Roach contracted Laurel and Hardy to make two films, the second May 1940's "Saps at Sea." The pair find themselves working at a horn factory where Oliver is losing his mind with all the constant honking, and is diagnosed with a bad case of "hornophobia." Recuperating at his apartment, Oliver gets little rest where he experiences several accidents, including a plumber's bungled job performed by actor Ben Turpin in his final film appearance. Yearning to escape, Oliver calls Stan to accompany him on a rickety rented boat for rest and relaxation. An unwanted guest, murderer Nick Grainger (Richard Cramer), slinks on the boat to escape the law, a discovery the pair realize only when their drifting boat is miles from land.
The script, co-written by silent movie comedian Harry Langdon, reuses a Three Stooges gag introduced in their 1934 "Punch Drunk" where Curly goes berserk when he hears the song 'Pop Goes the Weasel." In "Saps at Sea," Oliver becomes a raging maniac whenever he hears a horn, which proves beneficial on the boat. Film reviewer Mike McCahill calls "Saps at Sea" "a much underrated work in their canon: an hour of Hollywood Dadaism that commits to pushing a particular comic aesthetic as far as it can conceivably go." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill loved the movie, calling it one of his favorites. He made it a point to show the film on the HMS Prince of Wales to lighten the mood as he and the crew were steaming through German submarine-infested waters to his conference with U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt in Newfoundland, Canada in August 1941.
Many Laurel and Hardy fans consider these two last films they made for Hal Roach their final 'good' motion pictures. Premier magazine readers voted in a 2006 poll "A Chump at Oxford" as one of 'The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time.' Stan and Ollie historian John Larrabee noted, "Fans may wish that Laurel and Hardy could have continued their relationship with Hal Roach into the 1940s, but the conditions wouldn't have allowed for it even if Stan and Babe had desired to do so. The irony is, of course, that had Roach continued to make films with the Boys, it might have prolonged the careers of all concerned." Roach realized his idea of 'featurette,' or 'streamliners' was viable. With United Artists' insistence Laurel and Hardy were too valuable to subject them to these shorts, Roach released the pair while making a fortune with his cheaply-made 17 streamliners released before Pearl Harbor. Free once again, Stan tried to establish his own film production company, only to see it go nowhere. He and Ollie signed on with Twentieth Century Fox, but the studio's constrictions in their subsequent movies placed a damper to their innovative humor.
The script, co-written by silent movie comedian Harry Langdon, reuses a Three Stooges gag introduced in their 1934 "Punch Drunk" where Curly goes berserk when he hears the song 'Pop Goes the Weasel." In "Saps at Sea," Oliver becomes a raging maniac whenever he hears a horn, which proves beneficial on the boat. Film reviewer Mike McCahill calls "Saps at Sea" "a much underrated work in their canon: an hour of Hollywood Dadaism that commits to pushing a particular comic aesthetic as far as it can conceivably go." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill loved the movie, calling it one of his favorites. He made it a point to show the film on the HMS Prince of Wales to lighten the mood as he and the crew were steaming through German submarine-infested waters to his conference with U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt in Newfoundland, Canada in August 1941.
Many Laurel and Hardy fans consider these two last films they made for Hal Roach their final 'good' motion pictures. Premier magazine readers voted in a 2006 poll "A Chump at Oxford" as one of 'The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time.' Stan and Ollie historian John Larrabee noted, "Fans may wish that Laurel and Hardy could have continued their relationship with Hal Roach into the 1940s, but the conditions wouldn't have allowed for it even if Stan and Babe had desired to do so. The irony is, of course, that had Roach continued to make films with the Boys, it might have prolonged the careers of all concerned." Roach realized his idea of 'featurette,' or 'streamliners' was viable. With United Artists' insistence Laurel and Hardy were too valuable to subject them to these shorts, Roach released the pair while making a fortune with his cheaply-made 17 streamliners released before Pearl Harbor. Free once again, Stan tried to establish his own film production company, only to see it go nowhere. He and Ollie signed on with Twentieth Century Fox, but the studio's constrictions in their subsequent movies placed a damper to their innovative humor.