In the holiday spirit, we bring you the trailer to Laurel and Hardy's 1934 version of Babes in Toyland, which is sometimes also known as March of the Wooden Soldiers. It was one of their better films…and a very colorful one, despite the fact that it was filmed in black-and-white. A decade or so ago when a home video company colorized it, someone who worked for the outfit described an interesting bit of mass delusion. He told me that he'd encountered an amazing number of people who swore that the movie must have been originally made in color because they vividly recalled seeing it that way. At the time, they couldn't have…and I guess that says something for how effective the movie is. (You can also realize that by comparing it to the 1961 Disney remake.)
The only person I ever met who didn't much like this film was its producer, Hal Roach. As Mr. Roach told it to me, he had the idea and he wrote a much better plot outline which Stan Laurel refused to follow. They bickered over it for several months until Roach, fearing the movie would not get made in time for its desired release date, threw up his hands and told Laurel to do whatever he wanted. Hal didn't seem to think too much of what resulted but most people find it quite wonderful. Here's a few minutes of it…
