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Unaccustomed As We Are Released by MGM, 4 May 1929 - 2 reels Ten days after finishing Angora Love, The Boys began shooting their first pure talkie...and it's amazing how little difference it made to their act. Their voices fit perfectly and enhanced their screen characters. Their physical actions did not change in any noticeable manner, even though the coming of sound meant that films had to be shot and projected at normal speed. But by 1929, Laurel and Hardy had largely phased out the silent movie convention of slightly speeding up the film to bring a little extra energy to the proceedings. Shooting primarily at night (because Roach only had one sound stage operational and Our Gang was using it during the day for their first talkie), The Boys instantly overcame all the problems of making sound films, including the infamous technical difficulties, and produced a perfectly fine comedy. In it, Ollie brings Stan home for dinner, prompting Mrs. Hardy to storm out in anger. A cordial lady neighbor offers to cook for them but winds up losing her dress. Then the cordial lady neighbor's jealous husband comes home and guess what happens. Most of this was reprised in the final reels of the later feature, Block-Heads. Berth Marks Released by MGM, 1 Jun 1929 - 2 reels Stan and Ollie are musicians who have to share a sleeping berth on a train. That's about all the plot to be found in this, one of their weakest shorts. They get tangled up and keep bumping into each other until you want to yell at the screen, "Enough, already!" In fairness, the dilemma of undressing in such confined quarters was probably funnier to those back then who often had to do it.
Men O'War Released by MGM, 29 Jun 1929 - 2 reels The Boys are two sailors with dates but not a lot of funds. They reprise the soda fountain routine from the previous year's Should Married Men Go Home? in which Ollie tries to order something but Stan keeps forgetting he's supposed to demur. It sure plays a lot better with sound. The rest of the film then involves a doomed attempt to go boating on a lake...with predictable results. The tech problems of making a sound film outdoors on location also seem to have encumbered the comedy somewhat but the soda fountain scene (shot indoors at the studio) is a classic. Perfect Day Released by MGM, 10 Aug 1929 - 2 reels The original idea was to do a two-part film: The first section would be preparing to go on a picnic (taking along a gout-ridden uncle played by Edgar Kennedy); the second part would be the screw-ups at the picnic. During filming, the trying-to-leave sequence began expanding — hilariously — and the film came to be about all the problems of trying to pack the car, get Kennedy seated and then depart, which they never really manage to do. Stan and Ollie are very funny but Kennedy actually manages to steal this wonderful short from them. (By the way: I don't necessarily agree but some claim that in one scene, you can actually hear Kennedy mutter a naughty word.) They Go Boom Released by MGM, 21 Sept 1929 - 2 reels The plot of this one was simple: Ollie has a cold and Stan tries to nurse him back to health. Part of the charm in Hardy's character is that he never pauses to wonder in such situations if Stan just might make things worse. Stan does, of course, especially when he attempts to apply a very sticky mustard plaster to the Hardy epidermis, but Ollie never gives up on the idea that his partner can "do something to help me." At the end, they inflate Hardy's mattress to the bursting point, providing a good end gag to one of their better early sound shorts. It's amazing how rapidly they mastered the new form. The Hoose-Gow Released by MGM, 16 Nov 1929 - 2 reels Stan and Ollie are newly-arrived convicts in a prison farm and Finlayson, God love him, is the hysterical warden. This is not one of their best films and its whole purpose seems to be to get to a gag where a radiator leak (in Finlayson's car) is plugged with rice which boils over and results in a food fight. The joke was one that was reportedly planned (and once, even filmed) for several previous films but which kept getting cut. It's hard to see why Stan and the gagmen were so determined to do it because the results are pretty standard slapstick. A friend of mine once said that this was the only Laurel and Hardy film that feels like a Three Stooges short. Night Owls Released by MGM, 4 Jan 1930 - 2 reels Patrolman Edgar Kennedy is at risk of losing his badge because of his repeated failure to nab whoever's behind a recent rash of burglaries. About the only thing he can do on his beat is to arrest Stan and Ollie for vagrancy — which he'll do if they don't help him with a plan. They're to break in and rob the home of the Police Chief. Officer Kennedy will show up to arrest them, thereby impressing the boss...then he'll let them go. Needless to say, this is not a good idea on Kennedy's part but it does make for a pretty good little short. The story was derived from a skit Stan had performed in his vaudeville days. Years later, when Laurel and Hardy went out on tour and performed before live audiences, it was often with a sketch based on the same storyline.
