I'll have to agree with a majority of the posters for this film in that it doesn't deserve it's reputation as one of the worst Laurel and Hardy films. It may not be of the caliber of "Sons of the Desert" or "Way Out West", but it's entertaining enough in it's own right. If I had to find a quibble, it's in the fact that Stan Laurel doesn't seem to have any of his classic, nonsensical responses to situations the Boys find themselves in, like "I heard what he said but I didn't hear what he meant" from their film "Nothing But Trouble", out the same year as this one. They do repeat some of their former gags like the train car scenario, one of their hallmarks from 1929's film short "Berth Marks". The ending comes across as rather abrupt, as the inventor in the story (Arthur Space) never does make it to Washington, D.C. with his explosive invention. I had to laugh when I read one of the comments on this board in which the reviewer lamented the 'annoying little kid' in the beginning of the movie. That annoying little kid grew up to become TV's Baretta, Robert Blake. I always liked Blake, even through his personal difficulties, and this is the only Laurel and Hardy effort I've ever seen him in.

THE BIG NOISE has had an horrendous reputation with critics,film-goers and L & H fans in the past,dismissed by various film scholars,writers and journalists as "a groan","sublimely indifferent","sinking to a new low",and even receiving an entry in Michael and Harry Medved's notorious book,'THE FIFTY WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME'.The film is certainly no classic,and is pretty poor when even compared to their average efforts at the Hal Roach Studios,but for the standards of the L & H wartime comedies,this is actually one of the better,more tolerable films that were made,which isn't saying very much,though increasing numbers are recognising that some of the contemptuous comments made previously are somewhat unfair and out of proportion.The story itself is rather thin,but one plus factor is that there is a decent concentration on Stan and Ollie here,unlike their previous efforts for 20th Century Fox,and scenes which are thankfully more in keeping with their characters;it is pleasing to see the Hardy camera look in many scenes,for example.This essential trait of Ollie's behaviour was non-existent in their previous Fox features(the otherwise banal MGM vehicle AIR RAID WARDENS at least had several authentic stares to the camera),but after several unsuitable drafts,writer Scott Darling apparently watched a few vintage L & H shorts,and began in earnest to mildly understand their established characterisations,reworking routines from such films as HABEUS CORPUS(this very utterance is actually spoken in the film),WRONG AGAIN,BERTH MARKS,OLIVER THE EIGHTH and TWICE TWO. Some of the insertions of these routines work surprisingly well,best of all the train upper berth sequence borrowed from BERTH MARKS.The original routine was over stretched and strained,mainly because this was only the team's second talkie,and restrictions on technology at the time(particularly sound editing)led to tedium and repetition.This routine works rather better in THE BIG NOISE,with not as much footage, improved pacing and the amusing addition of a genial drunk,played by Hollywood favourite inebriate Jack Norton;Tinseltown's other regular drunkard,Arthur Housman,had worked with L & H notably several times before,and would probably have been cast for this sequence had it not been for his premature death two years earlier.That said,there is still too much straight,non-humorous exposition involving gangsters and would-be Nazi spies,an all too common problem in these post-Roach L & H features,and Bobby(later Robert)Blake is something of an irritation as the inventor's misbehaving son.But some of the support cast aren't bad at all,especially the elderly Robert Dudley and an amusing bit from Francis Ford.Several supporting players from their Hal Roach days also turn up;the brief appearance of motorcycle cop Edgar Dearing(memorable in their silent classic TWO TARS)is a welcome diversion;a previous occasional foil,Del Henderson,can also be briefly glimpsed at the end of the upper berth sequence. The eminent L & H expert and writer Randy Skretvedt has admitted on a commentary accompanying this film's recent DVD release that his previous highly negative opinions on THE BIG NOISE were somewhat wrong,and that it's nowhere near as bad as he originally thought,rating this only under THE BULLFIGHTERS as the best of their Fox-MGM wartime features.I more or less agree with him.RATING:5 and a half out of 10.

