The above picture is a promotional photo from the 1934 classic "Babes in Toyland." In Europe, the film was later known as "Laurel and Hardy in Toyland, Revenge is Sweet" or as we came to know it in the United States as "March of the Wooden Soldiers." I have watched this film every year around the Thanksgiving Day holiday. The film was later colorized in 1991. This film is designed for the young or the young-at-heart.
The premise revolves around Ollie Dee and Stannie Dum's (Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy) attempt to stop Mother Peep from being thrown out of her shoe. The mortgage is held by (cue evil music) Silas Barnaby (Henry Kleinbach). Even though Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry) has already agreed to marry Tom-Tom Piper (Felix Knight), Barnaby is insisting that Bo-Peep marries him and the foreclosure proceedings on the shoe will cease.
All of your favorite characters from Nursery Rhymes make appearances throughout this movie. It is also important to note that there is a monkey dressed up in a Mickey Mouse costume that is constantly torturing the Cat and the Fiddle. Based on the Victor Herbert operetta "Babes in Toyland" and utilizing several of the songs from the staged production, the Laurel and Hardy's film takes the story in a very different direction.
Between Stannie's hobby of hitting peewees and his bumbling of Santa's order (100 soldiers at six feet tall instead of 600 soldiers at one foot tall), the comedy duo's influence is experienced throughout this production. After several attempts by Dee and Dum to thwart Barnaby's evil plan, Tom-Tom is banished to Bogeyland. Barnaby eventually flees to Bogeyland once it was proven that he framed Tom-Tom and a chase ensues that leads to the introduction of the Bogeymen. Items from the Toy Shop Warehouse are used as the Bogeymen enter Toyland and are fought off by Stannie Dum, Ollie Dee, the mouse and the Three Little Pigs. That is until they realize that they should use their Wooden Soldiers! Okay, now I am ready for some turkey!