Be Big!

1931
6.8| 0h28m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 07 February 1931 Released
Producted By: Hal Roach Studios
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Stan and Ollie are on their way to Atlantic City with their wives, when Ollie gets a phone call from a lodge buddy telling him that a stag party is taking place that night in their honor. Ollie pretends to be sick and sends the wives on ahead, promising that he and Stan will meet them in the morning. The pair dress in their lodge gear, but their wives return having missed their train. With no obvious escape route, Stan and Ollie take to a bed in fear and in response to Stan's plea of "What'll I do?", Ollie replies "Be big!".

Genre

Comedy

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Director

James W. Horne

Production Companies

Hal Roach Studios

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Be Big! Audience Reviews

LouHomey From my favorite movies..
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Be Big!" is an American 24-minute black-and-white film from 1931, so this one is already over 85 years old and it stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, still considered the perhaps best comedy duo in film history today. This is one of their sound short films in fact and from the audio you can see that the medium sound film really hadn't progressed far at that point. It does sound a bit amateurish. But this is not the biggest problem here. I think it is the script that just feels pretty uninspired even if the two in the lead come close to making it work at least partially and probably nobody could have done it better then them. However, it all feels really uninteresting and that surprises me a bit as the two writers and the director were very successful and prolific back in the day and had also worked wih Stan and Ollie on several occasions. The one thing I found particularly weak was the wives reference, one that is common in the duo's films that they are bossed around by their wives and at least kinda deserve it. But the actresses did not impress me and honestly, they are their wives! There needs to be at least a bit of caring, sympathy and compassion there, but they were 100% antagonists. So all in all, this film is far from being as funny as I wanted it to be and for me it is npowhere near the best I've seen from Laurel and Hardy and I've seen a lot. Gotta give this one a thumbs-down. The material is maybe good enough for 10-12 minutes max if we take the better sequences only. Watch something else instead.
thejcowboy22 Excuses Excuses Stan and Ollie convince their wives that they can't go with them on a Vacation.They con-cocked a story of illness to stay behind.The whole short takes place in Ollie's abode complete with bathtub and boot jack remover.Pulling and tugging and trying to remove Ollie's tight boots that really belong to Stanley's feet. Hilarious for 5 minutes but the majority of the short focuses on the failure of the boot removal accompanied by that horrible background music which sounds like someone trying to defecate in a factory toilet.The only viewers who would be pleased would be the National Rifle Association when the wives come home with there shotgun in hands ready to fire!
FlushingCaps "Be Big" features our two heroes happily about to go on a vacation to Atlantic City with their wives. The bags are packed, they are on the verge of leaving for the train when the phone rings, for Ollie. It is a lodge brother, telling him about a "surprise stag party" being underway in their honor.I would be perturbed at this last-minute invitation. I also wouldn't want to cut short a vacation trip with my wife. I should mention both Stan and Ollie have good-looking wives in this film, and are presented as having no reason to NOT want this vacation trip.But Ollie decides to go along, so he feigns illness and, despite acting like a wounded moose, convinces his wife and Stan's to take the train as planned. "Stan can stay and take care of me. Tomorrow, I'll feel fine and we can join you then." The wives go along with this non-sense and head off to the train station.The boys now need to change into their hunting outfits for the stag party. Ollie tells Stan to go (across the hall) to get his outfit and they can change together. Ollie is next seen struggling to pull on a boot. With Stan's help, he finally gets it on, only to learn that he has squeezed Stan's boot onto his foot. They now spend several more minutes struggling to take it off.Virtually half of this entire short film deals with the struggles with the one boot on Ollie's right foot. They wind up pulling off curtain rods and causing other havoc in the apartment. The finish, which naturally involves the wives returning and discovering the hoax, has some gunshots which truly destroy the apartment, without, of course, harming any people.The boot antics could have been amusing if trimmed to two minutes or fewer. But around 12 minutes or more of this was so tedious I found myself just wanting it to end. If they had tried different tactics, it might have worked, but the vast majority of the time simply had Stan trying to get into a position to pull the boot off. Way too repetitious to be funny for even one-eighth the length of the bit.This makes it one of the least-funny Laurel and Hardy short I've seen. Sorry to have to give it a 3.
Ron Oliver A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. The Boys are all set to take their wives for a weekend in Atlantic City when Ollie discovers that the gang at the club are going to hold a stag party in their honor that very night. Feigning a terrific nervous headache, he gets Stanley to agree to send the wives on ahead by themselves. Now Ollie & Stanley can dress for the party - except for the little matter of Stanley's boots on Ollie's feet. If the wives find out they've been tricked, the Boys had better face their wrath like grownups and BE BIG!This is a very funny film, relying almost entirely on slapstick humor - one has to wonder how Ollie could take those falls without seriously hurting himself. Watching him strain to get Stanley's boot off his right leg is genuinely exhausting and will make all fat men ache in sympathy.