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6.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Ladrones remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Okay, so Ladrones? It's a curious one. If you're a big fan of Laurel and Hardy, like really big, then yeah, it's worth checking out just to see them in this Spanish version of their original short, Night Owls. Everyone else? You might find it a bit slow, honestly.
This film is basically the same story, but stretched out a little. Stan and Ollie are in a real bind, facing eviction. The opening scene, where they're considering... well, a very final solution, is pretty dark for a comedy, actually. It’s kinda jarring.
Then Edgar Kennedy shows up, playing a cop who's just so smug about his idea. He tells them to break into the police chief's house. Get caught, go to jail, problem solved. Only Stan and Ollie could get themselves into a situation like that, really.
Their physical comedy is, as always, the highlight. There's this one moment where Ollie is trying to explain the plan, very carefully, and Stan just keeps nodding along, completely missing the point. You can almost feel Oliver Hardy, his face, just *begging* Stan to understand. It’s a classic interaction.
The whole breaking-in part is where the chaos really starts. Fumbling with windows, the ladder wobbling, everything going wrong. It’s exactly what you expect from them. One bit, Stan gets tangled up in a curtain, and Ollie just sighs. That sigh, man, it tells a whole story without a single word.
But the pacing, it felt a little *dragged out* sometimes, especially compared to the snappy original short. It’s like they had to fill some time, you know? Some scenes linger a tad too long, and you start to notice the gags aren't hitting quite as fast as you remember.
The sound quality, being from 1930, is what it is. Sometimes a bit muffled. You really gotta pay attention to the subtitles if your Spanish isn't up to snuff, which changes the rhythm of the humor a bit.
Ultimately, Ladrones is for the completists. It’s fascinating to see how they expanded the short, and to hear them speaking Spanish, but it's not their strongest work. It’s a historical curiosity more than a laugh-out-loud masterpiece. Still, seeing Stan’s bewildered face and Ollie’s exasperated glares? That’s always something.
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1919
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