Series: Stan Laurel Director: Scott Pembroke Producer: Joe Rock Titles: Tay Garnett Photography: Edgar Lyons Editor: Stars: Stan Laurel, Julie Leonard, Max Asher, Charlie King Company: Standard Cinema Corporation/ Film Booking Office of America Released: 30 January 1925 Length: 2 reels Production No.: Filming dates: Rating: 3/10

Somewhere In Wrong

BEST BLU-RAY VERSION

Stan and his tramp buddy are sitting by a stream when Stan realises his shoes have no bottoms to them. Meanwhile a farmer and his daughter are threatened by the real estate agent with eviction unless they pay their due mortgage. The daughter bakes some doughnuts and leaves them on the window ledge to cool down, whilst Stan and his friend wander by. Stan boldly walks up the path to the house but is confronted and mauled by a large dog. After the daughter comes out to claim the dog Stan and his friend climb the perimeter fence and make their way into the yard with Stan climbing down the washing line to try and get to the doughnuts. This arouses the dog who tries to jump up to catch him. The commotion brings out the daughter and the rifle-toting farmer who takes aim and shoots Stan's friend off the fence. In a strange twist of fate the daughter takes pity on Stan and invites him in for something to eat. He sits at the table and shoves whole doughnuts into his mouth, swallowing them whole whilst the girl busies herself with some cooking on the stove. She later invites him to "help himself" to them, which he does by stuffing them into his jacket pockets. The father walks into the room and gives Stan a knowing look so Stan takes them back out of his pockets and puts the food back on the plate. The father puts some money into his safe and leaves the room before Stan goes in and searches for the safe, which he finds after first mistaking it for a mirror. The daughter comes in and finds Stan before pointing him in the right direction. But despite his best efforts Stan cannot open the safe. The film then takes an unusual and unexplained turn as the grocery boy is seen flirting his magic tricks with the girl.

Stan, now dressed in tidy clothing and carrying a crate of eggs is confused by the man's tricks when he hides an object in one of his hands and asks Stan to guess which one it's in. After failing to guess on serveral occasions, and having crushed some eggs in his pockets, the confused Stan watches the guy waltz off with the girl. Later that night the landlord creeps into the farmer's house and goes straight for the safe whilst Stan sleeps in a room with a rifle by his bed (no explanation is made as to how we got to this point!) Stan wakes and is scared when he sees his own foot poking out from the end of the bed and threatens to shoot it (mistaking it for the intruder's hand). He shoots, regardless. The intruder escapes with the money from the safe but gives himself up when Stan fires again (accidentally). Stan is then distracted by the girl who emerges in a see-through nightgown that he falls to the ground when the intruder kicks the rifle away from under him (see favourite bit) and then flees. Stan, who is now apparently friends with the dog and also wearing a suit and tie, visits the Real Estate office and easily removes the same money from the safe in the office which has been stolen from the house. He returns to the house and hands back the money to the real estate man and earns the love of the girl. Stan then gets the grocery boy to distract the real estate man by performing his magic tricks whilst Stan steals the deeds from the man's jacket pocket. Stan then breaks a dish in the kitchen and blames the dog. He writes the girl a love poem but is heartbroken to see her in the arms of the grocery boy so he goes outside where he cries uncontrollably whilst stuffing more doughnuts down his throat!

Favourite bit Stan is so distracted by the girl that he falls flat on his face when the rifle he is leaning against is kicked out of the way by the burglar.

Trivia • This was the fifth film Stan Laurel made for Joe Rock, and the first to be released in 1925. • At the bottom of each intertitle card it reads "Stan Laurel Comedies". Sorry, but aren't comedies meant to be funny? • According to one intertitle card, the farmer's daughter (Julie Leonard) is seventeen. At the time of filming she was in fact 22 years old. • At the time of this review (December 2018), this is one of the very small handful of Stan Laurel solo films which is available on Blu-Ray. To be fair, although the picture quality is decent, I don't think it is as superior as other hi-definition transfers I have seen elsewhere of other films of this period. The print of this film available on The Stan Laurel Collection DVD is just as decent in my opinion. What the experts say • "Stan Laurel at his usual unfunny, annoyingly irritating self." ~ Lord Heath.

	Stan Laurel Stan, the tramp
	Julie Leonard The farmer's daughter
	Max Asher Tramp
	Charlie King Suitor
	Pete The dog

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

CREDITS

INTERTITLE CARDS

JULIE LEONARD

Acknowledgements: Laurel Or Hardy by Rob Stone (book) This page was last updated on: 07 December 2018