Air Raid Wardens (1943)

Director:

Edward Sedgwick

Writers:

Martin Rackin (writer) and
Harry Crane (writer) ...

Release Date:

30 April 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

70 Minutes Of Happiness and Hi-Jinks!

Plot:

Two bumblers, failures as businessmen and air raid wardens, stumble across a nest of Nazi saboteurs bent on blowing up the local magnesium plant.

Plot Keywords:

Magnesium | Sabotage | Moose Head | Carrier Pigeon | Bicycle Shop

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Stan Laurel	...	Stan
Oliver Hardy	...	Ollie
Edgar Kennedy	...	Joe Bledsoe
Jacqueline White	...	Peggy Parker
Stephen McNally	...	Dan Madison (as Horace McNally)
Nella Walker	...	Millicent Norton
Donald Meek	...	Eustace Middling
Henry O'Neill	...	Rittenhause
Howard Freeman	...	J.P. Norton
Paul Stanton	...	Capt. Biddle
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Charlie Beaugart
William Tannen	...	Joseph
Russell Hicks	...	Maj. Scanlon
Philip Van Zandt	...	Herman
Frederick Worlock	...	Otto

Runtime:

67 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #9114) | Australia:G

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In 1976, Fairchild issued an MGM "Film Classic" puzzle series which included this film. The photo used for the 250-piece puzzle is obviously a publicity still (#1287) and not an actual scene, as it depicts in color Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy seated in a demolished antique car that is up against a tree. The car has no tires, only rims, although one back tire is shown lying on the ground in the rear.

Quotes:

Oliver: [inside the open car trunk] This is a job for the detectives.
Stanley: Maybe we should turn 'em over to the FHA.
Oliver: Yeah. Shhh!
[they get out of the car trunk.]
Stanley: This must be the hide-in.
Oliver: Hide-out! Come on.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Myra Breckinridge (1970)

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.