Babes in Toyland

1934
U
1h 17m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

7.8K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer3:27

Screwball Comedy Slapstick Comedy Family Fantasy Musical

Opposing the evil Barnaby, Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toylan... Read allOpposing the evil Barnaby, Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.Opposing the evil Barnaby, Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

7.8K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,031

1,962

See production info at IMDbPro

Silas Barnaby
(as Henry Kleinbach)

Ernie Alexander

Townsman
(uncredited)

Richard Alexander

King's Guard
(uncredited)

Frank Austin

Justice of the Peace
(uncredited)

Florine Baile

Girl
(uncredited)

Eddie Baker

Dunker
(uncredited)

Scotty Beckett

Schoolboy
(uncredited)

Georgie Billings

Schoolboy
(uncredited)

Charles Bimbo

Jack in the Box
(uncredited)

Billy Bletcher

Chief of Police
(uncredited)

Eddie Borden

Demon Bogeyman
(uncredited)

Carl R. Botefuhr

Schoolboy
(uncredited)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Hal Roach signed Henry Brandon to play Barnaby after seeing him play the evil old Lawyer Cribbs in the long-running Los Angeles stage melodrama "The Drunkard". Roach wasn't aware that Brandon was only 21 at the time, and demanded to know where the old man was when Brandon appeared at his office. Heavy makeup made Brandon credible as the old Barnaby, a role he repeated in Our Gang Follies of 1938 (1937).

Goofs
The wooden soldier, brought out as a demonstration model by Stannie and Ollie, blinks in one shot.

Quotes
Ollie Dee: Well, Good-bye and good luck.
Stannie Dum: What do you mean, good-bye? I'm not going with you?
Ollie Dee: Why, no. You have to stay here with Barnaby. You're married to him.
Stannie Dum: [starting to cry] I don't want to stay here with him.
Ollie Dee: Why?
Stannie Dum: I don't love him.
[blubbers]

Crazy credits
The titles appear on a child's toy building block that falls into position onscreen.

Alternate versions
Some prints omit the opening verses of the song "Toyland" ("When you've grown up, my dears", etc.), and begin the song with the main chorus ("Toyland, Toyland," etc.). Other prints omit Mother Goose's vocal of the song entirely, and have only the chorus singing the song.

Connections
Edited into Dick und Doof - Superschau des Lachens (1966)

Soundtracks
Toyland
(1903) (uncredited)
Music by Victor Herbert
Lyrics by Glen MacDonough
Played during the opening credits
Sung by Virginia Karns and Chorus

User reviews82

Review

Featured review

7/10

Bizarre family comedy/fantasy/musical...

...from MGM and directors Gus Meins and Charles Rogers. In the fantastical world of Toyland, many fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters live together in a weird community. Widow Peep (Florence Roberts), aka The Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe, takes care of her many children, including eldest daughter Little Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry). She also rents a room to toymakers Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy). Bo-Peep is in love with Tom-Tom (Felix Knight), but the dastardly landlord Barnaby (Henry Brandon) wants Bo-Peep for himself, and threatens to evict Widow Peep if Bo-Peep won't marry him. Stannie and Ollie vow to help the Peeps, but they cause even more trouble.

Storybook sets and stylized costumes add to the head-trip visuals of this whacked-out yet entertaining kids flick. I was particularly fond of the weird dwarf-in-a-costume mouse who moves around in an unsettling way, usually running from the equally off-kilter Cat with a Fiddle.

The large scale finale, featuring scores of extras as evil "bogeymen" versus man-sized wooden soldiers, is impressively chaotic and occasionally disturbingly violent.