After watching the 1990s and 1960s versions of Babes in Toyland, I had to finally take myself to the source. Well, the first film, that is. All of these evil movies are based on a 1903 operetta. But we shall not speak of this.
This first filmed version is a Laurel and Hardy venture, and I do generally like their scenes the most. I'm probably the first person to say this, but Laurel and Hardy have a pretty entertaining dynamic going on. They should do more stuff as a duo, I reckon.
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| These guys are funny. |
I was initially struck by the beauty of some of the sequences. There are some really impressive sets and beautifully lit shots. We get to see multiple sheep-woman hugs. Because the main woman in this version of the tale is Little Bo Peep. And she loves her sheep.
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| Aww. |
We also see an electric performance by Henry Brandon, who plays this movie's Barnaby, the evil top hat man. He gives the role a wide-eyed pantomime quality, and he does it so well. This man is REACTING. I love him.
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| I could fix him. With a hammer. |
So, for the first half of the movie, I was pretty into it. I felt a bit more connected to the very basic romance. A guy puts Bo Peep in the stocks and then kisses her, it's all very normal stuff. She loves her sheep, and so I support whatever other stuff she wants to do.
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| Sheep. |
The second half, however, devolves into impenetrable nonsense. Mickey Mouse throws a brick at a cat's head. Monkey men get released. It's a whole thing.
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| The innocent, normal cat. |
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| MICKEY NO! |
And I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "Lilly, that sounds amazing". Well, listen, some of it is thrilling. I can't deny that I love to see Mickey Mouse attack. But sadly, chaos too can become boring, and this is very much the case here. You're watching scenes of constant screaming by the end, and it turns into a sludge. It's like watching thirty minutes of white noise and racing blobs. What's going on here? I don't know, I stopped paying attention. There's one thousand monkey men in the city. Are they the titular babes? Are the monkey men the babes?
Sure. Whatever.
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| Barnaby and his monkey boys. |
One monkey man out of five.
★☆☆☆☆
So, that just leaves the animated feature...
ReplyDelete;-)
DeleteI love the 1930s commitment to just putting whatever real live animal they can find onto a sound stage. And then contrasting that with the most horrifying "animal" costume you've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteYessss there is a lot of very inventive, sort of beautifully hideous stuff from media of that time period. Love it.
DeleteI didn't know Laurel and Hardy were in this! They should put more random comedy duos in operetta adaptations!
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