Laurel & Hardy: Chump at Oxford + Helpmates

Laurel & Hardy: Chump at Oxford + Helpmates
This wild Laurel and Hardy film casts the pair as street cleaners who stop a bank robbery. As their reward, they are both given full-ride scholarships to Oxford (which seems a bit odd, since it was the middle of the Depression). When they arrive at the British institution of higher learning, however, they become the objects of extensive pranks by the other students, who are upperclassmen in more ways than one and look down their noses at the working-class buffoons. Except for one thing: Stan, as it turns out, was one of Oxford's most distinguished and accomplished scholars before a blow on the head turned him into the easygoing dimwit we know and love. Another knock on the noggin turns him back into the veddy British lord, who promptly sets the other students straight. Some very funny business with the boys and a stuffy dean, whose quarters they invade. --Marshall Fine
Customer Review: Sweet fun entertainment
This movie begins with Stan and Ollie in the employment office, waiting for any available job they can do. Ollie happens to overhear that a butler and maid, preferrably a married couple, are wanted to host a swank party in town, immediately, and decides the two of them will take the job. Stan is forced to put on female attire and a curly blonde wig, far from the first time he's dressed in drag in one of their movies. This entire scene at the dinner party is a remake of their 1928 silent short 'From Soup to Nuts,' only Stan wasn't in drag in that one. Mr. Vanderveer, the host of this party, is played by the great character actor Jimmy Finlayson, at his usual best. However, things at this party don't quite go as planned, and the boys quickly find themselves out of a job. They are reduced to working as street sweepers, and are sitting there on the curb, feeling sorry for themselves, lamenting how they're just as good as other people yet don't have the education to prove it, when they inadvertently foil a bank robbery. The manager of the bank is eternally grateful, and when told the boys would like to get a higher education, rewards them by sending them off to Oxford. Needless to say, the boys don't fit in very well at Oxford, and immediately fall prey to a bunch of student pranksters (among them the great character actor Charley Hall). These two greenhorns are told to go through a shrubbery maze, which results in a classic scene. Some people might feel that the bit towards the end, these two grown men being scared by one of the students dressing up as a ghost, is a little silly and unbelievable, but it really doesn't seem too farfetched or ridiculous. After all, we know Stan and Ollie are like two overgrown little boys who don't inhabit the same type of world that more cynical and jaded adults do. After they finally make it through the immense endless maze, these students deceive them some more, this time directing them to the dean's office, telling them these are their living and sleeping quarters. One of these students even dresses up like the dean himself. In the middle of their revelries and nightcap in the dean's room, the real dean comes in and is none too pleased, particularly after he finds out how this came to happen. However, Stan and Ollie are not punished for their antics in the dean's quarters; they're taken to their own quarters while the guilty student is dealt with harshly. This enfuriates the band of pranksters, who begin chanting their fight song as they march over to get revenge. In their proper quarters, the boys meet the valet Meredith, who says he knows Stan, that his real name is Lord Paddington, and that he has quite a reputation at Oxford. They deny this could be possible, but Meredith remains convinced. The students are on their way to get revenge, the ominous chant getting louder and louder and closer and closer, when Stan leans out the window and promptly gets knocked on the head. This causes an instantaneously personality change, and he takes on all of the characteristics Meredith was saying Lord Paddington had, complete with repelling the lot of unruly students. This final section of the film is just classic, showing that Stan really was capable of being a serious actor (as well as showcasing his real British accent), and proving what committed fans have long known, that he's actually the smarter one and that Ollie is the slower and more childlike one. The tables are turned and now Ollie is the one getting ordered around by his best friend, who is acting very intellectually superior and even quite mean and petty, such as telling him he's got two chins and calling him Fatty. The ending of this film is one of my favorites of theirs, particularly since it shows just how genuinely they cared for one another, knowing that it wasn't acting and that they really were closer than brothers in real life as well.
Customer Review: An all-time classic.
Stan and Ollie are jobless and down on their luck. Before long, their jobs as a maid and butler (Stan forced to dress up in drag) go wrong, and they end up as street-sweepers. After, unwittingly, foiling a bank robbery, they are rewarded by the bank manager with an education. This leads to them going to an Oxford college, where they soon fall foul of student pranks. After Stan is hit on the head by a sliding window, both he and Ollie get an education they weren't expecting. When I first saw this film, around twenty years ago, it was one of my favourite Laurel and Hardy films, and I'd still say that now. This is L&H at their purest - hilarious situations, great characters and a warmth so lacking in most of today's comedy. In fact I'd say there's never a dull moment in this film, would put it up there with 'Way Out West' as L&H's finest.