I hope that when you see this great Laurel & Hardy feature film the print has the actual concluding joke - a bit macabre but fitting as it is. As the film is usually shown today, the joke may be briefly glimpsed (in some prints) before the film ends. More about that later.
BLOCK-HEADS has some claim to being the best of the final Laurel & Hardy / Hal Roach feature films (A CHUMP AT OXFORD is it's closest competitor). In it Stan and Ollie begin in 1918, as the men are about to go over the top from a trench in the last battle of the war. But Stan is ordered by the Captain to guard the trench, so Ollie goes out alone. We watch a brief, spartan montage showing 20 years passed and Stan is still in the trench. He has survived on cooked canned beans - and there is a mountain of cans on the side of the trench. As he is about to eat he hears a plane's motor approaching, and starts machine gunning the plane. The plane lands, and the aviator comes over angrily demanding what Stan is doing. When Stan explains he is fighting the war, the aviator laughs and tells him the war's been over for 20 years. Despite some questions about the truth of this ("It better be true, or someone will get in trouble!", says Stan) he leaves the trench.
Ollie has become a henpecked husband to Minna Gombell, and they are planning to have their first wedding anniversary, when Ollie learns that Stan is still alive. He goes out to the old soldier's home where Stan currently is, and sees his friend sitting in a wheel chair, apparently with one leg. In one of the most touching moments of their joint film careers Ollie's facial expression is deeply saddened by his friend's loss. He sits down and chats with Stan (who is glad to see him), and he starts wheeling him to his car - he'll take Stan home for dinner. Stan tells him "I'm better now!", and Ollie smilingly accepts this. But then another man comes and takes the wheelchair back (over Ollie's temporary objections). A minute later, while carrying Stan he momentarily has to put Stan down. Stan manages to stand up - he has both legs after all - and Ollie suddenly realizes this when Stan is back in his arms. Ollie drops Stan. A moment later, in Ollie's car, he says with great frustration, "You're Better Now!!"
BLOCK-HEADS has been called the ultimate expanding disaster film of Laurel & Hardy - a type of expanded version of their sound short HELPMATES from a few years earlier, where Stan is supposed to get Ollie's house ready after a wild party before Mrs. Hardy comes home. Instead he ruins Ollie's wardrobe (Ollie ends up dressed up in a costume like a 19th Century Admiral) and Stan cleans up the house - but burns it down accidentally. In BLOCK-HEADS Ollie lives in an apartment house, and Stan manages to wreck Ollie's car (actually it's Minna Gombell's car) and blows up Ollie's kitchen. He also smashes the marriage (or appears to - Gombell is last seen headed for the old soldier's home to have them take Stan back). Stan is also responsible in part for a near confrontation between Ollie and his neighbor James Finleyson (which almost ends up in a fist fight - but Jimmy still manages to clock Ollie in the end).
But finally there is the problem of the Gilberts. Patricia Ellis and Billy Gilbert are the Gilberts, the next door neighbors of the Hardys. Billy Gilbert (who had frequently popped up in Laurel & Hardy shorts like THE CHIMP, TOWED IN THE HOLE, and COUNTY HOSPITAL) is a big game hunter who has just returned home. Gilbert is very jealous of his pretty wife, and she manages to get into the Hardy apartment innocently enough to help them clean up, but her clothes get ruined. They lend her some of Hardy's overly large pajamas, but Mrs. Hardy is in the apartment, and they have to sneak her out in a trunk. But Mr. Gilbert returns, and he starts sneering at Stan as a home wrecker. But shortly after he realizes there is a woman in the trunk, and he starts calling Ollie an "old dog" for putting one over his old lady - and then starts mentioning his own extra-marital activities. Mrs. Gilbert, hearing this, rises out of the suitcase and confronts her husband.
But Billy is soon chasing Ollie and Stan with a shotgun. And he is firing it every now and then. Soon they are in the courtyard of the apartment house complex and he fires, and dozens of men jump out of the windows of the apartments! Today that is the point the film ends. Most people do not mind, but there is a better end that exists. The last shot was to show Billy Gilbert sitting and reading in his parlor. We see stuffed animals all over the place - and finally Stan and Ollie's on the wall. Ollie's head turns towards Stan's and says "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.", and Stan starts to cry. Interesting actual ending of a first rate comedy.
