Saps at Sea

1940 film by Gordon Douglas

Saps at Sea

Theatrical poster

Directed by| Gordon Douglas
Written by| Felix Adler
Harry Langdon
Gil Pratt
Charles Rogers
Produced by| Hal Roach
Starring| Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Richard Cramer
Cinematography| Art Lloyd
Edited by| William Ziegler
Music by| Marvin Hatley
Leroy Shield
Distributed by| United Artists

Release date

* May 3, 1940 (1940-05-03)

Running time

| 55:52
Country| United States
Language| English
Box office| $225,139[1]

Saps at Sea is a 1940 American comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas, distributed by United Artists. It was Laurel and Hardy's last film produced by the Hal Roach Studios, as well as the last film to feature Ben Turpin and Harry Bernard.

## Plot

[edit]

Stan and Ollie work in a horn factory, where the constant noise exacerbates Hardy's stress levels. Their predicament is underscored by the frequent mental breakdowns of their colleagues, a situation highlighted by a recent incident resulting in a worker's descent into madness. Ollie, succumbing to "hornophobia," is sent home from work due to his heightened aversion to horn sounds. Concerned about Ollie's condition, Stan proposes a therapeutic boat trip to alleviate his friend's anxiety. However, their plans for a docked boat excursion are disrupted by a series of comedic mishaps, including a gas explosion in their kitchen caused by a cross-eyed plumber who has mixed up the gas and water pipes.

As they embark on their boat trip aboard the ill-fated vessel "Prickly Heat," unforeseen events ensue, including the unwelcome presence of an escaped convict named Nick Grainger. With the goat they brought along inadvertently setting the boat adrift and the armed Nick taking control of the situation, Stan and Ollie find themselves at the mercy of the criminal's whims. In a turn of events, Stan's trombone playing inadvertently triggers Ollie's uncontrollable rage and makes him forget his fear of Nick, leading to a physical confrontation in which Ollie overpowers him. Ultimately, Stan's musical intervention aids in subduing the criminal, albeit with unforeseen consequences as the police arrive in a patrol boat.

Despite Stan's attempts to demonstrate to the cops about the trombone's role in helping Ollie to defeat Nick, their efforts backfire spectacularly, causing the again-blindly-enraged Ollie to assault the officers, resulting in the pair's arrest and incarceration alongside Nick.

## Cast

[edit]

* Stan Laurel \- Stan
* Oliver Hardy \- Ollie
* Richard Cramer \- Nick Granger
* James Finlayson \- Dr. Finlayson
* Ben Turpin \- Cross-eyed plumber
* Eddie Conrad \- Prof. O'Brien
* Charlie Hall \- Desk clerk
* Harry Bernard \- Harbor Patrol captain
* Patsy O'Byrne - Mother
* Francesca Santoro - Little girl
* Harry Hayden \- Mr. Sharp
* Robert McKenzie \- Capt. McKenzie
* Patsy Moran - Switchboard operator
* Gene Morgan \- First policeman
* Mary Gordon \- Mrs. O'Riley
* Eddie Borden \- Berserk employee

## Production notes

[edit]

* When Laurel and Hardy left the Hal Roach studio after this film, they also left behind Roach stock supporting players Charlie Hall, James Finlayson, and Harry Bernard.
* The film also stars Mary Gordon, who played Mrs. Hudson opposite Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes.
* The film was shown aboard HMS Prince of Wales during the voyage to Newfoundland, where Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met to establish the Atlantic Charter. It was a favorite film of Churchill, who called it "A gay but inconsequent entertainment".[2]
* The title is an allusion to the 1937 film Souls at Sea, starring Gary Cooper and George Raft.
* This was the last film to feature the once popular silent film comedian Ben Turpin, who has a small cameo as the cross-eyed plumber and died on 1 July 1940, less than two months after the film's release. It was also the last film for Harry Bernard, who died on 4 November 1940.
* Saps at Sea is referenced in the Ray Bradbury short story "Night Call, Collect", where a lone Earthman marooned on the abandoned Mars colony is described as watching this Laurel & Hardy film, among various media tapes with which he passes his time.[citation needed]

## Reception

[edit]

Leonard Maltin gave it three of four stars: "L&H comedy is short and sweet: Ollie has breakdown working in horn factory, tries to relax on a small boat with Stan . . . and that's impossible. Cramer is a memorable heavy."[3] Leslie Halliwell wrote, "Disappointing star comedy with gags too few and too long drawn out."[4]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Ward, Richard Lewis (2005). A history of the Hal Roach Studios. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 213. \- figures are producer's share from US/Canada
2. ^ H.V. Morton; Atlantic Meeting; Methuen: 1943, p. 125
3. ^ Maltin, Leonard (2015). Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide (3rd ed.). Plume Book. ISBN 978-0-14-751682-4.
4. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). Grafton Books. ISBN 0-06-016322-4.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Saps at Sea.

