The Fixer Uppers (1935) User Reviews

Another bizarre good one from the kings of comedy! *SPOILERS*

[naseby · 8/10 · 31 July 2008]

Being greetings cards sellers wouldn't normally end up in a duel to the death in the old European style, but what with Stan and Ollie and a neglected lady seeking attention from her stuffy French artisan husband - well, that's the making of a 20-odd minute short in Laurel and Hardy form! Some people aren't pleased with their shorts, and of course, we know that some are awful, but cramming in bizarre story lines and plot into this time-factor on screen isn't easy and when it's a hit and not a miss, it's a real treat as this story is.

The neglected lady, the great Mae Busch, employs the boys' help for $50. To do what? To make her husband jealous by pretending to kiss Ollie. On seeing this, naturally, her husband Pierre (Charles Middleton) explodes. "Oh, Pierre, now I know you love me!" exclaims Busch in glee, but that's not had the desired effect for Pierre who challenges Ollie to a duel, discarding Busch's explanation that it was a stunt to regain his affections for her. The two 'exchange cards' as protocol demands for a duel (it seems!) (Though Stan and Ollie haven't got a card and hand Pierre one of their greetings cards!).

After having a word with Stan in a bar, that all he has to do is disappear, Ollie decides to do just that. "How's he going to find you," remarks Stan, "he hasn't got the address!" He 'phones Pierre, tells him he's going to duck out of it, leaving Pierre to threaten he'll hunt him down at all costs.

The excellent Arthur (the drunk) Housman coaxes the boys into buying him more drinks after being barred, leaving them drunk too and being turfed out by he police. Only snag is, Ollie has Pierre's 'card' in his pocket and as the boys are comatose after the drinking session, they are dumped at Pierre's apartment and into bed by the police! Ms Busch is oblivious to this (somehow in true movie-land style!) up to the point where her 'searching' husband walks back in. She manages to persuade Pierre to turn it in, and, Ollie to his horror, awakes to find he's in the apartment! Stan hasn't wakened yet but at this precise moment snores, leaving Ollie to try and stifle him with a bizarre noise coming from Stan! Pierre was humbled but now that's blown out of the water because of this.

The duel begins, Mae Busch though, whispers to Ollie whilst Pierre is 'prepping', that she's loaded blanks into Pierre's gun, so when Pierre 'shoots' Ollie he should feign death and make his escape. This then happens with Ollie giving Pierre plenty of 'relish' in dying - overacting (within the plot) twitching nerves and all. Pierre then searches the kitchen for knives stating he's going to cut up Ollie's body and dispose of it, leaving the boys to run out, much to a surprised Pierre seeing Ollie alive.

Ollie's hid in a bin/trashcan, Stan strides up to the bin, stating in British cockney style: "You can come out now, he's 'gorn'!" Only Ollie's not there, he's been 'collected' by the dustcart, woefully looking out at Stan! A good one from the duo, paced correctly to its finale!

The Fixers Uppers is a pretty funny Laurel and Hardy holiday comedy short

[tavm · 7/10 · 21 December 2008]

This is one Laurel and Hardy short that I found even remotely relates to Christmas since the boys here are selling Christmas cards. One of their potential customers is a woman who's trying to make her husband jealous so she won't feel neglected. Stan makes a suggestion and all hell breaks loose! That's all I'll say except that while the subject matter is a little outside of L & H territory, there's still some good laughs, both verbal and visual, that kept me satisfied. And the supporting cast of Charles Middlton, and especially, Mae Busch and that frequently drunk Arthur Housman are in fine form here. So on that note, I highly recommend The Fixer Uppers for Laurel and Hardy fans everywhere.

Fine comedy from Laurel & Hardy's heyday

[Libretio · 6/10 · 19 February 2005]

THE FIXER UPPERS

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white - Short film)

Stan 'n' Ollie are hired to 'seduce' a desperate housewife (Mae Busch) who wants to inspire a jealous reaction from her uncaring husband (Charles Middleton). However, the plan backfires when Middleton determines to take deadly revenge against these 'home-wreckers'...

Lively stuff from L&H's glory days, a reworking of their silent short SLIPPING WIVES (1927), played to the hilt by a note-perfect cast, and constructed with just the right amount of tact and discretion by director Charles Rogers. A formidable presence in so many films of the era, Middleton - later to star as 'Emperor Ming' in the "Flash Gordon" serials - plays the villain with deadly seriousness (complete with silent movie mannerisms and exaggerated indignation), which renders proceedings all the more amusing, while L&H blunder their way into trouble at every turn. Watch out for the memorable diner sequence, which includes Stan's famous response to a ringing telephone.

