"Be Big" features our two heroes happily about to go on a vacation to Atlantic City with their wives. The bags are packed, they are on the verge of leaving for the train when the phone rings, for Ollie. It is a lodge brother, telling him about a "surprise stag party" being underway in their honor.I would be perturbed at this last-minute invitation. I also wouldn't want to cut short a vacation trip with my wife. I should mention both Stan and Ollie have good-looking wives in this film, and are presented as having no reason to NOT want this vacation trip.But Ollie decides to go along, so he feigns illness and, despite acting like a wounded moose, convinces his wife and Stan's to take the train as planned. "Stan can stay and take care of me. Tomorrow, I'll feel fine and we can join you then." The wives go along with this non-sense and head off to the train station.The boys now need to change into their hunting outfits for the stag party. Ollie tells Stan to go (across the hall) to get his outfit and they can change together. Ollie is next seen struggling to pull on a boot. With Stan's help, he finally gets it on, only to learn that he has squeezed Stan's boot onto his foot. They now spend several more minutes struggling to take it off.Virtually half of this entire short film deals with the struggles with the one boot on Ollie's right foot. They wind up pulling off curtain rods and causing other havoc in the apartment. The finish, which naturally involves the wives returning and discovering the hoax, has some gunshots which truly destroy the apartment, without, of course, harming any people.The boot antics could have been amusing if trimmed to two minutes or fewer. But around 12 minutes or more of this was so tedious I found myself just wanting it to end. If they had tried different tactics, it might have worked, but the vast majority of the time simply had Stan trying to get into a position to pull the boot off. Way too repetitious to be funny for even one-eighth the length of the bit.This makes it one of the least-funny Laurel and Hardy short I've seen. Sorry to have to give it a 3.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Ollie and Stan are packed for a trip to Atlantic City with their wives (Isabelle Keith and Anita Garvin). But then Ollie gets a phone call from their friend Cookie (Baldwin Cooke) who invites them to a surprise stag party, he originally refuses because of the wives, but he agrees when he hears of things to expect. So Ollie gets talcum powder on his face, and pretends to be very sick to fool the wives, and Stan as well, and they go without them. So the wives leave for the train station without the boys, and they start dressing in their special clothes, while the wives find out that they just missed the train, and go back. While dressing for the stag night, Ollie manages to get his boot stuck on his foot, only to realise that he has got Stan's pair, so there is a big struggle to get one boot off. They try pulling hard on the rocking chair, using the boot jack and a little hammering, manoeuvring on the fold away bed, and a final backwards fall into the bath. Eventually the wives return home, and the boys hide in the fold away bed, and when the wives know why, they shoot the boys (in the bed) through the window, crashing, and landing in the below pond. Also starring Charlie Hall as Bellboy. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!

Many of Laurel and Hardy's shorts were domestic comedies that concerned relatively mundane activities that somehow became hilarious due to excellent writing, direction and the acting of the team. This film is a great example, as the plot is paper-thin and yet the film made me laugh.The plot is an early incarnation of the plot that was later used in their best full-length film, SONS OF THE DESERT. Like this other film, the boys want to slip away for some fun with their lodge brothers and Ollie fakes an illness and convinces the wives to go off to Atlantic City without them. Probably the worst moment in the film was Ollies overacting--instead of a sick man, he sounds more like a walrus in heat! But no matter, the women believe the act and Stan stays back to take care of his friend. As soon as the ladies leave, Ollie tells Stan of the plan,...and dumb old Stan tells him he CAN'T go out because he's sick! Well, after finally helping Stan understand it was all a trick, they start to change into their lodge uniforms and believe it or not, it takes them half the film to do this, as Ollie accidentally puts on Stan's boots and cannot get them off. It IS very mundane stuff, but considering how much material they get from just this, it is truly an amazing film.Like SONS OF THE DESERT, the wives eventually see through the plan and make the boys pay--and boy do they pay!! It's a cute little short and while not their best, it's an excellent example of their work and well worth seeing.FYI--There is a French language version (LES CAROTTIERS) and Spanish language version (LOS CALAVERAS) of this film combined with LAUGHING GRAVY. Even if you don't know the languages, they are very watchable--especially after you see the English language versions.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. The Boys are all set to take their wives for a weekend in Atlantic City when Ollie discovers that the gang at the club are going to hold a stag party in their honor that very night. Feigning a terrific nervous headache, he gets Stanley to agree to send the wives on ahead by themselves. Now Ollie & Stanley can dress for the party - except for the little matter of Stanley's boots on Ollie's feet. If the wives find out they've been tricked, the Boys had better face their wrath like grownups and BE BIG!This is a very funny film, relying almost entirely on slapstick humor - one has to wonder how Ollie could take those falls without seriously hurting himself. Watching him strain to get Stanley's boot off his right leg is genuinely exhausting and will make all fat men ache in sympathy.