WE HAD LONG ago screened this little curio of a hybrid one reeler. We say that it is a little film that owed its lineage to several different genetic sources. Our view is also shaped by its parents; being Mother Nature & Father Time.PERHAPS IT IS a fine example of the old saying: "Too many Cooks spoil the Broth." The very blending of the varying talents and styles of Laurel & Hardy with the very dry and self-deprecation of Pete Smith's narration's being blended with the industrial & patriotic message that was the crux of the movie.ADDED TO THIS curious blend is the uninspired use of color and the static camera's eye with the very plain backdrop of a parked auto in the 20th Century-Fox Studio's parking lot. Although the action is very brief, it soon wears thin and really drags. That the action is worked out from the thinnest of a premise.ALTHOUGH THAT WAS the method that was most successful in bringing the World the best of the now Classic L & H silent and sound shorts; as well as being a chief ingredient in their Hal Roach features, this was not the 1920's or '30's and the team was now caught up in the studio contract system. This was a definite bane to that genre of comedies.AS FAR AS any suspicion that the team did this for any financial remuneration seems to be specious at best. We must remember that it was World War II that was raging and affected everything. This was most likely a product of a donation of time and services from L & H, Pete Smith, 20th Century-Fox and MGM to the War effort, much in the same way that the JERRY LEWIS LABOR DAY TELETHON supported the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Just about every reviewer on this board calls this a propaganda film, but that word carries a highly negative connotation to me. I found this more in line with what I'd call a documentary style narration that happens to feature one of the funniest comedy duos of all time - Laurel and Hardy. At a mere five or six minutes, this doesn't give you much except for a quickie education on the wonder of wood products, and in that respect is an eye opener even today. For example, Stan's hat band utilizes tan bark and wood fiber, and a host of products we consider primarily plastic contain such things as cellulose fiber and wood pulp. The picture, made during World War II, was produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and commends the U.S. Forest Service for the work done by it's product laboratories in developing products made from wood. Not the most interesting of subjects to be sure, made somewhat annoying by the narration of Pete Smith. But fans of Laurel and Hardy will certainly want to catch the duo in their only color footage, even if their wordless performances, excuse the pun, are somewhat wooden.

While I had seen the Laurel and Hardy segment of this educational short in various bargain basement VHS tapes and some of the Lee Vickers serious stuff in a bargain basement DVD, it's not until now when I played the Fox DVD of A-Haunting We Will Go that I watched the entire thing as it appeared in various classrooms and corporate meetings. The print hardly seemed an improvement on the other tapes or disc but I guess Fox did the best they could find. I found myself smiling a bit at some of the doings of the boys as they show beginning narrator Pete Smith all the various wood products they have on themselves but the results were hardly hilarious. Still, it was a nice rare look at Stan and Ollie in color. After their bit, Vickers shows us how important wood is for the war effort as this film ends with the patriotic music playing with the American flag flying on screen. All in all, an interesting curio for any fan of L & H.

This brief wartime educational short is remembered today for one reason only: it offers the rare sight of Laurel & Hardy in color. (They also appear briefly in a surviving color trailer for the lost feature The Rogue Song, and in some 8mm home movie footage from the 1950s.) The Tree in a Test Tube was produced to promote wood conservation on the home front, and for some reason Stan and Ollie were recruited to appear in one sequence. If you're a die-hard fan it's worth a look, but be forewarned, it's a pretty depressing experience. The guys were past their prime, they didn't age well, and they seem quite out of place in the world of the 1940s.The Laurel & Hardy sequence opens this film and was shot silent, with music and overbearing narration added later by Pete Smith of the "Pete Smith Specialties." Smith's films are generally amusing on their own terms, but the wise guy delivery he employs here is at odds with Laurel & Hardy's childlike style of humor. While the guys dutifully display various items in their wallets made from wood and wood by-products, narrator Smith yammers instructions at them like a drill sergeant; worse still, Stan and Ollie are the butt of his sarcastic quips. The closest we get to a gag comes when Stan finds a pair of nylons -- presumably Mrs. Laurel's property -- in his wallet, and feigns embarrassment while Smith chides him. The nagging narration evokes the spirit of the times, while the aging comedians seem like throwbacks to another era.For what it's worth, the redness of Stan's hair and the blueness of his eyes are quite apparent here, even in the somewhat washed-out 16mm print I saw, while Babe Hardy's face appears far more tan than he ever looked in any of their black & white films. This short possesses historic value for its offbeat subject matter and the color cinematography, but for entertainment I'd much rather watch in the guys in their youthful prime in something like You're Darn Tootin' or Busy Bodies, great comedies that don't require any narration from Pete Smith or anyone else.