Also known as Babes in Toyland, this Laurel and Hardy classic veers from its source material, the Victor Herbert 1903 operetta of the same title.
Taking place entirely in Toyland, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee live in a shoe with Mother Peep, Bo-Peep, and a large group of children. The villain, Silas Barnaby, intends to wed Bo-Peep and take control of the shoe through foreclosure. Stannie and Ollie try to get the money to pay off the mortgage through their employer, the Toymaker, leading to chaos in the Toyshop. Fired from their job and facing exile, Stannie and Ollie resort to a cunning scheme to save Bo-Peep from marrying Barnaby. In retaliation, Barnaby manages to frame Bo-Peep's true love, Tom-Tom, for pig-stealing.
A ight, frothy Christmas film with several engaging musical numbers. A holiday staple, the movie was shown on television stations throughout America in the 1960s and 1970s, and is still viewed on a number of stations. Although it was also popular at the box office, the film initially lost money, causing producer Hal Roach to release it annually under a variety of different names, which led some audiences to believe they were seeing anew and different film.
Directed by Gus Meins and Charles Rogers, with a script by Frank Butler and Nick Grinde, the film also featured Charlotte Henry (best known for starring in Alice in Wonderland) as Bo-Peep, Felix Knight (a singer and vocal coach, member of the Metropolitan Opera for 14 years, and a vocalist with the Guy Lombardo and Russ Morgan orchestra) as Tom-Tom Piper, Virginia Karns (a singer and character actress with the Hal Roach Studios who later found success as a voice-over actress) as Mother Goose, Florence Roberts (who had an active film career from 1917 until her death in 1940, including in 1917's Allan Quatermain, The Life of Emile Zola, and numerous appearances as Granny Jones in the Jones Family comedies) as the Widow Peep, and Henry Brandon (The Garden of Allah, Drums of Fu-Manchu, The Searchers; after a brief marriage, Brandon became romantically involved with the actor Mick Herron; they remained together until the mid-Sixties when Herron became Judy Garland's fourth husband; the Garland marriage lasted less than six months, after which Herron returned to Brandon and remained with him until Brandon's death in 1990) as Silas Barnaby. Also featured (alphabetically) were Frank Austin (who also appeared in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case) as the Justice of the Peace, Billy Bletcher (who voiced Pete in the Mickey Mouse cartoon, the Big Bad Wolf in Three Little Pigs, and Spike in the Tom and Jerry cartoons) as the Chief of Police, William Buress (who was on Broadway for 20 years and was featured in more than seventy films from 1915 to 1939) as the Toymaker, Payne B. Johnson (a child actor with 104 mostly uncredited roles) as Jiggs (the First Little Pig), Angelo Rossitto (Freaks, Dracula vs. Frankenstein,Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome) as Elmer (the Second Little Pig). Zebedy Colt (who later became a gay cabaret singer and an adult film director and actor) as Willie (the Third Three Little Pig),
That's just scratching the surface of the cast. We should note, however, three things: director Charlies Rogers was cast as Simple Simon, R.O.U.T. (Rodent of Unusual Talent) Mickey Mouse appeared as himself, and you have to watch very carefully or you will miss Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton herself) as a Townswoman at Tom-Tom's trial.
Enjoy this wonderful flight of fantasy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7z5UT3Py70
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