Our Relations.

No, I’m not going to talk about relatives, but the Laurel and Hardy film Our Relations. Note that this does contain significant spoilers for the film…

So, we’ve just been watching it on DVD, I think the first time we have done so. We’ve seen all the silent films on DVD and some of the sound shorts but not so many of the features yet - mostly because we’d seen them a lot on video. Two of the previous long films we’d watched on DVD (Pardon Us and Pack up your Troubles) had quite long bits not in our previous versions but I wasn’t particularly expecting anything here; however I was very pleased to find there was a little extra, in the scene between Finn and Stan and Ollie in Denker’s Beer Garden. Also this does raise some hope in my mind that there may be others too with at least a short extra bit.

As for the film, I enjoyed it as always. A couple of points about it: in my previous viewings Mrs. Addlequist always just seemed an amusing excuse for Stan to muddle up her name (Mrs Twiddlepass!). But on this occason it occurred to me that as a plot device she serves the fairly important purpose of informing Daphne and Bubbles of the boys’ arrest (well she thinks it’s ‘the boys’ but of course it’s their brothers…) On a somewhat similar note I realised a few years ago the the amusing ‘Shakespeare, Longfellow…’ exchanges must be a way to help differentiate the two duos in the twists and turns of the plot, particularly the last part. And finally, on that subject, I defy anyone to watch the last twenty minutes or so for the first time and not get confused. I don’t usually nowadays having seen it before but I did at one point today after not having seen it for so long!