While not as infamous as The Music Box, I feel certain that this must be one of Laurel and Hardy's best-remembered shorts. Lasting just under 20 minutes, it's arguably their most physical work, with an almost non-stop array of sight gags.

A benefit of a Laurel and Hardy season on television is it gives you insight into characteristics that you'd forgotten. For instance, I never remembered Stan as being a grass, but he's always stitching people up (Pardon Us, Pack Up Your Troubles, et al) and here he gets a man thrown out for smoking. Stan's fight with the same man is the most hilarious moment of the eleven films screened during a Christmas season, but then this one is packed with many laugh-out-loud moments. That a film that is over seventy five years old can still produce such amusement is astonishing, but the duo are extremely good at what they do, and here at the top of their game. I won't give away the rest, but suffice it to say that Ollie's struggle with a sink and their car's clash with a sawmill is two of the funniest things I've seen in ages.

One thing that puzzles me is how many of these L&H shorts feature absolutely no plot but I never seem to notice this because I`m too busy laughing . BUSY BODIES is set in a sawmill but that`s it , there`s no central plot , just a series of incidents which show the genius of Stan and Ollie .

This is certainly one of the best shorts because it showcases the duo at their most typical , Ollie gets gets hit over the head by falling objects while Stan turns to the camera and shrugs . There`s also a fight scene that had me in stiches , okay I knew what the pay off was going to be as soon as Stan said " Cigar " but you`d need to be crippled by clinical depression not to surpress a smile at this

A seventy year old black and white film with no plot and it made me laugh . I can`t think of a better compliment

For this short subject Hal Roach placed Laurel&Hardy as workers in a sawmill. Just knowing that conjures up in your mind all kinds of sharp cutting tools that given their propensity for trouble you know the boys will be lucky to escape serious injury. So will any and all of the other workers at the sawmill.

In fact there is a minute or so of footage in this film where you see men at work doing some serious labor at a sawmill. Also Roach really didn't have them working circular saws or chainsaws. I guess he did not want kids trying these things out at home. You never see them really involved with any of the truly dangerous things.

They do however have an interesting climax where poor Ollie do to as usual Stan's bumbling goes through an exhaust the mill has for all the sawdust accumulated. And right at the mouth you see him stuck.

Not the best of their shorts, but seeing Ollie going through that exhaust was classic. Might very well have inspired Charlie Chaplin to do the bit with the Little Tramp caught in the machinery in Modern Times.