Be Big!

1931
6.7| 0h28m| NR| en
Details

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!".

Director

Producted By

Hal Roach Studios

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Reviews

Interesteg What makes it different from others?
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Hitchcoc Once again the boys try to fool their wives by feigning illness. This time instead of taking them to Atlantic City, Ollie gets wind of a stag at their lodge and apparently it's in his honor. After convincing Stan that he is not actually sick, they set about preparing for the event. However, it takes half the episode to get Stan's boots off Ollie, who has accidentally put them on. Stan's boots are way too small. Nothing ever works out because the women have to return and the boys are caught red handed. Nevertheless, while the women are away, things are hilarious. We would ask ourselves, if this were a realistic venue, why these guys are so cavalier in their efforts to try to get up to something when these things are doomed.
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.
Jackson Booth-Millard Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Ollie and Stan are packed for a trip to Atlantic City with their wives (Isabelle Keith and Anita Garvin). But then Ollie gets a phone call from their friend Cookie (Baldwin Cooke) who invites them to a surprise stag party, he originally refuses because of the wives, but he agrees when he hears of things to expect. So Ollie gets talcum powder on his face, and pretends to be very sick to fool the wives, and Stan as well, and they go without them. So the wives leave for the train station without the boys, and they start dressing in their special clothes, while the wives find out that they just missed the train, and go back. While dressing for the stag night, Ollie manages to get his boot stuck on his foot, only to realise that he has got Stan's pair, so there is a big struggle to get one boot off. They try pulling hard on the rocking chair, using the boot jack and a little hammering, manoeuvring on the fold away bed, and a final backwards fall into the bath. Eventually the wives return home, and the boys hide in the fold away bed, and when the wives know why, they shoot the boys (in the bed) through the window, crashing, and landing in the below pond. Also starring Charlie Hall as Bellboy. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!
bkoganbing This particular Hal Roach short with Laurel and Hardy seems to have worked so well that the idea was later expanded into their classic Sons Of The Desert comedy.Stan and Ollie are a couple of henpecked husbands who have planned to take a joint vacation to Atlantic City with the wives. But then Ollie gets a call from a hunt club that he and Stan belong to and it seems as though the gang is throwing them a bash. And since this is a guys only type gathering, they have to ditch the wives. Ollie fakes a tremendous headache in the usual overactive Ollie fashion and the wives decide to make it a girls only trip to Atlantic City. With the ruse working, Ollie and Stan have to get into their hunting outfits.Personally I find it hard to believe that some hoity toity outfit would even have Laurel and Hardy as members let alone as honored guests at a party. But leaving that aside, most of the film from this point on is taken up with Hardy having managed to squeeze into Laurel's boots by mistake now trying to get them off his feet with Laurel's inept assistance. I've never seen one gag milked so successfully for a film, granted it's just a short subject. Seeing poor Laurel struggling to get those boots off Hardy's feet, dragging him around the apartment and wrecking half of it is hilarious.Who could have known that in reality the title Be Big referred to Ollie's feet.