Although this was filmed at the tail end of 1929, "Night Owls" was the first Laurel & Hardy short released in the 1930s. Couldn't ask for a better beginning to the decade!
Plot In a Nutshell: An incompetent beat cop (Edgar Kennedy) blackmails two even more incompetent vagrants (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) to help him look good in front of the police chief, by pretending to be burglars who Kennedy will catch in the act. Good luck with that, buddy!
Why I rated it a '9': this was really, really funny. I was surprised to see several reviews here labeling "Night Owls" as "fair" or "middling" - to the contrary, I was laughing or at least amused pretty much the entire 20 minutes. From their attempts to scale a garden wall, to avoiding detection by pretending to be alley cats, to the actual break-in of the house, to the agreed-upon burglary, there is one fantastic bit after another in "Night Owls" that had me rewinding to watch again, more than once.
Favorite Scene: So many...Stan (who is supposed to be a noisy alley cat) throwing a shoe back at James Finlayson, clocking him in the face and knocking him down...Ollie tossing a brick over a wall, which proceeds to knock out a street lamp, and then knocks out Edgar Kennedy, the corrupt cop in their bargain...Ollie leaning back on a bench, inadvertently activating the player piano in the dead of night. "Night Owls" is truly hilarious. I loved this one!
9/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Do you even have to ask? Absolutely!
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