Motion Picture Herald, 1934 Babes in Toyland is one of the greatest Laurel and Hardy features. Often times features with comedy teams in the 1930's and 40's had to have some drama and musical numbers as well, because many felt no one would sit through a feature length comedy that was nothing but comedy. The problem with this is that too often these elements worked against each other. So when one of these films comes where the comedy, drama and music work together so well it definitely is a treat. One reason they work together so well in Babes in Toyland is that the comedy contributes to the story and the other way around as well.
Hal Roach (this film's producer) and Walt Disney were good friends. Because of this Walt allowed this movie to use the song, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, from the Disney cartoon The Three Little Pigs. If you look closely a joke from that cartoon is also used in this film. He also allowed this film to feature Mickey Mouse as a character in Toyland. This Mickey Mouse was not animated, since this is a live action movie. It was instead a monkey in a Mickey Mouse suit. In Disney's 1961 film version two Laurel and Hardy impersonators appeared. To not be confused with Disney's movie this film was later renamed The March of the Wooden Soldiers. Laurel and Hardy were originally going to play Simple Simon and the pieman. It did not happen this way but in the Disney Silly Symphony cartoon, Mother Goose Goes Hollywood, the duo would be caricatured as Simple Simon and the pieman. Another Disney connection was that RKO wanted to purchase the rights to this story in the early 1930's to give it to the Disney studio to make an animated feature but Hal Roach purchased the rights first.
Hal Roach had much different plans for this film in the beginning. He had come up with his own story that he was very proud of, but when he should it to Stan Laurel, Stan felt that it was too bad to ever think about filming. Stan then came up with his own story for the film only to have Hal dismiss it as "lousy." After much arguing Hal caved in and the studio filmed Stan's version. This was an unusually large production for the Hal Roach Studio. The sets for Toyland and Bogey land were massively designed and given incredible detail. Even though this was a black and white movie, the sets were also beautifully colored. Stan once said he wished this film could have been in color, simply to show how beautiful the sets were. Though the film was later colorized we still don't know how it really looked.
One director of this movie was Charley Rogers, whose directorial efforts are nearly all Laurel and Hardy films. He had also appeared in many uncredited minor roles including some in Laurel and Hardy films. The other is Gus Meins who was a major director at the Hal Roach studio, working mostly on Our Gang films.
The story stars Stanley Dum (played by Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (played by Oliver Hardy), who live with the woman in the shoe (played by Florence Roberts) and her daughter Little Bopeep (played by Charlotte Henry). The woman in the shoe can't pay here rent and if she doesn't get the money soon Bopeep will have to marry the evil Barnaby (played by Henry Brandon), despite Bopeep being in love with Tom-Tom (played by Felix Night). Stan and Ollie try to do everything they can to help Bopeep, the woman in the shoe and Tom-Tom.
This film is very charming on all levels it is very funny, it has a good story, nice musical numbers, and a great atmosphere. The Bogey Land sequence is very atmospheric. The Stan and Ollie characters are just as likable as ever. Laurel and Hardy made three other comedy operettas, Fra Diavolo, Swiss Miss and The Bohemian Girl, and this is questionably the best one. Again though what makes this film so great is that all the different elements work together perfectly. None of them distract from the others, and they all are done well individually as well. Though the look of this movie may be dated it is very charming and is a delight to see. This is a classic.
Looking at various exhibitor's reviews for this film, many exhibitors complained that this movie had more appeal to kids than to adults. Other complained though that the Bogey men were too scary for kids (they never scared me as a kid). These complaints though did not stop this film from being a huge finical hit.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
The Complete Films of Laurel and Hardy by William K. Everson
Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies by Randy Skretvedt http://laurelandhardycentral.com/babes2.html
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