Opposing the evil Barnaby, Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.
After the events in Them Thar Hills (1934), Stan and Ollie encounter their old nemesis whose grocery shop is next to their home appliances store. Unable to let bygones be bygones, a war breaks out. Will those tit-for-tat battles ever end?
Two sailors on leave, Stanley and Oliver meet two girls at a park and invite them to have a soda. Unfortunately, the boys have only enough money to split theirs, a point which Oliver can't ... See full summary »
Tom the Piper's Son is about to marry Mary Quite Contrary. On the eve of their wedding, evil miser Barnaby hires two henchmen to drown Tom and steal Mary's sheep, cared for by Little Bo ... See full summary »
With the police hot on their trail, Stan and Ollie attempt to change clothes in their getaway car, only to find themselves struggling to balance atop the girders of an unfinished skyscraper. Will they return to ground level in one piece?
Scrooge, the ultimate Victorian miser, hasn't a good word for Christmas, though his impoverished clerk Cratchit and nephew Fred are full of holiday spirit. But in the night, Scrooge is ... See full summary »
Director:
Henry Edwards
Stars:
Seymour Hicks,
Donald Calthrop,
Robert Cochran
When a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing.
Bud and Lou are unemployed actors living in Mr. Fields' boarding house. Lou's girlfriend Hillary lives across the hall. Any premise would lead to slapstick, puns, lots of gimmicks from their movies.
Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe and keep it and Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stanley Dum instead of Bo Peep. Enraged, Barnaby unleashes the bogeymen from their caverns to destroy Toyland.Written by
Paul Penna <tterrace@wco.com>
(main title of re-release version) March of the Wooden Soldiers formerly Babes in Toyland See more »
Alternate Versions
Although the film was fully restored in the 1990s, the title remained "March of the Wooden Soldiers", and did not revert to the original 1934 title, "Babes in Toyland" until the 2006 DVD release by Legend Films (advertised as "March of the Wooden Soldiers" but containing the original title and credits on the film itself). See more »
Marvelous set design almost makes-up for tedious plot and super 1930's-style sentimentality. Not enough Stan and Ollie for my taste, and too many dull musical numbers and much padding with what should have been the lesser characters. The boys seem secondary again, as occured with their several operetta movies. The razor thin story of the lecherous Barnaby trying to steal-away Bo-Peep from the virginal TomTom made me thank-goodness for the fast-forward ability of the DVD format!
The film is really more of a fantasy than a comedy, so don't expect much L & H fun-making. I fail to see the child-like charm of some of the scenes: there are some ugly scenes of equally ugly Bogeymen writhing with pain as they run about with several darts hanging from their bodies, and Barnaby looks like a pervert and molester as he clutches the barely legal(?)screaming BoPeep.
Amazingly, I think the colorized and digitally restored version enhanced the the viewing experience for a film that should have been filmed in color in the first place(I don't praise colorization lightly; normally I despise it).
All these comment come from a big fan of the boys...sorry they were so wasted in some of their later films.
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Marvelous set design almost makes-up for tedious plot and super 1930's-style sentimentality. Not enough Stan and Ollie for my taste, and too many dull musical numbers and much padding with what should have been the lesser characters. The boys seem secondary again, as occured with their several operetta movies. The razor thin story of the lecherous Barnaby trying to steal-away Bo-Peep from the virginal TomTom made me thank-goodness for the fast-forward ability of the DVD format!
The film is really more of a fantasy than a comedy, so don't expect much L & H fun-making. I fail to see the child-like charm of some of the scenes: there are some ugly scenes of equally ugly Bogeymen writhing with pain as they run about with several darts hanging from their bodies, and Barnaby looks like a pervert and molester as he clutches the barely legal(?)screaming BoPeep.
Amazingly, I think the colorized and digitally restored version enhanced the the viewing experience for a film that should have been filmed in color in the first place(I don't praise colorization lightly; normally I despise it).
All these comment come from a big fan of the boys...sorry they were so wasted in some of their later films.