This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Hollywood was always suspicious of madcap comedians, and often burdened their films with mindless plots, subplots, silly love stories, and mediocre songs. This is a perfect example of the Twentieth Century Fox B unit busily churning out wartime entertainment for a less than demanding audience. L & H are not wasted, but under used. Even in as improbable story as this one, studio cowardice and lack of imagination cannot totally subvert the genius of two great comedians who could make even second-rate comic ideas seem better than they really were. Vivian Blaine, forever remembered as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, debuts here as that stock character, the pretty spunky damsel in distress, a carbon copy of another FOX contract player, Alice Faye. She gets to sing three ordinary, completely forgettable tunes in excellent voice. Many similarly attractive young women like her were wasted like this during the studio days. Vivian had to good sense to go back to Broadway and to the stardom she deserved.

One of a declining number of features Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made in the 1940's after they departed the Hal Roach Studios at the beginning of the decade,JITTERBUGS has the reputation of maybe being the best of a disposable bunch made at 20th CENTURY FOX and M-G-M.This actually isn't saying that much,and the film has many flaws that plagued the other films in this period that brought an end to their film careers.But there are somewhat more positive aspects that touch it up a notch or two above the other misconceived and misjudged efforts of these later years despite still being affected by numerous disadvantages.Travelling musicians Stan and Ollie steam up with a devious but likable conman (Robert Bailey) to help a young woman (Vivian Blaine) whose Aunt was fleeced out of $10,000 by various other shysters. Stan and Ollie don disguises as part of the plan,though they have to wary of their own safety along the way.The main problem with JITTERBUGS is the excess of plot complications and sub-stories plus various transient characters that don't just add a sense of disarrangement but provide little chance for any characteristic L & H humour throughout it's running time.We only get a sense of this in the opening few minutes or so with scenes of the boys on a isolated desert highway,but even here (as was evident in virtually all of their later films),the dialogue and behaviour is not particularly appropriate for their long established naive,lovable characters.Thereafter,with the appearance of conman Robert Bailey,his would-be girl Vivian Blaine and other types,Stan and Ollie often seem incidental to the plot and the numerous other characters that turn up.As has been mentioned before,it's main saving grace is to see the boys enact different characterisations.Ollie is enjoyable as a wealthy Texas landowner,Colonel Wattison Bixby,as a Southern states gentleman-type very close to his own upbringing,as is Stan as a fluttery and equally wealthy maiden Aunt,convincingly and amusingly in drag,employing the upper-class accent he used in A CHUMP AT OXFORD and flirtatious manner in ANOTHER FINE MESS.Ollie's scenes with Lee Patrick in his impersonation work surprisingly well,which features somewhat better supporting performances from such performers as Ms Patrick,Douglas Fowley,Noel Madison (who appeared in a similar Gangsterish role with the boys in OUR RELATIONS seven years earlier) and Robert Emmett Keane than was usually the case in these later films.This was Mal St.Clair's first film with the boys and his direction is fast and slick,helping to paper over the cracks of a less-than efficient script by Scott Darling,which was also a showcase for the up and coming starlet Vivian Blaine.She is a somewhat lightweight but pleasing presence,and the film is also helped by decent production values and a respected cameraman (Lucien Andriot), giving the film a more attractive and polished look.Though hardly vintage L & H,JITTERBUGS has enough good scenes to rate it alongside THE BULLFIGHTERS as the more tolerable of their post-Roach features,with both comedians looking generally more assured and confident with at least some decent material to work with than was the unfortunate case with most of their later work.JITTERBUGS is still flawed but enjoyable,with Laurel and Hardy's talent still managing to extract some laughs and overcome a plot and script that was far from perfect.RATING:6 out of 10.

I first saw this movie years ago on the late show one night, and was charmed by it. The low key, gentle humor, and likable love interests make for an entertaining little movie.Vivian Blaine is really cute as the night club singer who falls for nice guy con man Bob Bailey. He's not really a crook at heart, and soon is reformed by true love, combining forces with Stan and Ollie to get back the money fleeced from Vivian's aunt by a trio of crooks.Stan Laurel is very funny and surprisingly convincing, as the wealthy dowager character he pretends to be. Tough gal Lee Patrick putting on a bogus Southern accent, and trying to seduce first Laurel and then Hardy is a hilarious sequence. Watching Oliver Hardy waltz gracefully with Lee Patrick is a sight worth seeing.This is a nice, fun little movie if you're not expecting Laurel and Hardy in their prime. They're still funny and endearing characters.

Stan & Ollie are travelling musicians who run out of gas in the middle of nowhere and are helped out by a travelling salesman, Chester (Bob Bailey). He gives them one of his gas pills to put in their car and they decide to go into business combining their music act with selling these pills. When they try their luck in the next town, Chester meets Susan (Vivian Blaine) and she joins the gang. The plot then changes direction as we learn that Susan's aunt has had $10,000 dollars stolen by crooks. Chester, Susan, Stan & Ollie are determined to get the money back and the film follows their efforts to do this as Stan & Ollie pose as different characters at a hotel, while Susan takes a job as a singer at a club.There are some funny scenes and Vivian Blaine sings 3 songs. Its all completely unbelievable nonsense but at the end of the film you feel that you have been entertained.