Saps at Sea (1940)

Directed by Gordon Douglas. Starring Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Richard Cramer, James Finlayson, Harry Bernard.

Ollie gets a bad case of “hornomania” from long hours spent working in a noisy horn factory, so he and Stan opt for some fresh air, and get lost at sea with an escaped murderer (Cramer) aboard their boat. One of L&H’s densest, nuttiest full-lengths, the last one they’d make at Hal Roach Studios. Utterly inconsequential but quite funny most of the time; the plot just gets in the way, like when the Cramer conflict is introduced in the second half, so it works best when it sticks to screwy un-reality, like the cartoonish cacophony of brass and a Dadaist apartment design. Ollie tries to milk a male goat, Stan can’t figure out the faucet knobs, the boys force down a “synthetic” breakfast, etc. Ben Turpin shows up briefly as a cross-eyed plumber; it was his last film appearance.

76/100