Quite enjoyable short that starts poorly but gets better

[bob the moo · 16 July 2003]

Laurel and Hardy are door to door greeting card salesmen. They happen across a wife who believes her husband no longer loves her. The duo come up with the suggestion that one of them pretend to make love to her when the husband is due home – if he acts jealous then she will know he loves her. However when the man comes home to find Hardy kissing his wife he, the best shot in the land, challenges Hardy to a duel that is harder to get out of than Hardy expects.

An enjoyable short that allows Laurel and Hardy to do good physical work as well as their verbal banter. The card sales pitches they do are simply `wacky' and display a nice touch of the absurd (the 4-in-1 card that covers all seasons!). I was a bit taken a back by hearing Laurel offer to `make love' to the woman – but it is a different time and meant kiss etc. The build up to the duel is more verbal humour than physical and is funnier for it.

Laurel's confused story telling is good value and Hardy's reactions are pure gold. The support cast are all pretty good – whether it be the comedy drunk, the upset wife or the vengeful husband, they all play their part and enable Laurel and Hardy to bounce off them with ease.

Overall this is a very enjoyable short that allows the duo to play down the pratfalls and play up the verbal and performance comedy.

One Of The Lesser Shorts

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 19 April 2004]

Sorry if I`m hurting anyone`s feelings but this is one of the weakest of the L&H shorts . My problem with it is not so much a threadbare plot but the set-up and the coincidence of the husband arriving home at that precise point . Like science fiction comedy relies on sincere credibilty for it to work and sincere credibilty is in short supply when Stan and Ollie sit in a bar when they should be getting the first train out of town . Wouldn`t you in the same circumstance ? And the flaws in the script aren`t helped by the very stagey performances of the supporting cast .

That said both Stan and Ollie greatly rise above the material on display and do give very good slapstick performances with the telephone scene and the duel working simply because L&H have the greatest chemistry of any comedy duo that have ever lived . Even when the scripts aren`t very good Stan and Ollie can still bring a grin to my face

Six out of ten

Ollie pretends to be Mae's illicit flame, to make her husband jealous

[weezeralfalfa · 6/10 · 15 November 2018]

This L&H comedy short may be seen at YouTube, where both the original B&W, and the colorized versions are present. Unlike the colorized versions of some shorts, this one is in reasonable focus.........To me, this is a very atypical L&H comedy. There is virtually no slapstick component, and only a little verbal humor, mostly by Stan, when he tries to tell a relevant story 3 times, each time garbling it more. The last time, it was so garbled that Mae Busch, as Madame Gustave, kicked him in the rear, and left. The film's humor rets mainly on its situation comedy., in which Ollie plays a phony illicit lover of Mae, so as to make her husband(Pierre) jealous, and pay more attention to her, like he did in their early marriage. The only problem is that Ollie makes it look too convincing, thus making her husband so jealous that he challenges Ollie to a formal duel, using pistols, of which he is an expert marksman, to be held at midnight. The second part of the situation comedy is that thanks to Stan's recommendation, Ollie plans on skipping this date, on the assumption that Pierre will not be able to find him, since he knows neither his name nor address. However, fate will prove him wrong. The boys drink beer at a café(this being France), talking things over. In comes the habitual falling down drunk, played by Arthur Housman, to whom they sold some Christmas cards. He asks the bartender for a whiskey, but he wont give him one because of his condition. So, he sits down with the boys and asks them to order a whiskey for him. The bartender overhears this, but we don't find out what he does about it. Did he give the boys a whisky, with the stipulation that Housman was not to have any, in witch case, they presumably drank it themselves? Whatever the case, 6 hr. later, they were still there, both unconscious. Housman was there, not looking terribly drunk. Police carried them to their presumed address, as they found this name and address on their person, with no other ID. Actually, it was a business card given to them by Pierre. Somehow, the police entered the house even though no one was home. The placed the still unconscious bodies on a fancy bed, and left. Soon, Mae, followed by Pierre came home. Of course, Pierre was horrified to see them sleeping on his bed. He roused Ollie, to take part in the duel, despite his inebriated condition. Mae whispered that she had taken out the bullets and put blanks in,. Thus, Ollie should present to die(without blood?), and later get away. But, Pierre says he's going to chop up his body into little pieces, which makes Ollie end the charade. He and Stan run out the door and into the night, with Pierre behind, still shooting blanks. We don't know their fate, in a weak ending..........As a side note, there was living at that time a French artist(Pierre Gustave was an artist) with the name Gustav Pierre. I wonder whether the name of the character was inspired by the name of this artist?

