We Faw Down - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Critic Leslie Halliwell is terse, even by his own standards of brevity: "Moderate star comedy, later elaborated in Sons of the Desert." Laurel and Hardy Encyclopedia author Glenn Mitchell is likewise succinct: "Typical of their matrimonial comedies," he writes. Bruce Calvert is a silent film expert and a film-still guru. Writing at Allmovie.com, Calvert says of We Faw Down: "While this film is only an average comedy, it is still worth a look. Laurel and Hardy's explanation of the "show" and why they didn't know about the fire, is priceless." Laurel and Hardy scholar Randy Skretvedt unearthed the scripts for many L&H shorts, and the promise of some of the unfilmed gags in the We Faw Down script left him a less than ardent supporter of the final film. "All that We Faw Down proves is that even McCarey could not always save a film from mediocrity.... amusing but nothing to rave about." William K. Everson was the first to deconstruct the L&H canon, and his 1967 essay delivered a split-decision: "We Faw Down is, on the whole, rather draggy and pedestrian, though it has isolated gags that are among their best. Particularly amusing are the two flirts' attempts to inject some life into their two pickups.... The best gag of all, however, is the.... brilliant and untoppable climactic gag."