Blotto Released by MGM, 8 Feb 1930 - 3 reels One of The Boys' best shorts, Blotto benefits from a wonderful performance by Anita Garvin as Mrs. Laurel and a foolproof plot: Stan and Ollie, asserting their idea of masculinity for a change, are determined to have a night at the town, getting drunk on a bottle of wine that Stan squirreled away for just such an occasion. His wife secretly replaces the wine with tea but unaware of the switch, the men proceed to get tipsy, nonetheless. It was such a funny premise that, years later, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney did pretty much the same bit as an episode of The Honeymooners — and it was funny then, too.
Brats Released by MGM, 22 Mar 1930 - 2 reels The Boys play dual roles: Themselves and their children. The fathers try to play billiards while their sons get ready for bed, each duo being characteristically childish. The Roach crew knocked themselves out with good special effects and, for the kids, stunning "oversized" sets. It's a gimmick film, true, but one of their funniest, and intercutting between the kids and the grown-ups makes for a nice lack of contrast: The "adult" Laurel and Hardy are just as silly as the moppet version. There's a real nice build to a gag where the bathtub has been left running to the point of overflowing and we, the audience, know what's about to happen long before those folks on the screen do. Below Zero Released by MGM, 26 Apr 1930 - 2 reels Laurel and Hardy often found themselves in the following predicament: Thinking they had money, they would treat themselves to a big meal, complete with Hardy ordering the waiter around and demanding they be treated with great deference. Then it would turn out that their money was gone or bogus or otherwise unusable and they'd be stuck with a big check and zero funds. Here, it happens because they are street musicians in a very cold climate, and they come upon a lost wallet crammed with cash. They invite the local beat cop to join them in their sumptuous meal, unaware that it is the policeman's wallet. The plight of The Boys seems a bit painful in some ways but the short has enough delights to please, especially in Hardy's commanding way of ordering the meal. Hog Wild Released by MGM, 31 May 1930 - 2 reels Another pretty simple plot: The Boys attempt to put up a radio aerial on Ollie's roof. The main joke in this very funny short is how inevitable it is each time Mr. Hardy plunges off the roof...and how obvious it was to us and even to Mr. Laurel, but not to Mr. Hardy. This was another film where the Roach crew actually rented an empty lot in Culver City and built a house to use for shooting. Aerial Antics was its title in Great Britain, but those prints have a way of showing up in America, and some 8mm and 16mm home movie versions used that name. The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case Released by MGM, 6 Sept 1930 - 3 reels Mr. Laurel, like most great screen comedians at one time or another, learns that he is the heir to a fortune and that he must visit a very scary old house in order to claim his inheritance. He and Ollie thus step into a pretty familiar plot, and most L&H buffs have a low opinion of this "thriller" comedy. But see it with a good audience and you'll hear as much laughter as The Boys ever evoked in any of their shorts. Another Fine Mess Released by MGM, 29 Nov 1930 - 3 reels A plot-and-dialogue-heavy remake of Duck Soup which was, in turn, adapted from a vaudeville sketch by Stan's father, Another Fine Mess is amusing without ever ascending to the level of fall-down funny. The Boys are, as they so often were, on the lam from the law. They take refuge in a mansion where Hardy winds up pretending to be its owner and showing it to potential renters, while Laurel, in and out of drag, plays the servants. They almost get away with it until the real owner — Mr. Finlayson — returns. The worst thing about this film is the title, which has prompted many to misquote Ollie's catch-phrase, which was almost always, "...another nice mess." Be Big Released by MGM, 7 Feb 1931 - 3 reels Ollie fakes illness so he and Stan can go to a convention. As it turns out, the hardest part of this is not getting away from the wives but getting into the lodge's official uniform, a silly kind of riding get-up, including boots. Ollie accidentally dons Stan's boots and they spend an awful long (but not unfunny) time trying to get them off. This one ran over the usual two reels but it played so well with test audiences that they left it at the longer length. Chickens Come Home Released by MGM, 21 Feb 1931 - 3 reels A remake of the silent Love 'em and Weep, with Hardy taking over Finlayson's lead role, Finlayson cast as Hardy's butler, and Mae Busch playing the same role she'd played four years earlier. Hardy is a businessman running for mayor and his prospects look good until