Jealous for affection

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 7 November 2018]

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

Didn't find 'The Fixer Uppers' one of the duo's best, one of their lesser ones actually from this period from personal opinion. In a filmography that was mostly solid to classic (only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired for me but that was very early on when their partnership and style hadn't formed or evolved and when Hardy especially was not being used well), nonetheless it is still good and has much of what makes Laurel and Hardy's work as appealing as it is.

'The Fixer Uppers' story is threadbare and more problematic is how daftly credibility-straining and heavy in coincidence it is.

Also found it a bit of a slow-starter with a draggy first third where there is a little too much talk for my liking.

However, 'The Fixer Uppers' is nonetheless very funny, especially the boys' reactions (notably Hardy's). It is rarely dull, going at a snappy pace, and there is energy in the slapstick and sly wit, silly and typical of the duo but in an endearing and entertaining way. The second half is much better, livelier in pace and chockfull of beautifully timed gags and wit.

Both Laurel and Hardy are on top form, especially Laurel. They are equally funny with impeccable comic timing physically and verbally, this is not a case of one being funnier and having more screen time than the other (in their early efforts Laurel tended to be funnier and better used). Their chemistry is legendary for a reason and it is obvious here. The supporting cast are up to their level, as scene stealing as Arthur Houseman is as a drunk and amusing Mae Busch is it is fearsome Charles Middleton who comes off the best. 'The Fixer Uppers' visually looks good and the direction is never too busy or static.

In summary, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I Don't Recall Seeing 'Hotcha' In A Greeting Card Recently

[boblipton · 8/10 · 31 December 2020]

Laurel and Hardy are selling greeting cards door to door. When they enter Mae Busch's flat, they find her in tears. She feels her husband, Charles Middleton, is neglecting her. She offers to pay Ollie $50 to make love to her to make Middleton jealous and reawaken his feelings. The plan is successful. Middleton feels it necessary to challenge Hardy to a duel.

It's a very late short for the Boys, filled with nonsense and sight gags, and Arthur Housman doing his drunk act. It's also the last short that longtime Roach stalwart, Noah Young would appear in with Stan and Ollie.

Evidence why Laurel and Hardy were (deservingly) such huge stars back then

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 30 June 2017]

"The Fixer Uppers" is a black-and-white short film from 1935, so this one is already over 80 years old and it is one of many many short films from that time starring Stan laurel and Oliver Hardy, mostly known as Dick und Doof here in Germany (Fat and Stupid). It is not one of their earliest works, which is shown by the fact that this is a sound film. The people who worked on this one in front of (Middleton, Housman, Busch) as well as behind the camera (Roach, Rogers) worked with the legendary comedy on many other occasions too. It runs for slightly under 20 minutes and is the story of a jealous husband who challenges Hardy to a duel when he catches him with his wife. Honor may be more important than jealousy here as the wife felt neglected by her husband and it was all just a bad misunderstanding. Of course, there is no real cheating or real murder in the comedy movies with Stan and Ollie. Staying away from the duel won't save Ollie as an unlucky coincidence brings him right back to his adversary. There are some funny parts here like Ollie blaming Stan for everything once again or the two looking right at us, but as a whole the story was nothing too memorable really. It is thanks to the individual talent of the protagonists that it was still a decent, occasionally entertaining watch. The supporting cast also is pretty decent. Overall, a thumbs-up, but a cautious one. If you like these two mugs in other stuff, then it is worth checking out.

VIVA LA FRANCE!!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 19 October 2022]

THE FIXER UPPERS was one of Laurel and Hardy's final short films, and its a classic. One thing to note, there were more clever lines and situations at work here, as opposed to the usual crashes and explosions. The boys manage to mess things up either way, now working as greeting card salesmen who happen upon weepy customer Mae Busch --who wants to use Ollie to make her stubborn husband jealous!

This was a good switch for Stan and Ollie, and with Charles Middleton playing the "deadly serious" husband, who happens to know how to use a gun! Middleton was always a fun bad guy for Laurel and Hardy, usually playing a bitter, revengeful chap, ready to strangle them. In one goofy bit, Hardy phones him and lets the insults fly, followed by Stan, prompting Middleton to hang up and declare he'll kill them both, the sooner the better!

By the way, Mae Busch never looked lovelier, and exceptionally well dressed, as opposed to her usual exasperated housewife roles opposite Hardy. Not to forget she was a leading dramatic actress in silent films. Arthur Houseman is again cast as a loony drunk (with an ice pack on his noggin), one of the boys customers, probably the best actor ever to play such a role.

The bedroom scene with the cops carrying Stan and Ollie (who drank too much also) into Mae's room ---before her husband arrives --is outrageous. This short was originally computerized colored for vhs with a few other L & H films.

