VidMate
Free YouTube video & music downloader
ACTOR
Stan LaurelOliver HardyEdgar KennedyJacqueline White
DIRECTOR
Edward Sedgwick
SYNOPSICS
Air Raid Wardens (1943) is a English,German movie. Edward Sedgwick has directed this movie. Stan Laurel,Oliver Hardy,Edgar Kennedy,Jacqueline White are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1943. Air Raid Wardens (1943) is considered one of the best Action,Adventure,Comedy,War movie in India and around the world.
Turned down when they try to enlist, the boys do the next best thing and become air raid wardens. They uncover and foil a Nazi plot to sabotage a magnesium plant.
Same Director
Air Raid Wardens (1943) Reviews
Doing Their Bit For Uncle Sam
One of Laurel and Hardy's last films was this one for MGM where they play a couple of 4Fs who still want to do their bit for the USA at war with the Axis. After getting turned down by all the armed services, Stan and Ollie return to their small town and their bicycle shop to volunteer as air raid wardens. Their bicycle shop in fact has been taken over by Donald Meek who is running a radio repair shop, but Meek allows them back in as partners. MGM did give the boys an excellent supporting cast a lot better than what they usually had with Hal Roach. Problem is that they looked a bit old and tired and both were having health problems at the time. Still they got a few good slapstick licks in, especially with Edgar Kennedy and Howard Freeman who was a great foil for them. My favorite moment in the film was when after one foul up too many they get canned as air raid wardens and Stan who usually cried at the drop of a hat, was almost in real tears about it. Both he and Ollie really do want to do something for the war effort even if they know they're a pair of bumblers. Ollie in fact was the most restrained I've seen him. The Laurel and Hardy shtick is that Stan is a dummy and he knows it, Ollie is dumb, but has delusions of grandeur. Here Ollie also tones down the usual pomposity we expect from him. Of course they redeem themselves when they stumble on to a real group of Nazi spies. Among that cast of all American small town types are a pair of known character actors who are in fact spies and saboteurs. But you'll just have to see Air Raid Wardens to find out who.
Pretty bad - but still one of the better post-Roach films
In 1940, L&H quit Hal Roach after twelve years of partnership that yielded some of the finest comedies ever made. Their departure for 20th Century Fox was meant to be a step towards more creative control and freedom in the process of making films; alas, the opposite was the case. Their first two films under the new production company showed that L&H should, by Fox's definition, appear in front of the cameras and leave cutting, directing etc. to the professionals. Consequently, these two films were pale shadows of their great Roach-produced companions. Desperately, L&H sought a newer rainbow at MGM but were to be disappointed again. Even the best scenes in this film, "Air Raid Wardens", like two tit-for-tat sequences with their old colleague Edgar "Slowburn" Kennedy, lacked the spontaneous and improvised look of similar scenes´in, say, "Bacon Grabbers". Likewise, other slapstick moments in ARW like a poster-hanging bit have a rather mechanical look and are destroyed by poor editing. Yes, Stan's creative genius was sadly missing behind the camera. Furthermore, the whole patriotic atmosphere of the plot doesn't fit L&H's style one bit. And still this excuse for a comedy, although far, far from features like "Way Out West" or "Sons Of The Desert", emerges as one of the better post-Roach films after all; firstly, in contrast to most of the other later films, the romantic subplot is pretty much in the background and Stan & Ollie remain the main attraction. Secondly, there are at least a few scenes which REMIND you of L&H's better days; there are no such scenes to be found in "A-Haunting We Will Go" or "Nothing But Trouble", for example. So "Air Raid Wardens" is hardly a pain to sit through but is so vastly inferior to their Roach films that you regret once more that they left him for good in 1940.
