The beginning of the film started off like MANY other Laurel and Hardy films. Ollie is married to a grouchy wife (Mae Marsh) and Stan phones Ollie so they can go out and have a good time. When the wife finds out, she hits the roof. However, the film takes a HUGE turn for the weird when a bit later, Stan convinces Ollie that his marriage would be a lot happier if they had a baby. So, they both leave and soon come back with a baby! This happened so quickly and with no apparent home study, so I can only assume they either found a baby vending machine or found one some place!! Now, here's where it gets REALLY weird. In the meantime, Ollie's harpy wife left him and a process server gives Ollie the divorce papers and Stanley a summons for alienation of affection! This, along with the line where Stan asks Ollie if he loves him more than Mae, make this all a very strange film--one that might be interpreted as having very, very strong gay undertones. This gets even more apparent when Stan announces he's leaving Ollie to fend for himself with the baby--and the conversation is deliberately written like Stan is the husband and Ollie is the jilted wife!! This was really, really funny! The rest of the film concerns the two idiots trying to care for the baby. All this is pretty funny and entertaining. However, unfortunately, the film just kind of ended,...with no real conclusion. According to IMDb, the movie was originally supposed to end with Mae returning--along with ANOTHER baby!! THAT would have been pretty funny. Overall, it's a slightly better than average Laurel and Hardy film that would probably be appreciated even more by a gay audience--they would probably laugh themselves silly with all the seemingly gay subtext.
Review of Their First Mistake
