Welcome back to another look at a featured Letterboxd List! We’re sticking with the decades lists this week as we turn to the Top 250 films of the 1930s where we find Block-Heads.
Title: Block-Heads
Director: John G. Blystone
Released: August 19, 1938 (Theatrical – United States)
Runtime: 57 minutes
During the height of World War I, Private Laurel (Stan Laurel) is in the trenches. He’s told to guard his post until he’s relieved of duty. He understands his orders and watches as the rest of the troops, including his friend Ollie (Oliver Hardy), all go up and over into battle.
We flash forward to 1938 and there’s Laurel still on patrol in the same trench. Nobody ever came to relieve him, so he’s quite literally been following a direct order for the last 20 years. Judging by the mountain of bean cans, we can assume he’s been surviving solely on beans. He sees a plane flying overhead and immediately opens fire on it. The pilot, trying to figure out why someone is shooting at him, lands the plane and finds his way over to Laurel’s trench.
When confronted, Laurel explains that he’s just been guarding his post. The pilot calls him a block-head before explaining that the war has been over for 20 years. The pilot agrees to take him into town so that he can get re-acclimated to civilian life.
Meanwhile, Ollie recognizes his old friend’s face in the newspaper when a story is run about a soldier who’d been alone in the trenches for the last 20 years. He heads over to the National Soldiers Home to pay his friend a visit. Both of them are happy to reconnect, with Ollie going so far as giving Laurel an open invitation to stay at his house.
The only person unaware of the arrangement is Ollie’s wife.
These decades lists over on Letterboxd continue to be fun to work through. The 1930s list presented me with an opportunity to watch my first Laurel and Hardy film. While I’d heard about them, I’m glad to have finally seen them in something.
Block-Heads hits the ground running. By the time we are five minutes in, we’ve already seen two sight gags between the spot in the ground where Laurel turns during patrol and the mountain of empty cans of beans. Before we hit ten minutes we’ve established the premise, Laurel is reunited with Ollie, and it’s off to the races.
What’s truly impressive is the balance between story and comedy. There isn’t just random plot thrown in to bridge the gap between bits. No, we have an actual story that would work without any comedy in it. The story is then enhanced by what Laurel and Hardy are able to bring to the table. For example, when Laurel learns the war has been over for 20 years, his first response is “that would explain how quiet things have been”. A total throwaway line that legitimately made me chuckle.
But what I quickly learned is that physical comedy is the bread and butter for Laurel and Hardy. From the wheelchair bit, the automatic garage door, climbing 13 flights of stairs, and the “pipe” smoking from Laurel, the bits land every time. And at just under an hour long, it absolutely flies by.
Block-Heads was my first Laurel and Hardy film but it certainly won’t be my last.