Too Bad This Film Wasn't Produced on the Hal Roach Lot
Frustrated by their lack of artistic freedom at 20th Century Fox, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy hoped that MGM would provide them with more leeway. Superficially, their situation improved. Charlie Rogers and Jack Jevne, who had worked with Stan and Ollie during their glory days at Hal Roach, helped work on the script for the MGM production. The director, Edward Sedgwick, had a knack for slapstick and had worked with the Boys on the Roach film PICK A STAR. The scenario depicted Laurel and Hardy as sympathetic innocents instead of the obnoxious boneheads at Fox. The result, AIR RAID WARDENS, is an improvement over their last Fox picture A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO, but not a significant one. As the title suggests, the Boys are air raid wardens on the home front during World War II. This situation has considerable comedic potential and indeed the film does generate some laughs, particularly a scene where the Boys unsuccessfully try to control a dog at a town meeting. But many promising gags are marred by sluggish pacing. The lack of background music, a hallmark in the Hal Roach films, further hampers the gags. As in A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO, the villains, a group of Nazi spies, are too serious to effectively serve as antagonists for the slapsticky characters of Stan and Ollie. It is actually disturbing to view such sinister, humorless characters threaten the Boys. MGM should have followed the example of the Columbia short subjects department which pitted the Three Stooges against Keystone Cop-like Nazis in such wartime films like THEY STOOGE TO CONGA and HIGHER THAN A KITE. Even more distressing is the studio's misguided attempts to generate audience sympathy for Laurel and Hardy. When Stan and Ollie are at their lowest ebb, they wallow in humorless self-pity. In the classic Hal Roach films, no matter how badly things were, Laurel and Hardy never felt sorry for themselves and this was part of their popular appeal. In this film when the Boys say lines like "I guess we're not smart like other people." it isn't moving, just depressing. Those who haven't seen the team's Hal Roach films will probably find AIR RAID WARDENS satisfying. But those who have enjoyed such classics like SONS OF THE DESERT and WAY OUT WEST will find this film a letdown.
A Must See for all lovers of Stan and Babe!
This movie is a tome to all that is World War II, Real Patriotism, and of course our guys Laurel and Hardy........ The boys are grand, and whereas others may think that it was too "Deep" or not enough slapstick, I believe it shows the depth of skill that Stan and Ollie have. I must confess, I was a bit taken aback when seeing this the first time by Stanly's speech to the board of the Air Raid Wardens.... ,... between Stan's speech and Ollie's amazingly silent expressions,... I literally wept! I was simply stunned by the boys dramatic acting abilities... I recall Ollie as a bad guy in some silents, before Stan, and of course Stan also, but never had a clue as to the extent of their talent. I have loved Stan and Ollie for years (I am actually a cousin of Rosina Lawrence..."mary roberts" in way out west) and I was in personal contact with John McCabe before his death... (I am from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and just a few miles from Mackinac Island where John resided). I know of what I speak, and I say IF YOU ARE A STAN AND OLLIE FAN WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!
Too serious for a Laurel & Hardy movie.
This movie is too serious for the comical Laurel & Hardy that we are so accustomed to and love so much. The movie tries to give the movie depth with as a result that Laurel and Hardy are not given enough opportunities to show their silly antics. I consider this movie to be more of a WW II movie than a comedy. This movie is a real piece of American WW II propaganda. The boys give everything to get enlisted, so they can do their part for Uncle Sam during the war, against the Japanese. And Laurel & Hardy chasing and fighting Nazi-spies? Come on! That just doesn't feel right. The movie really is too serious for Laurel & Hardy standards. The movie tries to create a movie with a real story and even attempt to give it all some depth. But that's not what Laurel & Hardy should be about. We want to see some silly naive harmless fun. Yes, of course the movie does have its comical and slapstick moments but the combination of it with the serious undertone of the movie just doesn't feel right. It does provide a fairly good view of how the average American town coped with the ongoing war, so from an historical point of view this movie still is an interesting one to watch. No must-see for the Laurel & Hardy lovers but also not a completely unwatchable movie. It really does have its moments and it never gets dull. Too bad that it's brought all way too serious and because of this Laurel & Hardy are also never really given the opportunity to shine, like the way they used to. 6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/