Main Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Betty Healy, Daphne Pollard, Sidney Toler
Release Year: 1936
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Working on the theory that the only thing funnier than Laurel and Hardy is two sets of Laurel and Hardys, Our Relations milks its central mistaken-identity situation for all it's worth. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are two solid citizens, happily married and highly respected in their community. One morning, Hardy receives a letter from his mother, containing an old photo of himself and Laurel with their twin brothers, Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy. Mamma also reveals that Alf and Bert turned out to be "bad lads" and ran off to sea, and that reportedly they'd been hanged for taking part in a mutiny. "Isn't that calamitous!" remarks Hardy, who conspires with Laurel to hide the facts about their no-good brothers from their wives. Meanwhile, in another part of town, the S.S. Periwinkle pulls into port. Among the crew members are the selfsame Alf and Bert, who have decided to entrust their pal Fin (James Finlayson) with their month's salary. Fin has promised to invest the dough so that the boys will become millionaires "before you can say Jack Robinson". Alf and Bert are then summoned to the cabin of their captain (Sidney Toler), who orders them to pick up a valuable package for him, then meet him later at Denker's Beer Garden. While waiting for the captain at Denker's, Alf and Bert are captivated by a pair of waterfront floozies, Alice (Iris Adrian) and Lily (Lona Andre). Talked into buying the girls a huge meal for which they haven't the necessary funds, Alf and Bert decide to go back to Fin and reclaim their money, leaving the contents of the captain's package-a valuable pearl ring-with tough waiter Joe Groagan (Alan Hale) as security. Later, Laurel and Hardy take their wives Betty (Betty Healy) and Daphne (Daphne Pollard) to lunch-and, inevitably, they end up at Denker's Beer Garden, where the equally inevitable mix-ups begin to occur. Things snowball from bad to worse before both sets of twins, an angry captain, a disgruntled Fin, the wives, the floozies, a genial drunk (Arthur Housman) and a brace of smooth gangsters (Ralf Harolde and Noel Madison) all converge at the upscale Pirate Club. Several slapstick complications later, Laurel and Hardy are captured by the gangsters, who threaten to dump the boys in the river with their feet encased in cement if they don't cough up the pearl ring. Alf and Bert come to the rescue, and all is well, at least until the film's boffo punchline. Based on W.W. Jacobs' short story The Money Box, Our Relations is perhaps the most plot-heavy of Laurel and Hardy's features for Hal Roach Studios. It is also one of their funniest, as well as their most lavishly produced. The film was officially listed as "A Stan Laurel Production"-as if Laurel hadn't been the prime creative force behind all of the team's previous films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
James Finlayson - Finn the chief engineer; Iris Adrian - Alice, the Beer Garden Girl; Lona Andre - Lily, the Other Cafe Girl; Alan Hale - Joe Groagan, the Waiter; Arthur Houseman - Drunk; Ralf Harolde - Gangster; Noel Madison - Gangster; Ernie Alexander; Harry Arras; Johnny Arthur; Gertrude Astor; Charles A. Bachman; Jay Belasco; Harry Bernard - Officer; Joe Bordeaux; Ray Cooke; Nick Copeland; Bobby Dunn - Messenger Boy; Jay Eaton; Jack Egan; Billy Engle; Dick French; Dell Henderson - Judge Polk; Cornelius Keefe; Rose Langdon; Sam Lufkin; Buddy Messinger; Gertrude Messinger; Art Miles; James C. Morton; Harry Neilman - Officer; Eddie Parker; Lee Phelps - Bartender; James Pierce - Doorman; Alex Pollard - Waiter; Constantine Romanoff - Tuffy; David Sharpe; Rosemary Thebv; Ruth Warren - Mrs. Addlequist; Harry Wilson - Seaman; Marvin Hatley; Fred Holmes - Bailiff; John Kelly - 1st Mate; Kay McCoy; Baldwin Cooke; Jack Cooper; Bob O'Connor - Grubby Wharf Toughs; Marvel Andre; Bunny Bronson; Alice Cook; Rita Dunn; Dick Gilbert; James Kilgannon - Other Drunk; Arthur Rowlands; Leo Sulky; Robert Wilbur - Cab Driver; Charlie Hall - Pawnshop Extra; Stanley "Tiny" Sandford
Credit
William L. Stevens - Art Director, Arthur I. Royce - Art Director, Harry Lachman - Director, Bert Jordan - Editor, LeRoy Shield - Composer (Music Score), LeRoy Shield - Musical Direction/Supervision, Rudolph Maté - Cinematographer, Stan Laurel - Producer, L.A. French - Producer, Roy Seawright - Special Effects, William Randall - Sound/Sound Designer, Felix Adler - Screenwriter, Jack Jevne - Screenwriter, Charles Rogers - Screenwriter, Richard Connell - Screenwriter, William Jacobs - Short Story Author
Our Relations is a 1936 feature film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Laurel for Hal Roach Studios. In the film, Laurel and Hardy star as both their famous Stan and Ollie characters and as Stan and Ollie's twin brothers Bert and Alf. The duo had previously made two other dual role films - Twice Two (in which they also played Stan and Ollie's wives) and Brats (in which they also played Stan and Ollie's children).
In most of the Laurel and Hardy films, their usual Stan and Ollie characters are a pair of hopeless dimwits, often just barely able to earn a living. In Our Relations, Stan and Ollie are respectable citizens with wives and steady employment. It is their sea-faring twin brothers, Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy, who are dim-witted incompetents. Alf and Bert are sailors aboard the S.S Periwinkle.
On board, of course, Alf and Bert wear seafaring garb. Once ashore, they dress in "civilian" clothes -- down to the traditional derbies -- making them nearly indistinguishable from their brothers. However, there's a foolproof clue in the neckties: Stan always wore a bow-tie, while Oliver wore the more conventional type. This is reversed for the brothers, with Alf wearing the usual style and Bert wearing the bowtie.
The film is distinguished by the camera work of successful dramatic cinematographer Rudolph Maté (The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)). As the film concerns two pairs of Laurels and Hardies, several process/matte shots featuring all four of Laurel and Hardy's characters are used.
In 2000, the Dutch revivalist orchestra The Beau Hunks collaborated with the Metropole Orchestra to re-create composer Leroy Shield's soundtrack to Our Relations from original sheet music that had been discovered in a Los Angeles archive in 1994 and 1995.
