Air Raid Wardens

Air Raid Wardens is a 1943 comedy film directed by Edward Sedgwick and starring Laurel and Hardy. It was the first of two feature films starring the duo for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Plot During World War II, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the fortunes of Stan and Ollie are shown in a montage of their failed businesses. They try to enlist in every branch of the armed forces, but fail there, too. They return to their home town of Huxton, only to find that moving men are evicting them. Their bicycle shop has been taken over by a man named Eustace Middling, selling radios. Middling offers to share the space in a joint venture. Stan and Ollie do not realize that Middling is a German spy using the shop as a base for espionage. Stan and Ollie support the civil defense by becoming air-raid wardens. To complete their training, they must participate in an advanced military drill, but Stan receives the wrong assignment, which is far more complicated than they can handle. They begin their mission to rescue prominent banker J.P. Norton from a fire but fail once again, burying Norton alive in a huge load of sand. They are given one more chance as air-raid wardens, assuming the task of ensuring that all of the town's citizens extinguish their lights at night. They quarrel with one of the more troublesome inhabitants, Joe Bledsoe, resulting in a rumor that spy activity is taking place in Joe's home. Stan and Ollie are dismissed from the corps. Back at their shop, they overhear the spies speaking German and follow them to a hideout outside of town, where Middling and another spy are plotting the destruction of the town's new magnesium plant. Stan and Ollie try to send a message to the civil defense, but instead they are captured by the German agents. They flee and alert the civil defense, which arrives at the plant just in time to stop the sabotage. Stan and Ollie expose Middling as a German spy.