One of the best silent short films by the popular comedy duo Laurel and Hardy! In YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’, they play two orchestra musicians who wreak havoc during a performance. They are fired as a result and forced to try their luck as buskers. However, that’s not the end of their chaotic mishaps and troublesome teamwork, and soon countless members of the public become involved in the mayhem. Everything culminates in a spectacularly choreographed brawl where everyone involved kicks each other in the shins in perfect rhythm.
Another of the Laurel & Hardy silents familiar from compilations, YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’, contains what is in many respects the best of Laurel & Hardy's huge street battles. So good is this climactic sequence that other sections tend to be ignored: the opening bandstand segment is timed to a musical beat, Stan’s sheet music going astray and Ollie’s taking its place (despite being scored for a different instrument!) before his excruciating attempt to retrieve the missing pages from beneath the conductor's tapping foot. […] The more sedate boarding-house scene, contrasting neatly with the mayhem on either side, includes a gag wherein Stan loosens the salt and pepper shakers so that their entire contents plunge into Ollie’s soup.
Glenn Mitchell, The Laurel & Hardy Encyclopedia. London, 1995
YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’ is the first clear statement of the essential idea inherent in Laurel and Hardy. The world is not their oyster: they are the pearl trapped in the oyster. Their jobs hang by rapidly unraveling threads. Their possessions crumble into dust. Their dreams die just at the point of fruition. Their dignity is assaulted constantly. At times they can't live with each other, but they’ll never be able to live without each other. Each other is all they will ever have. That, and the hope for a better day – which is about the most profound philosophical statement ever to come from a two-reel comedy. […] YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’ is the film which asks the question, “If you strip everything away from Laurel and Hardy so that all that remains is their essence, what do you have left?” The answer: their affection for each other. It’s enough.
Randy Skretvedt, Laurel & Hardy, the Magic Behind the Movies. London, 1988
