Laurel and Hardy: The Secret Agents

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Movie
German title The secret agents
Dick and Doof as secret agents
Original title A-Haunting We Will Go
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 69 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Alfred L. Worker
script Lou Breslow
Stanley Rauh
production Sol M. Wurtzel
music David Buttolph
Cyril J. Mockridge
camera Glen MacWilliams
cut Alfred Day
occupation

The Secret Agents , also Dick and Doof as secret agents at the FBI and Wir geht zaubern , Dick and Doof on a secret mission , Fauler Zauber ( A-Haunting We Will Go ), is an American feature film and a comedy comedy from 20th Century Fox from 1942 the comedian duo Laurel and Hardy and with a grotesque ending.

action

As freshly released vagabonds, Oliver and Stanley have been ordered to move out of town. Looking for a ride, they get an advertisement from a gang of five crooks who recruits them as couriers for an alleged transport of corpses. In the coffin, however, is Darby Mason, a fleeting accomplice through whom an inheritance is to be stolen. On the platform, the coffin is accidentally exchanged for the identical prop box of the illusionist Dante, who is traveling on the same train.

During the trip, a trickster duo turns the two protagonists on a toy which, after entering a low banknote, issues a note with ten times the face value, the "inflator". The two take it at face value and purchase it along with a one-dollar bill in exchange for their last $ 50. After a sumptuous meal in the dining car, they produce a ten-dollar bill for payment. But appearances are deceptive and the train staff treat them as dodgers. However, after Dante has vouched for them, they come closer to him and they join him as an assistant. The villains, meanwhile, await the coffin with their accomplice in their hideaway, but only find Dante's utensils in the delivered coffin.

In the theater, the two heroes are prepared for their appearance and disguised as Orientals. The crooks then appear there and, under threats, demand their exchanged coffin back from their couriers. Meanwhile, Dante begins his show in front of a large audience. First he makes a virgin disappear. When Stan and Olli suddenly appear on stage, fleeing from their captors, he has to improvise. Meanwhile, the crooks give up their friend and decide to flee, which is made more difficult by a police officer present. As the program progresses, the coffin that was previously hung up in the arena dome is lowered and opened, whereupon, to Dante's astonishment, the corpse of crook Doc Lake appears. It turns out that he was murdered. The policeman takes over the investigation and suspects, among other things, Dante. The police, who have arrived in the meantime, arrest the crooks, while attorney Kilgore, who is also present, reveals the inheritance as bogus. His client Mason, the one of the crooks who was in the coffin at the beginning, turns out to be the murderer. The grotesque final scene shows Stan, the size of a dwarf, stepping out of an egg to Olli's amusement.

Further subplot strands are several surreal stage effects, for example Stan is in several places at the same time and Ollie meets himself. In an "Indian rope trick" the climbing Stan actually threatens to fall because the flute playing Ollie interrupts his playing several times. In a permanent joke interrupted by plot fragments, several people fall one after the other through a hole in the floor into a lion's cage and seek protection from the predator.

background

The Danish-born entertainer Harry August Jansen (1883–1955) alias Dante the Magician plays himself here. During his lifetime, Jansen was considered one of the most famous magicians in the USA.

The English original title A-Haunting We Will Go is a corruption of the English song A-Hunting We Will Go ("We go hunting"; "On to the hunt" - "Spuken", "Haunted" instead of "Hunting").

Reviews

"Amusing comedy without the closeness of other Laurel & Hardy films"

- Lexicon of International Films

"This time a lot of stretched, thin and therefore only moderately entertaining humor from the 'mad movies' with the two popular American comedian stars."

- Protestant film observer

German versions

  • The film was first released in 1951 in a German dubbed version under the titles Dick and Doof in a secret mission and Dick and Doof as a magician . The dubbing was done at Elite-Film , the dialogue book was written by Albert Baumeister and Wolfgang Schick . Albert Baumeister also took over the direction. Walter Bluhm spoke to Stan and Arno Paulsen dubbed Ollie.
  • A second version was made by the International Film Union under the title Dick and Doof as secret agents at the FBI . Horst H. Roth wrote the book and also directed it. Walter Bluhm and Arno Paulsen could be heard again as Stan and Ollie.
  • For the ZDF series Lachen Sie mit Stan and Ollie , a third version was created in 1979 at Beta-Technik , entitled Fauler Zauber . The script and dialogue direction were in the hands of Wolfgang Schick. Walter Bluhm spoke to Stan again and Michael Habeck took over Ollie. This version is the only one available and also served as the basis for the DVD release.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laurel and Hardy: The Secret Agents in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  2. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 541/1967.
  3. ↑ a b c Norbert Aping: Das kleine Dick-und-Doof-Buch Schüren, Marburg 2014, appendix p. 421ff.