Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

dwesthorrorcom Most of the infamous, studio-controlled, 1940s output of Laurel and Hardy has been raked over the coals with some regularity and for very good reason. While some laughs can be found in some of those weaker films, "Nothing But Trouble" (even above "A Haunting We Will Go",in my humble opinion)seems to be almost completely devoid of laughs and for this Laurel and Hardy fan, amounts to the nadir of that depressing era for the team. This film actually becomes truly depressing as it slogs along. It is just awful, even as a curiosity.

bkoganbing Nothing But Trouble, one of Laurel&Hardy's last comedies relies more on the well known characters they've created as opposed to Hal Roach like gags. It's not a bad film, but I fear disappointing to their fans then and now.Even in wartime America Stan and Ollie just can't find work. But a desperate Mary Boland in a typical rich empty headed dowager hires the two of them as cook and butler. Needless to say they're not real good at these jobs like all the others they've tried over the years in short subject and feature length movies. Boland and her husband Henry O'Neill regret it before the film is over.But the boys also meet young David Leland who is an exiled king from some Ruritanian Balkan country that Mr. Hitler has overrun. Even in exile the young king has enemies.Best part of the film is when the boys try to serve Ollie's favorite specialty Beef Oliver as he names it. It's quite a slab of meat and most under cooked. They bring in a cross cut saw to try and slice it up.I wish there were more moments like these.

BJJManchester The second and last of Laurel & Hardy's MGM wartime comedies,NOTHING BUT TROUBLE sadly suffers from the similar faults that plagued AIR RAID WARDENS a year earlier.There are elements of the plot which are perhaps unconsciously reworked from far superior Hal Roach efforts,such as PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES (Stan and Ollie shielding a child) and A CHUMP AT OXFORD (swanky dinner parties),but this is often sabotaged by sluggish pacing and some overly excessive pathos which seems totally alien to the L & H style of humour.Like the previous AIR RAID WARDENS,Stan and Ollie again come out with some uncharacteristic,self-pitying dialogue accusing themselves of being 'failures',attiudes which would have never seen the light of day in their Roach films.The all-round comic genius of Stan Laurel was ignored as all their post-1940 features and prevented from improving a script which most certainly would have needed his personal embellishment.Stan himself looks pretty unhappy and dispirited in the film as a result,as does Babe Hardy.The production does not look as glossy as the previous AIR RAID WARDENS,but it's pleasing to see one or two characteristic L & H moments abound (Ollie even says 'Here's another nice mess...' to Stan at one point),but they are somewhat fleeting.Mary Boland,an actress who specialised in fluttery society matrons,actually provides the most amusement in the film's most assured performance,but Sam Taylor,a capable comedy writer/director,struggles with the uninspired, hackneyed material on offer,like stealing steak from a lion's cage and a rowdy football game.The aforementioned scene seems a partial reworking in material from THE FRESHMAN,a silent classic starring Harold Lloyd,a performer Taylor frequently collaborated with.It doesn't work especially well (with the ageing,unathletic L & H looking rather uncomfortable),as does the high-rise building climax which seems a borrowing from another Lloyd classic,SAFETY LAST,made somewhat obvious by background projection.A rather glum sub-plot of an evil royal uncle trying to kill off his young nephew king further reduces opportunities for fun,and this takes up far too much footage.The black comedy elements in L & H films worked very well when executed in an appropriate context;it doesn't work here because of the weak storyline and material.One last point;Eddie Dunn,an occasional foil for the comedians at Roach,appears as a cop in the flophouse sequence,but this is all too brief and only very slightly,like the whole film,recalls their glory days at Hal Roach Studios.

MartinHafer This was one of Laurel and Hardy's last films. And, while it is not an unpleasant movie, it is so unlike their earlier films and so unlike the traditional formula that it is a very sad movie to watch. Dunderheads at 20th Century Fox and MGM insisted on messing with the Hal Roach approach to filming the guys and the result just aren't very funny or engaging in their post-Hal Roach Studio films. In this film, you see two tired, sickly and unfunny old men instead of comic geniuses. For most fans of the duo, they would have preferred the boys just retired after Saps at Sea, as it was all WAY downhill from there. It's just sad--very very painful and sad to watch Stan and Ollie playing nursemaid to a runaway Prince. Plus, with not a single effective gag, it's pretty tedious and ineffectual as a comedy. Fortunately, their next film, THE BULLFIGHTERS, was a bit better.By the way, this isn't the team's worst 1940s outing--that would definitely be THE BIG NOISE. However, NOTHING BUT TROUBLE certainly is pretty close as is THE DANCING MASTERS. MGM should have been ashamed of themselves for this turkey.