Come Clean | |
Director: | James W. Horne |
Producer: | Hal Roach |
Starring: | Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Gertrude Astor Linda Loredo Mae Busch Charlie Hall Tiny Sandford |
Cinematography: | Art Lloyd |
Editing: | Richard C. Currier |
Music: | Marvin Hatley Leroy Shield |
Country: | United States |
Language: | English |
Come Clean is a 1931 American pre-Code short film starring Laurel and Hardy, directed by James W. Horne and produced by Hal Roach.
Mr. and Mrs. Hardy anticipate a quiet evening at home, but their plans are disrupted when Mr. and Mrs. Laurel unexpectedly visit. Subsequently, Stan and Ollie venture out to procure ice cream, only to encounter a distressed woman named Kate on the verge of attempting suicide. After intervening, the duo finds themselves entangled in Kate's demands for assistance, prompting a frantic effort to conceal her from their wives.
Despite their best efforts, Kate's presence is eventually discovered, leading to her arrest as a wanted criminal. Surprisingly, Stan learns that he is eligible for a $1,000 reward for capturing Kate, but his suggestion to use the money for ice cream results in an unexpected consequence orchestrated by Ollie.
The opening scene of Come Clean is a revisitation of a sequence from Laurel and Hardy's silent film Should Married Men Go Home?. The plot of Come Clean served as the basis for the movie Brooklyn Orchid (1942), a Hal Roach Streamliner production starring William Bendix and Joe Sawyer.
Linda Loredo, portraying Mrs. Laurel in the film, had previously appeared in various foreign-language versions of earlier short films by Laurel and Hardy, marking her sole English-language role in their films. Loredo died on August 11, 1931, a month before the release of the film.