For this short subject Hal Roach placed Laurel&Hardy as workers in a sawmill. Just knowing that conjures up in your mind all kinds of sharp cutting tools that given their propensity for trouble you know the boys will be lucky to escape serious injury. So will any and all of the other workers at the sawmill.In fact there is a minute or so of footage in this film where you see men at work doing some serious labor at a sawmill. Also Roach really didn't have them working circular saws or chainsaws. I guess he did not want kids trying these things out at home. You never see them really involved with any of the truly dangerous things.They do however have an interesting climax where poor Ollie do to as usual Stan's bumbling goes through an exhaust the mill has for all the sawdust accumulated. And right at the mouth you see him stuck.Not the best of their shorts, but seeing Ollie going through that exhaust was classic. Might very well have inspired Charlie Chaplin to do the bit with the Little Tramp caught in the machinery in Modern Times.

'Busy Bodies' is my favourite short from Laurel and Hardy. Even today it still makes people laugh. It's strange seeing real stunts in films now but it makes this short much funnier. Stan Laurel plays his character very well, evoking sympathy from the audience and providing most of the comedy in this part as usual. Oliver Hardy's role is the ordinary guy (as ordinary as he can be) and his character reacts to Laurel's unusual character. They both work together very well and it is easy to see why they both had such successful careers together. The script in this short starts out with them on a normal day going to work, getting on well with each other, singing in the car (or trying to in Stan's case). As soon as they arrive at work their behaviour and intelligence is shown to be anything but normal and hilarity ensues. From start to the very end this short will make you laugh despite them both only saying a few lines each. If you have not seen any Laurel and Hardy films then this would be a great place to start, it is by far one of their funniest.

One of Laurel and Hardy's best short films,BUSY BODIES is remarkable for having very little plot (even for a short) and almost even less dialogue.But the incident on show has enough variety and is so beautifully executed that any minor quibbles are irrelevant.It starts charmingly with the boys driving to work on a lovely morning,accompanied by the welcome and familiar sound of LeRoy Shield's background music on their 'radio'.The revealing of this 'radio' is very clever,which leads on to their job at a sawmill.This arguably leads on to the most spectacular slapstick ever seen in a Laurel and Hardy film,with the unfortunate Ollie always on the receiving end.In other less skilled hands,this action may have come across as crude,but here with these two comedic masters,it is technically superb,always funny if sometimes (especially with the shaving scene) a trifle shocking!The stunningly conceived sequences,virtually all performed in mime (but with effective sound effects),are pleasantly counter-balanced by Stan and Ollie's subtle facial expressions and reactions,plus some amusing support performances by familiar foils Charlie Hall and Tiny Sandford.A magnificent closing gag involving their car ends the film on a gloriously high note;it is only marginally below the standards of their most celebrated efforts like THE MUSIC BOX and WAY OUT WEST,but only very marginally,and certainly deserves to be in the top 10 or 20 films they ever made.Over seven decades on,this peerless pair of laughter-makers are as funny as ever.Great!RATING:9 and a half out of 10.

This is probably the only movie that makes me cry of laughing each time I see it and I have seen it hundreds of times! Laurel & Hardy are really getting it on in this one.The way that Hardy gets "tortured" is unbelievable but never over the top.Just watch the scene when Laurel slams the door against Hardy after which Hardy slams the door back and gets a huge bucket on his head and then again the door,hilarious! Of course there is also the usual "in the camera looking" by Hardy(the scene with the sigar!).Busy Bodies is for me their best short feature and equals their long masterpiece Way Out West (10/10). Laurel & Hardy are truely the Kings of slapstick comedy,if you haven't seen this one you haven't lived! 10/10