Better Late Then Never

A Major Disappointment

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Nothing But Trouble, one of Laurel&Hardy's last comedies relies more on the well known characters they've created as opposed to Hal Roach like gags. It's not a bad film, but I fear disappointing to their fans then and now.Even in wartime America Stan and Ollie just can't find work. But a desperate Mary Boland in a typical rich empty headed dowager hires the two of them as cook and butler. Needless to say they're not real good at these jobs like all the others they've tried over the years in short subject and feature length movies. Boland and her husband Henry O'Neill regret it before the film is over.But the boys also meet young David Leland who is an exiled king from some Ruritanian Balkan country that Mr. Hitler has overrun. Even in exile the young king has enemies.Best part of the film is when the boys try to serve Ollie's favorite specialty Beef Oliver as he names it. It's quite a slab of meat and most under cooked. They bring in a cross cut saw to try and slice it up.I wish there were more moments like these.

The 1940s saw the decline of what were once the greatest comedy pairing in history, as they were placed in the hands of people who obviously had no idea what had previously made them so funny. It is fair to say that Laurel and Hardy were getting too old for slapstick comedy, had to rely more on verbal humour. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, unless of course the verbal humour is rubbish. The duo were given a script and told to stick to it, were not allowed any input into it. That, I think, was a fatal flaw, as L & H had always been great comedy innovators. Indeed, they would turn up at conventions and have audiences in fits with improvised-on-the-spot material. This film involves the duo finding employment as servants for a boy who, it turns out, is royalty. Problems lie with the stodgy, slow-moving script, the hit-and-miss gags and the fact L & H are just not allowed to play the characters that made them famous. There's the occasional laugh, and this film never goes down to the level of today's lesser 'comedy' films by relying on gratuitous swearing, sexual innuendo and the like (compared to trash like 'Kevin & Perry go Large this film is a masterpiece) but really the script could have been written with anybody in mind.

This was one of Laurel and Hardy's last films. And, while it is not an unpleasant movie, it is so unlike their earlier films and so unlike the traditional formula that it is a very sad movie to watch. Dunderheads at 20th Century Fox and MGM insisted on messing with the Hal Roach approach to filming the guys and the result just aren't very funny or engaging in their post-Hal Roach Studio films. In this film, you see two tired, sickly and unfunny old men instead of comic geniuses. For most fans of the duo, they would have preferred the boys just retired after Saps at Sea, as it was all WAY downhill from there. It's just sad--very very painful and sad to watch Stan and Ollie playing nursemaid to a runaway Prince. Plus, with not a single effective gag, it's pretty tedious and ineffectual as a comedy. Fortunately, their next film, THE BULLFIGHTERS, was a bit better.By the way, this isn't the team's worst 1940s outing--that would definitely be THE BIG NOISE. However, NOTHING BUT TROUBLE certainly is pretty close as is THE DANCING MASTERS. MGM should have been ashamed of themselves for this turkey.

Working as chef and butler in the midst of the depression, Laurel and Hardy ruin a dinner party and get hired to be a chef and a butler by rulers of a country, in the process they, accidentally foil a plot, by enemy agents, to poison a young boy king. i like the parts when Oliver and Stan are trying to cut Oliver's famous steak with a saw!!!. then Oliver imitates a lion. this is a classic movie,i wish it was on a DVD. i cant find it. but i watched it on TV. all their movies are good. this should be considered on the good movie list for Laurel and Hardy Movies,its one of my favorites. i also would like to mention other Laurel and Hardy movies that are great. Sons Of The Desert Blockheads The Music Box These are also great Laurel And Hardy Movies.