Berth Marks

I'm a huge fan of Laurel & Hardy but found this to be hard going even though it was only twenty minutes long. It's easy to see that the boys aren't used to - and are uneasy - working with sound, a fact demonstrated by long sequences played out in near total silence. Much of the dialogue between them seems to be improvised and sounds forced and unconvincing.

Added to these problems with sound, the routines involved just aren't funny. The sequence in which the boys struggle to prepare for bed in a cramped sleeping berth on a train seem to go one forever (without raising even the ghost of a smile).

This has to go down as one of their weakest efforts - and that includes the stuff they did for 20th Century Fox in the forties.