Our Relations

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Our Relations
Theatrical poster for Our Relations (1935)
Directed by	Harry Lachman
Produced by	Stan Laurel Hal Roach
Written by	Felix Adler (screen story) Richard Connell (screen story) W.W. Jacobs (story The Money Box) Jack Jevne (adaptation) Charley Rogers (adaptation)
Starring	Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Alan Hale Sidney Toler Daphne Pollard Betty Healy Jimmy Finlayson Iris Adrian Lona Andre Ralf Harolde Noel Madison Arthur Housman
Music by	Leroy Shield
Cinematography	Rudolph Maté
Editing by	Bert Jordan
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	October 30, 1936
Running time	73 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Our Relations is a 1936 feature film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Laurel for Hal Roach Studios. In the film, Laurel and Hardy star as both their famous Stan and Ollie characters and as Stan and Ollie's twin brothers Bert and Alf. The duo had previously made two other dual role films - Twice Two (in which they also played Stan and Ollie's wives) and Brats (in which they also played Stan and Ollie's children).

In most of the Laurel and Hardy films, their usual Stan and Ollie characters are a pair of hopeless dimwits, often just barely able to earn a living. In Our Relations, Stan and Ollie are respectable citizens with wives and steady employment. It is their sea-faring twin brothers, Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy, who are dim-witted incompetents.

On board, of course, Alf and Bert wear seafaring garb. Once ashore, they dress in "civilian" clothes -- down to the traditional derbies -- making them nearly indistinguishable from their brothers. However, there's a foolproof clue in the neckties: Stan always wore a bow-tie, while Oliver wore the more conventional type. This is reversed for the brothers, with Alf wearing the usual style and Bert wearing the bowtie.

The film is distinguished by the camera work of famed cinematographer Rudolph Maté (The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)). There is an impressive process shot near the end of the film in which both Laurels and both Hardies are seen together: Stan and Ollie are walking side by side along a dock, with Bert and Alf following them.