* Saps at Sea at IMDb
* Saps at Sea at the TCM Movie Database
* Saps at Sea at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* Saps at Sea at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Laurel and Hardy filmography

* Stan Laurel
* Oliver Hardy

Short films|

| Silent|

* The Lucky Dog (1921)
* 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926)
* Duck Soup (1927)
* Slipping Wives (1927)
* Love 'em and Weep (1927)
* Why Girls Love Sailors (1927)
* With Love and Hisses (1927)
* Sugar Daddies (1927)
* Sailors, Beware! (1927)
* The Second Hundred Years (1927)
* Hats Off (1927)
* Do Detectives Think? (1927)
* Putting Pants on Philip (1927)
* The Battle of the Century (1927)
* Leave 'Em Laughing (1928)
* Flying Elephants (1928)
* The Finishing Touch (1928)
* From Soup to Nuts (1928)
* You're Darn Tootin' (1928)
* Their Purple Moment (1928)
* Should Married Men Go Home? (1928)
* Early to Bed (1928)
* Two Tars (1928)
* Habeas Corpus (1928)
* We Faw Down (1928)
* Liberty (1929)
* Wrong Again (1929)
* That's My Wife (1929)
* Big Business (1929)
* Double Whoopee (1929)
* Bacon Grabbers (1929)
* Angora Love (1929)

|

Talking|

* Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)
* Berth Marks (1929)
* Men O' War (1929)
* Perfect Day (1929)
* They Go Boom! (1929)
* The Hoose-Gow (1929)
* Night Owls (1930)
* Blotto (1930)
* Brats (1930)
* Below Zero (1930)
* Hog Wild (1930)
* The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)
* Another Fine Mess (1930)
* Be Big! (1931)
* Chickens Come Home (1931)
* Laughing Gravy (1931)
* Our Wife (1931)
* Come Clean (1931)
* One Good Turn (1931)
* Beau Hunks (1931)
* Helpmates (1932)
* Any Old Port! (1932)
* The Music Box (1932)
* The Chimp (1932)
* County Hospital (1932)
* Scram! (1932)
* Their First Mistake (1932)
* Towed in a Hole (1932)
* Twice Two (1933)
* Me and My Pal (1933)
* The Midnight Patrol (1933)
* Busy Bodies (1933)
* Dirty Work (1933)
* Oliver the Eighth (1934)
* Going Bye-Bye! (1934)
* Them Thar Hills (1934)
* The Live Ghost (1934)
* Tit for Tat (1935)
* The Fixer Uppers (1935)
* Thicker than Water (1935)
* Galaxy of Stars (1936 promotional)

Feature films|

* Pardon Us (1931)
* Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)
* Fra Diavolo / The Devil's Brother / Bogus Bandits (1933)
* Sons of the Desert (1933)
* Babes in Toyland (1934)
* Bonnie Scotland (1935)
* The Bohemian Girl (1936)
* Our Relations (1936)
* Way Out West (1937)
* Swiss Miss (1938)
* Block-Heads (1938)
* The Flying Deuces (1939)
* A Chump at Oxford (1940)
* Saps at Sea (1940)
* Great Guns (1941)
* A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)
* Air Raid Wardens (1943)
* Jitterbugs (1943)
* The Dancing Masters (1943)
* The Big Noise (1944)
* Nothing But Trouble (1944)
* The Bullfighters (1945)
* Atoll K / Utopia (1951)

Related|

* Stan Laurel filmography
* Oliver Hardy filmography
* Laurel and Hardy (animated TV series)
* The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in For Love or Mummy (1999)
* Stan & Ollie (2018)
* Music
* The Sons of the Desert

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Gordon Douglas

1930s|

* General Spanky (1936)
* Zenobia (1939)

1940s|

* Saps at Sea (1940)
* Broadway Limited (1941)
* The Great Gildersleeve (1942)
* Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943)
* Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943)
* A Night of Adventure (1944)
* Gildersleeve's Ghost (1944)
* Girl Rush (1944)
* The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)
* Zombies on Broadway (1945)
* First Yank into Tokyo (1945)
* Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)
* San Quentin (1946)
* If You Knew Susie (1948)
* Walk a Crooked Mile (1948)
* The Doolins of Oklahoma (1949)
* Mr. Soft Touch (1949)

1950s|

* The Nevadan (1950)
* Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950)
* Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950)
* Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)
* Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
* The Great Missouri Raid (1951)
* Only the Valiant (1951)
* I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951)
* Come Fill the Cup (1951)
* Mara Maru (1952)
* The Iron Mistress (1952)
* She's Back on Broadway (1953)
* The Charge at Feather River (1953)
* So This Is Love (1953)
* Them! (1954)
* Young at Heart (1954)
* The McConnell Story (1955)
* Sincerely Yours (1955)
* Santiago (1956)
* The Big Land (1957)
* Bombers B-52 (1957)
* Fort Dobbs (1958)
* The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958)
* Up Periscope (1959)
* Yellowstone Kelly (1959)

1960s|

* The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961)
* Gold of the Seven Saints (1961)
* Claudelle Inglish (1961)
* Follow That Dream (1962)
* Call Me Bwana (1963)
* Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
* Rio Conchos (1964)
* Sylvia (1965)
* Harlow (1965)
* Stagecoach (1966)
* Way...Way Out (1966)
* In Like Flint (1967)
* Chuka (1967)
* Tony Rome (1967)
* The Detective (1968)
* Lady in Cement (1968)

1970s|

* Skullduggery (1970)
* They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970)
* Barquero (1970)
* Skin Game (1971, uncredited)
* Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973)
* Nevada Smith (1975)
* Viva Knievel! (1977)

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