Note that some of Laurel and Hardy's short films are on European dvds that will not play on U. S. made dvd and blu ray players. Be sure to check where the box set was produced.

Christmas card salesmen get into trouble with their jealous husband routine...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 11 January 2011]

MAE BUSCH is having domestic problems with her husband, CHARLES MIDDLETON, and comes up with a scheme to get him back by making him jealous. She uses Christmas card salesman OLIVER HARDY as the man but things go wrong when Middleton not only becomes jealous but threatens to kill Hardy in a shooting duel.

STAN LAUREL steals the show in his usual bumbling way and ARTHUR HOUSMAN comes close to doing some scene-stealing of his own as a drunken neighbor.

It's foolish stuff, of course, typical of the sort of scrapes Laurel and Hardy were famous for, their Christmas card greetings written by Stan being both dismal and daffy.

Middleton is excellent as the villain of the piece, playing his part without a trace of humor in order to make him the fearsome character he is as Busch's jealous hubby.

Good for a few laughs, but definitely not one of the duo's best.

Fighting A French Duel With Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 24 March 2000]

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. Parisian Christmas Card salesmen Stan & Ollie become THE FIXER UPPERS when they try to help a distraught woman who thinks she's lost the affections of her husband. Ollie agrees to play the part of her lover, but is too convincing & arouses the man's extreme jealousy. When he challenges Ollie to a duel, the Boys' troubles are just beginning...

A very funny little film - the Boys' reactions to Mae Busch's passionate kisses are hilarious. Charles Middleton plays her furious spouse.

Not Great, But Still Raises a Smile.

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 3 August 2009]

This one takes the basic idea of a neglected wife pretending to have a lover to make her husband jealous from Slipping Wives, a 1927 silent short that Laurel & Hardy both appeared in, although not as a comedy team, but it quickly departs at a tangent. The neglected wife here is Mae Busch, in a more sympathetic role than usual as the neglected wife in question. Her husband is Charles Middleton, a frequent foe of the boys who, rather than brimming with gratitude to Ollie for showing him how neglectful he had been, challenges him to a pistol duel.

The story is a bit daft, and it's true that this isn't one of Stan & Ollie's stronger shorts, but those two only have to appear on screen to make us smile. They sell greeting cards in this one, and Stan is the writer of such gems as 'A Merry Christmas, husband, a happy New Years nigh, I wish you Easter Greetings, hooray for the fourth of July.' 'We call that our four-in-one,' Ollie advises the unhappy wife.

"You're making a terrible mistake!"

[The_Movie_Cat · 5/10 · 5 February 2001]

WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS

So were Stan and Ollie, agreeing to appear in this almost laugh-free drawer room farce.

There's no such thing as a bad Laurel and Hardy film of course, though this comes close. Where it falls down is in trying to reach outside the normal scope of an L & H vehicle. Quite shockingly adult for the time – hearing Stan telling the tale of a man who made love to another man's wife in front of him is alarming – it concerns Ollie kissing a neglected Mae Busch. Unfortunately Busch is encouraged to overstate her lines, while the neglectful husband, Charles Middleton, doesn't really gel either. And seeing the childlike innocence of Laurel and Hardy perverted into snogging married women and getting drunk just doesn't feel right. Like watching Santa Claus doing the wild thing, it's just one of those clashes of two totally separate worlds that jars badly.

The script is also wordy, yet not in a good way. Stripped of their trademark slapstick and with no real physicality to fall back on, the boys struggle gamely with weak, and misconceived, dialogue though even Stan seems a little bit bored of the whole thing. Thankfully it's only twenty minutes long so that when Ollie's driven away in the back of a dustcart you find yourself breathing a sigh of relief.

Short and a Feature

[Michael_Elliott · 13 March 2008]

Fixer-Uppers, The (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Laurel and Hardy are card salesmen who meet a woman who feels neglected by her husband. In order to make her husband jealous Hardy agrees to play the part of her lover but when the husband catches them he challenges Hardy to a duel. Several hysterical scenes are here including the kiss between the woman and Laurel and another wonderful segment involving a drunk who makes matters even worse.

Bohemian Girl, The (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Laurel and Hardy end up taking care of a six year old girl not knowing she's really a princess. This isn't the best L&H feature out there but there's enough smiles and laughs to make it worth viewing once. I doubt I'd ever watch this one again but the potato scene with Laurel is hilarious as is the wine drinking scene. The film really picks up towards the end. Thelma Todd's final film.

