The other day, I saw a post on Facebook asking for input on whether the 1944 Laurel and Hardy feature “The Big Noise” deserved to be considered among the worst films ever made. After all, many Laurel and Hardy aficionados label it as the duo’s on-screen nadir, and it was also cited in a book that allegedly ranked the all-time 50 worst films.
Having not seen the film since I was around 10 or 11, I gave the film a new viewing. Having a fresh perspective on the subject, I can confidentially state that “The Big Noise” is nowhere near being among the worst films of all time. But truth be told, the film is pretty bad.
In “The Big Noise,” Laurel and Hardy are janitors at a detective agency who aspire to become full-time sleuths. While cleaning the office, they field a call from an eccentric inventor who wants to hire detectives to guard his latest creation, a super-duper bomb. The duo pretends to be detectives and take the job and, not surprisingly, create havoc to themselves and their surroundings. Meanwhile, a criminal gang that was planning to burglarize the inventor’s home to steal his wealthy aunt’s extensive jewelry collection learn about the bomb and figure they can steal it and sell it a foreign government – remember, this is 1944, so the crooks are both unsavory and unpatriotic. Long story short, Laurel and Hardy save the day and use the bomb to blow up a Japanese submarine.
The main problem with “The Big Noise” is the utter lack of original ideas. During wartime, every Hollywood funnyman was taking on the Axis and fifth columnists, and the us-versus-them inevitably wound up with anvil slapstick as the too-dumb enemies fell victim to the heroes’ wisecracks and quick thinking. Thus, Laurel and Hardy were galumphing across a well-traveled route with the film’s plot.
The absence of originality also extended to the recycling of gags from older Laurel and Hardy films. “The Big Noise” was not the first time that Hardy climbed a pole covered in wet paint or had his trousers ripped by Laurel – nor was it the first time they were trapped in an out-of-control airplane or wound up in a tight train berth that could barely accommodate two grown men – although for the latter, the addition of comic drunk Jack Norton to the claustrophobic sleeping quarters gave some new spice to the tired old routine.
And speaking of being tired and old, it was fairly obvious that Laurel and Hardy were past their prime at this point in their careers. Their performances were mostly flat and monotonous, and they often gave their impression that they were bored being in the film. Some Laurel and Hardy supporters claim the problem with “The Big Noise” and their other films from the 1940s made at 20th Century Fox and MGM was due to their lack of creative control over their material. But considering the ample amount of their old gags recycled here, it is difficult to imagine that they had no input in how the material was presented.
However, the film is not without its charms. Supporting players Esther Howard as the rich aunt who flirts with Hardy and Philip Van Zandt as one of the crooks trying to steal the bomb are a lot of fun, and one-time silent movie star Francis Ford has a blink-and-you-miss-him moment as a train station attendant. Robert Blake, back in his kiddie actor days as Bobby Blake, has a few cute moments as a mischievous tyke in the inventor’s home. The film also has a sweet closing number with Laurel playing the novelty song “Mairzy Doats” while a school of fish dance to the lively tune.
But on the whole “The Big Noise” is not good. Yet it is hardly bottom-of-the-barrel atrocious.