May 11th 

The Big Noise                                   

US 1944. Twentieth Century Fox. 74m. bw

Two janitors at a detective agency are given the task of guarding an eccentric inventor's high explosive which is also being sought after by crooks.
Routine basement studio end-of-the-line mystery thriller combined with reused old Laurel & Hardy material, and lacklustre in both respects; even the boys themselves look a little unenthused by the enterprise.

Written by: W. Scott Darling.
Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel.
Director: Mal St. Clair.
Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Arthur Space, Doris Merrick, Veda Ann Borg, Esther Howard, Bobby Blake, Jack Norton, Frank Fenton, James Bush.
Photography: Joe MacDonald.
Music: David Buttolph.

Preceded by:

Hard Luck*

(US 1921. 20m. bw. silent; A failed suicide tries to hunt for armadillos but instead foils robbers. Curiously, both of the items in this double bill seem to have patched together scripts.; w,d: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline; s: Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts.)