Too much talking going on on screen for a Laurel & Hardy comedy short.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 6/10 · 17 July 2006]

This movie has one main problem; It has too much talking and too little comedy situations. It makes "The Fixer Uppers" one of the lesser Laurel & Hardy comedy shorts.

Yes, it's definitely true that the movie gets better toward the ending but that was all too late for me. Basically the movie relies too much on just one comical situation and builds the entire movie around this. The comical situation itself isn't even original and the boys used it before in one of their first silent movies together; "Slipping Wives". The entire first halve of the movie is too boring and too little is happening, mainly because there is way too much dialog in it.

Of course the movie still has some well executed moments and it surely made me laugh at at least two occasions. It proofs that even the lesser Laurel & Hardy movies are still good enough to give you an overall good time and make you laugh, or at the very least amuse you.

Laurel & Hardy regular Mae Busch shows up in a quite big and significant role this time. She shows that she was a great comedy actress and entertains in her role. Another Laurel & Hardy regular in this movie is Arthur Housman, who yet again plays a drunk. It's a less significant and a too forced role unfortunately to provide the movie with some good memorable moments.

Weak first halve, too much talking and it relies too much on one comical situation. All the reasons why this movie is one of the lesser Laurel & Hardy comedy shorts that of course still entertains and amuses, especially its fans.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Enjoyable but far from the duo's best

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 August 2008]

This is a rather unusual plot for a Laurel and Hardy short, as you have to suspend all disbelief in order to believe that Ollie can be mistaken for a home-wrecker! The film begins with the boys selling incredibly lame Christmas cards door-to-door. When they arrive at the home of a sad lady, they ask her what's the matter. It seems that her husband is neglecting her and doesn't love her any more. Stan has an idea--the lady should find a man to make love to in order to make the hubby jealous. So Ollie volunteers to be "the other man". When the hubby arrives home unexpectedly, he vows to kill Ollie in a duel to be held that night.

My score of 6 is well below average for a Laurel and Hardy short. This is not just because Ollie plays an odd role but because there just aren't that many laughs. Had the film had a few more laughs, there would be much more to recommend it.

This film documents the sordid career of a Clear and Present Danger . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 29 December 2020]

. . . to the American Social Order, A Marital Drama Queen (aka, The Wayward Wife). This Public Enemy #1 endangers the lives of a pair of random innocent by-standers, a couple of hard-working itinerant sales specialists pounding the pavement to hawk their self-produced line of quirky greeting cards. However, things get totally out of hand during THE FIXER UPPERS when they happen upon Mrs. G., a would-be seductress well past her expiration date (not unlike "Mrs. Robinson" in THE GRADUATE). This horrid harpy is eager to smooch anyone in trousers who crosses her Threshold of Doom. After entrapping unwary victims, the insidious spider sports with her spoils, toying with their good natures until she can trick them into duels with her sure-shot spouse. However, THE FIXER UPPERS escape with their lives, leaving Mrs. G. with no door to slam.

A Wonderful Short

[sirarthurstreebgreebling · 10/10 · 25 August 2000]

This has too be one of my fav Laurel and Hardy short's , the two are greeting cards salesmen with their own brand of cards such as "Happy Christmas Mother Merry Christmas ma, Hi mommy mommy and a hot cha cha!" need i say more

L & H Meet Ming the Merciless!

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 15 January 2017]

Stan and Ollie have another one of those innocuous jobs. They are door to door greeting card salesmen. When they come to the door of Mae Busch, she is bemoaning the fact that her husband doesn't seem to love her. To test this, it is suggested that Oliver pretend to "make love" (not quite the same meaning as now) to her and test the husband. Of course, he is Charles Middleton, who played the evil space lord, Ming, in the Flash Gordon serials. He is an artist and the best shot in France, and he decides to fight a duel with our rotund friend. Now the boys must find a way out of this because this guy really means business. Unfortunately, they decide to get drunk and through a series of unfortunate events, end up back at the artist's home, in his bed. This is a little weaker than many of these episodes, but it's still better than what most anyone else was doing at the time.

That's what happens when you offer to help a lady in distress.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 5 November 2016]

Charles Middleton, the villain of "Flash Gordon", takes on another nefarious character here, a neglectful husband who demands a duel when he discovers Oliver Hardy kissing his wife, Mae Busch, only wanting to test her husband. The plot goes a bit too far, leading to Laurel and Hardy being in jeopardy as they try to hide (badly) from his wrath. It's another case of good intentions gone wrong, an adult entry in the series of shorts (second to last), and moderately amusing. Busch spoofs her vamp image by instilling over the top mobility. The presence of a drunken character seems to serve no purpose. A scene with Busch kissing Laurel who barely reacts (and seems to be falling asleep) is the comic high mark.