Brats

This Laurel and Hardy two-reeler is different in several respects. For one, though there are four characters, there are only two actors: L&H. No bit players. The idea is that Stan and Ollie are in a house playing checkers, and their little sons are across the room playing with their toys. This was done by making all three sets—a living room, and bedroom, and a bathroom—twice, once at a regular scale, and again with everything twice as big. Now the children can clamber all over the furniture that their fathers were sitting on a moment ago. It’s very nicely done. The other unusual thing is that Ollie appears (as Little Ollie) without his mustache, which he hardly ever did. There is no real plot. Both sets of boys engage in pratfalls and disputes, with the younger ones a little more childish than their fathers, but not much. The scene in the huge bathroom is particularly well done, with Ollie repeatedly falling into the full bathtub, which soon overflows and brings down the ceiling over the old men’s pool game. It’s a good one, but not a classic.