County Hospital - Contemporary Film Criticism

William K. Everson: "The first half of COUNTY HOSPITAL is fine, vigorous, harmlessly sadistic stuff....There’s some amusing pantomime, too, in the efforts to dress Ollie, and pull his pants on over the gigantic bandages encasing his foot....But once outside the hospital, inspiration flags. The long latter section of the film is devoted to a wild ride through the busy Los Angeles streets. Unfortunately, except for a few brief cutaways, the entire sequence is sluggishly paced and edited, and staged entirely in the studio, with the most obvious and unconvincing use of back projection effects."

Glenn Mitchell: "The finale of COUNTY HOSPITAL is clearly intended to rival that of HOG WILD; but suffers from inept back projection. At this time the studio was under strict financial pressure, which marred sequences such as this as well as forcing the departure of several key talents. This aside, COUNTY HOSPITAL is one of the best Laurel & Hardy shorts, its meticulous chaos blending with clever dialogue."

Few Laurel & Hardy fans confronting medical practitioners can resist recalling scenes from COUNTY HOSPITAL as an antidote. Laughter is powerful medicine

-- by Richard W. Bann --