Barbershop owners Stan and Ollie answer an ad in the newspaper from a wealthy widow looking for a husband. Ollie only mails in his response and is invited to the widow's mansion. Stan discovers his unmailed letter and insists on tagging along. At the mansion, the widow's creepy butler informs them that the woman is crazy. She was once jilted by an Oliver and now her hobby is marrying Olivers and then slitting their throats. Now the boys must figure out how to escape.
Acting
Hardy's inflated dignity vs. Laurel's accidental sabotage.
Direction
French builds genuine tension before undercutting it perfectly.
Writing
The 'Oliver' name gag keeps paying off.
Director
Lloyd French
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mae Busch played the widow in both this and the 1928 silent version, 'Habeas Corpus.'
This pre-Code short got away with murder — literally — before the Hays Code cracked down on morbid humor in 1934.
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