Name: Cocktails
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1928-12-26
Duration: 1 h 40 min
Rating: 6.8
Cast: Carl Schenstrøm, Harald Madsen, Enid Stamp-Taylor

Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen were the leading pair of 'Fat and Skinny' comedians in the movie world until Laurel and Hardy came along. While their characters never shed their movie-comic trappings -- ill fitting costumes, weird mustaches and bad hats -- they remained enormously popular and continued making films until 1940 -- two years after their first and best director, Lau Lauritzen Sr. died and two years before Schenstrom, the skinny one died.

Kinowelt, which has had success with its Laurel & Hardy DVD set has produced a seven-DVD set of the comedies, under the title "Pat und Patachon", the names they were known under in Germany. I have issues. The versions are cut down (this one is 48 minutes instead of the original run time of 67 minutes) and a voice over tells you what is going on -- in German, which, alas, I do not speak. These are apparently TV versions made in the late 1960s or early 1970s and it is difficult to judge what is missing -- although a lot of the continuity is definitely lost.

This time the pair are a couple of petty thieves -- Schenstrøm is a skilled pickpocket. They wind up in England, involved by chance in a cocaine smuggling racket, where the wrong man has been arrested. With all good comedies, however, the point of the plot is to get from one good comedy gag to another, and in this cut down version they are sprinkled very liberally and funnily throughout. Also the two show a lot more empathy throughout than they usually do. Perhaps it is the English setting that encourages them to be more transgressive in their behavior -- their Danish and German efforts usually are too mild for my tastes. Why not try this one and see if it is to yours?

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Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen in Cocktails (1928)

Cocktails

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