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A Chump at Oxford

1940 1h 3m Comedy List
Tomatometer 4 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
When uneducated street sweepers Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) inadvertently catch a bank robber, the bank rewards the pair by paying for their education at England's prestigious Oxford University. After getting pranked by a group of roguish students, the dimwitted Stan is recognized by Meredith the valet (Forrester Harvey) as refined Oxford undergraduate Lord Paddington, who went missing after a blow to the head left him with amnesia.

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A Chump at Oxford

Critics Reviews

View All (4) Critics Reviews
Graham Greene The Spectator Laurel and Hardy are together again -- this is better news than anything the papers print. A Chump at Oxford ranks with their best pictures. May 8, 2018 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 4/5 Sep 30, 2005 Full Review Steve Crum Kansas City Kansan Near the top of the hilarity meter of Laurel and Hardy greats. Rated: 4/5 Oct 30, 2004 Full Review Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) Good Laurel and Hardy vehicle, but far from their best. Rated: 4/5 Jul 8, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (54) audience reviews
Denny S "A Chump At Oxford" (1940) was the second to last Hal Roach produced Laurel and Hardy feature before they were thrown on the scrap heap at 20th Century Fox. What makes this film special is that we see Stan Laurel (due to a bump on the head) transformed into the brilliant Lord Paddington. It is a treat to see Stan's acting chops as he plays this part with great flourish and intelligence, completely different from his "Stanley" character. That alone, makes this film a worthy view. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/01/24 Full Review Edoardo C probably my most favorite movie of the couple Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/12/23 Full Review deke p 1939! The film credits said this was produced in 1939 not 1940. & A credit also said that Peter Cushing was in the cast. Enjoyable. Oxford is a different atmosphere than usual for this Comedy couple. never heard of Nor saw before on the movie channel 13.3 Early Saturday morning January 22, 2022 Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Far from their best work - very uneven, overlong and with some rather forced jokes/slapstick that we've seen served up far better in their earlier shorts. Still quite entertaining but they're looking rather tired, as is the script. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Disappointing. It looks old-fashioned, especially as I had noticed the date of 1939 in the opening credits. It looked more old-fashioned than Will Hay in 1939. This was wartime (albeit not in the USA yet), and O&H were repeating their schtick from the early 1930s? Later I read that their partnership really only lasted from 1927-1940. I think it lasted a few years longer than that, but once the war kicked in for real, it diffused and dissolved them. A chump at Oxford has a 20-minute pre-eamble, during which I wondered if the title was as random as a Marx brothers title (but then half of every Harold Lloyd movie is preamble), but no - they go to Oxford, BUT then they spend a whole 15 minutes stuck in a maze! One is tempted to wonder if that was symbolic. There's a great scene in the maze where Stan wonders if he has three hands, but that's about all the content in the scene - in fact it's not a scene it's a whole act. It got a bit better after that, although there were no scenes of their studying, just a curious back-story about Stan being an English Lord (in reality - no kidding) but the film as a whole felt pretty old to me. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review rory s The best Laurel and Hardy movie. Very clever. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
A Chump at Oxford

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Movie Info

Synopsis When uneducated street sweepers Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) inadvertently catch a bank robber, the bank rewards the pair by paying for their education at England's prestigious Oxford University. After getting pranked by a group of roguish students, the dimwitted Stan is recognized by Meredith the valet (Forrester Harvey) as refined Oxford undergraduate Lord Paddington, who went missing after a blow to the head left him with amnesia.
Director
Alfred Goulding
Producer
Hal Roach
Screenwriter
Charley Rogers, Felix Adler, Harry Langdon
Production Co
Hal Roach Studios Inc.
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 14, 2016
Runtime
1h 3m
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