This is probably the last consistently funny comedy produced by the duo and, although it's always enjoyable to watch, there's no real stand-out moments as there had been in most of their films of the thirties. Stan's beginning to look a little long in the tooth in his close-ups but he still manages to capture that sweet childlike quality, and there's more evidence of a real friendship between the characters in this film than there were in earlier films.

The first 20 minutes, apparently added for its European release, are basically a remake of the duo's silent comedy From Soup to Nuts with a few ideas from Another Fine Mess, and you can pretty much see the join but that doesn't detract from the enjoyment. James Finlayson, the boys classic foil, appears in this early sequence. The action then transfers to Oxford (the film's a parody of Robert Taylor's A Yank at Oxford from the previous year) where the boys find themselves mercilessly teased by the other students. This is where the film is funniest - it's surprising how many laughs can be wrung from two men wandering around a maze for 20 minutes. It's also surprising how well this film stands up to childhood memories of a non-stop hoot; while the laughs might not quite be non-stop, they still came pretty regularly to this old kid...

I'm not a huge L&H fan, but I found this film very enjoyable.

As others have pointed out, CHUMP was originally a 45-minute film, but European distributors demanded at least a full hour for features. You'll spot the REAL beginning of the movie about 20 minutes in, when Stan & Ollie appear as street cleaners. The rest of the opener, beginning with some funny business on various modes of transportation, was tacked on later.

Although the maid/butler scene has some laughs, it's the kind of thing that the Three Stooges did with a lot more manic energy (and more often). The real film begins when Stan and Ollie receive scholarships to Oxford and arrive in England, where the native students decide to pick on them as much as possible. There's not much in the film about what students REALLY do at Oxford, but that's OK. An extended scene in a maze ends with a nicely-choreographed sequence in which a "third hand" from behind the bushes causes havoc with the boys. (Just think of how much rehearsal must have gone into that business to make it look natural.)

And the crowning glory of this movie is Stan's brief transformation from his usual vacuous simpleton into a posh English lord, who makes "Fatty" his personal valet. All in all, a jolly good way to spend an hour.

Laurel and Hardy wreck James Finlayson's dinner party. Then. as street sweepers, they stop a bank robber. The bank's president, in gratitude, sends them to Oxford University, where they are hazed by the students -- who range in age from 26 -- Peter Cushing, in his second movie -- to 51. Then Stan gets bonked on the head and recalls his previous life as genius Lord Paddington.

This was issued as one of Hal Roach's streamliners, minus the Finlayson episode, then at its current length, The boys are in fine form, reusing their old gags for new purposes, and Stan demonstrating he could play a different comic character for the first time since their first short together. Because of the addition of the dinner party, this one has an episodic feel: a two-reeler with Finlayson, a one-reeler as street sweepers, a two-reeler during the hazing, and a one-reeler as Stan plays a genius. I have no complaints. The gags are always freshly improvised, and there's no sign of flagging in the partnership.