This was part of a 3-DVD box-set, and this disc came with the other Laurel and Hardy shorts Mud & Sand, Oranges and Lemons, The Tree in a Test Tube and the Three Stooges ones Brideless Groom and Sing a Song of Six Pants; it also came with Malice in the Palace, and the features Atoll K(or Utopia) and Flying Deuces. I don't know if more than one cut of this exists, but my version was about eight and a half minutes. However, the thing itself is really 6 and 35, as the first 120 seconds were dedicated to a text intro about the female lead(and her tragic early death), Laurel taking over for... Toto?, and how this is different from the man's 20's work. Not having watched a lot of what he later made, I can't really say if that's accurate or not. This is a pretty decent effort. The situation is easy to relate to(men wanting to impress an attractive woman), and the gags largely feel natural(it's a restaurant, so of course a few tables are going to get smashed). Among the funniest moments in this are the clever jokes in the "dialog"(written, not spoken... this is silent). The slapstick is inoffensive, the "violence" the cartoon brand, where no one seems to "actually" have gotten hurt. While this is nothing special, it is a fine enough short. I recommend this to any fan of Stan. 6/10
