Smithy

The film begins at a US Army camp just following WWI. Surprisingly, it is NOT a military comedy, though, as he is given his discharge papers--making you wonder why they bothered having the film begin this way at all. Once out, he finds a job doing construction and mostly he spends his time dropping things and making a mess, though I will admit that his ladder routine was interesting. But apart from that the film just doesn't have that many laughs. Fortunately, it ends with a nice sight gag, but other than that it just didn't seem funny compared to his later "Stan and Ollie" days.

While many reviewers have said that Stan Laurel's films without Oliver Hardy were bad, this isn't quite true. Many, like this one, were not especially good but he also made a few very funny films--so don't give up after watching this listless film. Try DR. PYCKLE AND MR. PRYDE--it's a very good Stan Laurel film and is actually better than most Laurel and Hardy films.