an old lady friend (Mae) arrives, threatening to repeat tales of his not-so-wholesome past. It becomes Stan's duty to keep the blackmailer away from a fancy party the Hardys are throwing, and of course he does not succeed. Neither does this short for the most part, and it is odd that The Boys would do such a similar remake of such a recent film...and one that somewhat divides the team. The new version is better because of sound, but Finlayson was probably funnier in the role, and more convincing as someone with an unsavory past. Fin just kind of looked like a man who deserved to be blackmailed. The Stolen Jools Distributed by Paramount and NVA (National Variety Artists), Apr 1931 - 2 reels This was a charity short, crammed full of stars cameos, that was made to finance the establishment of a tuberculosis sanitarium in New York. Laurel and Hardy make brief appearances as a couple of detectives' assistants. An interesting curio but that's about it. Laughing Gravy Released by MGM, 4 Apr 1931 - 2 reels The second of The Boys' three "hide an animal from the landlord" shorts, the first having been Angora Love. This time, it's a dog named Laughing Gravy, and the landlord is Charlie Hall. The abrupt ending you'll see on any American print of the film is something of a curiosity. As originally written and filmed, a much longer sequence developed with Ollie telling Stan he never wants to see him again because he'll never amount to anything. Then, a registered letter arrives for Stan, informing him of a nice inheritance, and Ollie is forced to back-pedal. This scene was retained for the several foreign editions that were filmed of Laughing Gravy but audiences here must have disliked it. It was cut for the American release and a new ending was filmed...a shame, probably, because the new ending brings the film to an unsatisfying conclusion. Our Wife Released by MGM, 16 May 1931 - 2 reels Oliver wants to marry Finlayson's rotund daughter, played by the great "fat girl" of early comedy films, Babe London. Fin forbids the union so the couple decides to elope...with the questionable aid of Stan as Best Man. It's his job to procure a car and he does, showing up with one so small that Babe and his bride-to-be cannot get into it — though they try (Lord, how they try) with very funny results. It's more or less the same idea as Berth Marks but much better, in large part because it leads to something. Even better though is when they get to the Justice-of-the-Peace, Mr. Turpin, whose wires are as crossed as his eyes. A pretty good film.
Come Clean Released by MGM, 19 Sept 1931 - 2 reels Stan and Oliver go shopping for ice cream and instead wind up bringing back a floozie — Mae Busch in yet another "bad girl" role, though one of her best. The floozie was attempting to commit suicide but they saved her so, the logic goes, they now have to take care of her. This involves the seemingly-impossible chore of hiding her from their spouses. The plot is a little contrived but the gags are solid and the whole thing moves at a brisk clip. The Boys' exchanges with the ice cream seller (Charlie Hall) are particularly funny. One Good Turn Released by MGM, 31 Oct 1931 - 2 reels One of their best: A sweet, little old lady (Mary Carr) takes in two vagrants (You Know Who) and feeds them. While dining, they overhear a rehearsal for a play with Finlayson expertly chewing the scenery as the evil landlord who is about to throw her out into the street. Believing it to be real, Stan and Ollie rush out to sell the only thing they have in the world — their car — in a hilarious public auction. (Ollie is the auctioneer; Stan is in the crowd, attempting to bid up the price and doing such a fine job of it that he winds up the winning bidder.) The ending features a rare instance of Laurel showing anger at Hardy. Beau Hunks Released by MGM, 12 Dec 1931 - 4 reels This was either a long short or a short feature. Either way, it was a rough template for the later The Flying Deuces and, in some ways, for Bonnie Scotland, as well. Mr. Hardy's latest love affair is on the rocks so he joins the French Foreign Legion "to forget" and insists that Mr. Laurel join him. Charles Middleton plays the stern commandant and director James Horne plays the leader of the Arab army that attacks the Foreign Legion camp. Tightly-plotted and filled with strong gags, this short/feature (pick one) is probably superior to its descendants. On the Loose Released by MGM, 26 Dec 1931 - 2 reels Hal Roach tried and failed to sustain an ongoing "female Laurel and Hardy" series but it wasn't because the films or the stars weren't funny. This is not one of the stronger entries but is notable because Stan and Ollie make a brief, surprise guest appearance. |
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© 2007 Mark Evanier Hosted by Dreamhost |
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