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Laurel & Hardy: Sailors Beware [VHS]

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This pre-teaming effort takes place on the luxury steamship Mirimar, the spot of Madame Ritz's latest planned heist. Stan plays Chester Chaste, a cab driver who is ferrying Madame Ritz and her "baby" to the boat. Unbeknownest to anyone at the time, her "baby" is actually her husband, who is a dwarf (Harry Earles) dressed in baby clothes. This disguise is a big help to her in her notorious jewel heists, since no one thinks to suspect a baby. However, Chester finds his cab getting hoisted up onto the ship, and when he tries to explain his dilemma to the skirt-chasing purser (Ollie), he is irately told to speak to the captain, who accuses him of being a stowaway and puts him to work. During the course of his work, Stan has numerous hostile run-ins with Ollie and has a good scene with a drunk with a canary, a man who has been causing trouble ever since he walked up the gangplank and is now trying to enter the room of another couple. Stan also ends up in the Ritzes' room, where he is suckered into a fixed game of dice with the "baby." He discovers the dice are rigged and is chasing him around the room trying to get him to give him back his money when a furious Madame Ritz comes back in.

Madame Ritz goes down to play a card game with three other women, using her "baby" to help her to cheat. Stan is hot on their heels, already suspecting what her secret is, and helps another woman to win. He has already pushed the "baby" in his carriage down the stairs, and after he landed, the "baby" can clearly be seen saying a rather off-color phrase. Now one of the women at the card table discovers her necklace missing, and other people aboard ship have also found out they've been robbed. Stan chases down the "baby," who is hiding the jewels in his doll, and throws him down a coal chute. The "baby" is returned to the deck, and implicates Stan. One of the other two men around orders him to give him a bath and then report back, something that would be beyond unthinkable today, telling a strange adult to give a child a bath, and unsupervised no less! During the bath, Stan discovers that this really isn't any old baby, but a grown man, with chest hair. Having his suspicions confirmed, he storms down the stairway holding the baby and the jewel-stuffed doll and is the ship's new hero.

For those of you who love the origin history of L&H, this is a gem. Though the L&H team we all know hasn't come together at the time of Sailors Beware, we can see the immense talents of our stars. Hardy is the big bully over Laurel but hasn't aquired the lovable & soft manner yet. Laurel is the same doofus underdog and lovable. We can see his great comedic talent in the card game with the kid developing. Of course one of my very favorite L&H side characters, Anita Garvin, almost steals the show in one of her best performances. It didn't hurt that she was also so young and beautiful. Of course Laurel comes out on top & Hardy is frustrated again. It is a great silent. The best of their careers was to come.