In the Medved Brothers' usually on target book, THE 50 WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME, THE BIG NOISE is given a degree of prominence as the worst of Laurel & Hardy's films. John McCabe dismissed it in his MR. LAUREL AND MR. HARDY by saying the plot of the film can be described in one sentence - the boys are assigned to deliver a bomb and do so. Yet a number of people have also supported it as one of their cutest, if not funniest movies.When L & H left Roach in 1941, they had planned to do a production of the Victor Herbert's THE RED MILL as their next movie after SAPS AT SEA. They probably were picking up on their success in operetta films (BABES IN TOYLAND, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL, THE DEVIL'S BROTHER, even SWISS MISS) as a sure fire way of showcasing their humor. I have often thought about this project. No doubt the roles of Kid Connor and Con Kidder that David Montgomery and Fred Stone had originated would have been redone by the screenplay writer (with advise from Stan) to fit the person-as of Stan and Ollie. But by 1941 the cycle of films in Hollywood which were based on operettas had slowly collapsed (the last major ones were Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald's BITTERSWEET, as well as Eddy and Rise Stevens' THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER). Shows based on current stage hits were more likely to be made into films (the next and last Eddy and MacDonald film would I MARRIED AN ANGEL, based on the Rodgers and Hart stage musical). It seems doubtful that any of the studios would have been willing to finance a production of a 1905 operetta hit, whose major big-time number was "In Old New York".Yet that was what Stan was proposing (and Ollie would have supported him on that). William Everson has suggested that actually, by 1941, the boys were tired, and needed more time to rejuvenate their material. I end up feeling that this is true. The best of the later films, JITTERBUGS, has some nice moments (Hardy romancing Lee Patrick, and shepherding around Stan in drag as an old lady), and includes some rejuvenated material at the conclusion of the film from Alice Faye's movie, SALLY, IRENE AND MARY, but (as John McCabe suggested) it's plot does not make any sense (particularly as Bob Bailey's character, a major one in the plot, seems good natured one moment and opportunistic and crooked the next).THE BIG NOISE does have a straightforward plot, tied in with the current war effort. Arthur Space is one of those screwy scientist/inventors who crop up in many comedies of the 1920s to 1930s. He has invented food pills that replaced full course meals, and has an impossible push button modern house (after the 1939 - 40 New York Worlds Fair "push button" future space saving homes become a perennial joke in comedies - and a weak one at that - see the Marx Brothers contemporary film THE BIG STORE and the ethnic children in the disappearing beds scene).Space has, however, designed a new secret weapon - a highly powerful bomb. This is the "Big Noise" of the title. The government is testing it with the intention of using it against the Axis, but their agents are planning to steal it to use against us (shades of Lionel Atwill as Moriarty in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON). In need of guards for his weapons, Space hires L & H thinking they are detectives (they are janitors in a detective school).In reality the interplay of L & H with Space, Robert Blake (then Bobbie Blake), Esther Howard (who shows a sexual interest in Hardy - quite unusual for him, and very unsettling to him), and the cast is actually quite good. The result is that the material, even if reused from earlier films (the bit from BERTH MARKS about changing in the upper berth of a train) is quite well done. And since the film is actually keeping a coherent story for a change (as opposed to JITTERBUGS) the film is more than just tolerable.It is also nice to see that it did introduce one popular tune to movies: the tongue-twister tune, "Mares Eat Oats and Does Eat Oats and Little Lambs Eat Ivory", which is called "Maisey Doats" or "Maizy Doats" for short. Stan supposedly plays it on his accordion in the film.A nice movie, possibly the boys' last good comedy.

As recently suggested by others, THE BIG NOISE has suffered in reputation for years, usually sight unseen. As a lifelong L & H fan, I finally saw it for the first time via the new Fox set (a very well done package), and it is more than acceptable a part of L&H's legacy. Of course it can't match their heyday, but among the Fox films it is much more Stan & Ollie's show than the initial Fox entries. The whimsical fadeout is by far one of the most delightful moments of their entire career, which is something.Give this film some slack, and you'll have a good enough time with it. I'm glad Fox has made this one available.