Another Fine Mess

For other uses, see Another Fine Mess (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Another Nice Mess.

Another Fine Mess
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Parrott
Produced by	Hal Roach
Written by	H.M. Walker
Starring	Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy
Music by	Leroy Shield
Cinematography	Jack Stevens
Editing by	Richard C. Currier
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	November 29, 1930 (1930-11-29)
Running time	28' 09"
Country	United States
Language	English

Another Fine Mess is a 1930 short comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy. It is based on the 1908 play Home From The Honeymoon by Arthur J. Jefferson, Stan Laurel's father, and is a talkie remake of the 1927 silent Laurel and Hardy film Duck Soup.

Plot

Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel are vagabonds being chased by the police. They hide in the cellar of the mansion of a Quatermain-esque adventurer, Col. Buckshot (James Finlayson), who departs for a safari in South Africa. The mansion is to be rented out until his return, but the staff sneak off for a holiday, leaving the house empty. The boys are surrounded by police and have to deceive a honeymooning couple wanting to rent the house. Oliver disguises himself as Buckshot and Stan disguises himself as both butler and chambermaid.

During a girl-talk scene with Thelma Todd and Stan (disguised as the maid), Stan's comments get sillier and sillier. The real Colonel returns, but Stan and Ollie escape dressed as a pantomime wildebeest on a stolen tandem bicycle.

Cast

• Stan Laurel
• Oliver Hardy
• Harry Bernard
• Bobby Burns
• Betty Mae Crane
• Beverly Crane
• Eddie Dunn
• Jimmy Finlayson
• Charles K. Gerrard
• Bill Knight
• Bob Mimford
• Gertrude Sutton
• Thelma Todd

Production

The title of the movie is Hardy's famous catchphrase "Another fine mess". However, in films Hardy always said "another nice mess". The only known occasion when "another fine mess" was apparently said by Ollie was in a radio programme in which the team appeared in the 1940s.^{[citation needed]}

This is also the second film to feature the line "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into," which was first used in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case.

Unlike other L&H shorts, the technical credits are recited by two girls in usherette outfits. Beverly and Betty Mae Crane performed the "talking titles" for several Roach shorts during the 1930-31 season as an experimental alternative to standard title cards.

No foreign-language versions are known to exist for this short. Possibly this short was shown with subtitles in non-English-speaking countries, as audiences were critical of the unnatural quality of the alternate versions.

See also

• 1930 in film
• List of American films of 1930

External links

• Another Fine Mess at the Internet Movie Database
• Another Fine Mess at Rotten Tomatoes