Towed in a Hole (1932) Review - Pure Slapstick Perfection

If you have twenty minutes and need a genuine laugh, yes, Towed in a Hole is absolutely worth your time today. Anyone who loves classic, slow-burn slapstick will be in heaven, but if you can't stand grown men acting like absolute toddlers, you'll probably want to turn it off after five minutes. 🐟

The setup is so simple it hurts. Stan and Ollie are driving around selling fresh fish from the back of their Model T, and they are actually doing pretty well for themselves.

Then Stan has one of his trademark *ideas*. Why pay the middlemen for fish when we can just buy a boat and catch them ourselves?

This logic is so beautifully dumb. It leads them to buy a wrecked boat that looks like it died sometime in the previous century.

Most of the movie takes place in a dusty backyard. They are just trying to fix this boat up, and everything goes wrong in the most painful ways possible.

There is this one bit where Ollie gets trapped inside the boat cabin. Stan, trying to be helpful, decides to use a hand drill to make a peephole so Ollie can see out.

You just *know* where that drill is going to end up. The anticipation is actually funnier than the payoff, which is saying something.

I love how Ollie’s face just goes completely blank when he gets poked. It's that classic Hardy slow burn that nobody else can replicate.

It reminds me a bit of their other 1932 short, Any Old Port, but this one feels way more contained and focused on just their pure chemistry.

The Mast Incident

Then they try to put up the mast. Oh boy.

They realize it's too tall because it keeps hitting the garage roof. Instead of moving the boat, Stan decides the best solution is to saw the mast off.

While Ollie is sitting right on top of it, of course.

It is so predictable, yet I laughed out loud anyway. The physics in these old shorts make zero sense, but who cares?

There is also this weirdly long sequence with a bucket of dirty water. Stan keeps accidentally splashing Ollie, and Ollie keeps trying to find new, creative ways to punish him.

At one point, Stan gets his head stuck in the bucket. It goes on for like three minutes and just gets funnier the longer it lingers.

Some people might find this pacing too slow. Modern comedies don't let a gag breathe like this anymore.

But there’s something so comforting about the rhythm. You can see the joke coming from a mile away, and yet the execution is just perfect.

"We'll be independent!"

Sure you will, boys.

By the end, the boat is a total disaster, and so is their poor car. It’s just pure, unadulterated destruction.

It’s not their absolute best short ever made, but it’s easily in the top ten. Definitely watch it if you need a quick mood lift.