BLOCK-HEADS has some claim to being the best of the final Laurel & Hardy / Hal Roach feature films (A CHUMP AT OXFORD is it's closest competitor). In it Stan and Ollie begin in 1918, as the men are about to go over the top from a trench in the last battle of the war. But Stan is ordered by the Captain to guard the trench, so Ollie goes out alone. We watch a brief, spartan montage showing 20 years passed and Stan is still in the trench. He has survived on cooked canned beans - and there is a mountain of cans on the side of the trench. As he is about to eat he hears a plane's motor approaching, and starts machine gunning the plane. The plane lands, and the aviator comes over angrily demanding what Stan is doing. When Stan explains he is fighting the war, the aviator laughs and tells him the war's been over for 20 years. Despite some questions about the truth of this ("It better be true, or someone will get in trouble!", says Stan) he leaves the trench.
Ollie has become a henpecked husband to Minna Gombell, and they are planning to have their first wedding anniversary, when Ollie learns that Stan is still alive. He goes out to the old soldier's home where Stan currently is, and sees his friend sitting in a wheel chair, apparently with one leg. In one of the most touching moments of their joint film careers Ollie's facial expression is deeply saddened by his friend's loss. He sits down and chats with Stan (who is glad to see him), and he starts wheeling him to his car - he'll take Stan home for dinner. Stan tells him "I'm better now!", and Ollie smilingly accepts this. But then another man comes and takes the wheelchair back (over Ollie's temporary objections). A minute later, while carrying Stan he momentarily has to put Stan down. Stan manages to stand up - he has both legs after all - and Ollie suddenly realizes this when Stan is back in his arms. Ollie drops Stan. A moment later, in Ollie's car, he says with great frustration, "You're Better Now!!"
BLOCK-HEADS has been called the ultimate expanding disaster film of Laurel & Hardy - a type of expanded version of their sound short HELPMATES from a few years earlier, where Stan is supposed to get Ollie's house ready after a wild party before Mrs. Hardy comes home. Instead he ruins Ollie's wardrobe (Ollie ends up dressed up in a costume like a 19th Century Admiral) and Stan cleans up the house - but burns it down accidentally. In BLOCK-HEADS Ollie lives in an apartment house, and Stan manages to wreck Ollie's car (actually it's Minna Gombell's car) and blows up Ollie's kitchen. He also smashes the marriage (or appears to - Gombell is last seen headed for the old soldier's home to have them take Stan back). Stan is also responsible in part for a near confrontation between Ollie and his neighbor James Finleyson (which almost ends up in a fist fight - but Jimmy still manages to clock Ollie in the end).
But finally there is the problem of the Gilberts. Patricia Ellis and Billy Gilbert are the Gilberts, the next door neighbors of the Hardys. Billy Gilbert (who had frequently popped up in Laurel & Hardy shorts like THE CHIMP, TOWED IN THE HOLE, and COUNTY HOSPITAL) is a big game hunter who has just returned home. Gilbert is very jealous of his pretty wife, and she manages to get into the Hardy apartment innocently enough to help them clean up, but her clothes get ruined. They lend her some of Hardy's overly large pajamas, but Mrs. Hardy is in the apartment, and they have to sneak her out in a trunk. But Mr. Gilbert returns, and he starts sneering at Stan as a home wrecker. But shortly after he realizes there is a woman in the trunk, and he starts calling Ollie an "old dog" for putting one over his old lady - and then starts mentioning his own extra-marital activities. Mrs. Gilbert, hearing this, rises out of the suitcase and confronts her husband.
But Billy is soon chasing Ollie and Stan with a shotgun. And he is firing it every now and then. Soon they are in the courtyard of the apartment house complex and he fires, and dozens of men jump out of the windows of the apartments! Today that is the point the film ends. Most people do not mind, but there is a better end that exists. The last shot was to show Billy Gilbert sitting and reading in his parlor. We see stuffed animals all over the place - and finally Stan and Ollie's on the wall. Ollie's head turns towards Stan's and says "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.", and Stan starts to cry. Interesting actual ending of a first rate comedy.