Block-Heads

Block-Heads
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John G. Blystone
Produced by	Hal Roach Jr. Hal Roach
Written by	Felix Adler Arnold Belgard Harry Langdon James Parrott Charley Rogers
Starring	Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Patricia Ellis Minna Gombell Billy Gilbert James Finlayson
Music by	Marvin Hatley
Cinematography	Art Lloyd
Edited by	Bert Jordan
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	August 19, 1938
Running time	57' 23"
Country	United States
Language	English

Block-Heads is a 1938 comedy film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Hal Roach Studios for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, a reworking of elements from the Laurel and Hardy shorts We Faw Down (1928) and Unaccustomed As We Are (1929), was Roach's final film for MGM, and is remembered as one of Laurel and Hardy's most successful films.

The film opens in the trenches of World War I where Ollie, Stan and the rest of their army company are ready to go 'over the top', but Stan is ordered to stay behind to guard the trench. Stock scenes of fighting are then seen followed by the caption 'Armistice'. Twenty years pass, and Stan is still guarding the post, as shown by the huge pile of bean cans he has accumulated, and the path he has worn pacing back and forth on guard. He is found by accident (after firing on a plane he sees approaching) and is brought home, feted as a hero. Ollie, who has been married for a year to the formidable Mrs. Hardy (Minna Gombell), sees him in a newspaper and visits him in the veterans' home. He finds Stan in a wheelchair, having apparently lost a leg, and invites him home. However, Stan is in fact just resting in another veteran's wheelchair and Ollie only finds out he still has both legs after pushing him around in the chair and then carrying him. Ollie, angrily: "Why didn't you tell me you had two legs?" Stan: "Well, you didn't ask me." They reach Ollie's automobile, which he says belongs to his wife and is 'practically new', but it is boxed in by a dump truck. Stan climbs into the cab to move it and inadvertently operates the dump mechanism, burying the car in sand and leaving only Ollie's head exposed. It is then completely wrecked when Ollie demonstrates the automatic garage door at his home and allows Stan to drive the car in to test it.

There is then a lengthy scene of the pair attempting to climb thirteen flights of stairs to Ollie's apartment because they think the elevator is out of order. They are resting near the top when a top hat-wearing man with a cane (James Finlayson) insults Ollie, leading him to challenge him to a fight outside. They return down the stairs, picking up spectators along the way. After settling the disagreement, the pair finally reach the top of the stairs, where they run into a brattish kid (Tommy Bond) with a football. Ollie kicks his ball down the stairwell, where it hits the face of a man speaking on a telephone at reception. The kid's burly father emerges and orders Ollie back down the stairs to fetch it. After a 'tit-for-tat' fight with the father, the ball is kicked down the stairwell again and hits the man in the face a second time. When they finally reach the apartment, Ollie's wife wants Stan to leave immediately, as she is disgusted with the bums he brings home. When food is demanded she walks out, leaving Ollie to prepare a meal for Stan, but the pair only succeed in blowing up the kitchen.