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Lucky Dog Filmed circa 1921 - 2 reels A "pilot" film for a proposed series of Stan Laurel comedies, Lucky Dog is famous today only because a journeyman actor, Oliver "Babe" Hardy, was cast as a hold-up man for one brief scene. This gave the world the first on-screen appearance of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy in the same motion picture. Otherwise, the film — which some think was never or only barely released — was undistinguished. (There is also some disagreement among historians as to when the film was actually made. Late 1920 is an educated guess...and if it was released, it was released around a year later.) Laurel was, or at least soon became a good solo comedy star and a superior gagman, but it wasn't until some time after he teamed with Hardy that he developed an enduring screen character and joined the ranks of the immortals. His pre-Ollie shorts often had brilliant premises and jokes but the best ones were generally parodies of other films, more gag-driven than personality-driven. He just lacked the defining character that might have propelled him then into the ranks of Keaton, Arbuckle or his old pal, Chaplin. That would change but Stan would have to quit acting, become a writer-director for a time, then return to performing and team with Mr. H. 45 Minutes From Hollywood Released by Pathe Exchange, 26 Dec 1926 - 2 reels Laurel and Hardy have only brief, separate scenes in this — the first film produced by Hal Roach that included both of them, and only Stan's second film since he returned to the performer's side of the camera in Get 'em Young. Other than that, it's an undistinguished, unfunny affair about a country bumpkin who comes to Hollywood and gets mixed up with bank robbers. Perhaps because he was then enmeshed in a lawsuit with Joe Rock, Stan is made up to look like fellow Roach player Jimmy Finlayson. Rock had produced Laurel's last films as a performer and was still distributing them. He claimed that Stan had agreed to only write and produce, and not to appear in competing films for a specified period, and so had violated their contact by returning to on-camera work. That matter was eventually resolved and Stan never had to hide his identity again. Duck Soup Released by Pathe Exchange, 13 Mar 1927 - 2 reels Based loosely on a sketch written by Stan's father, A. J. Jefferson, this is the tale of a couple of transients who impersonate a wealthy homeowner in his absence. Long thought to be a "lost film," Duck Soup has only recently emerged from hiding and has been confirmed as the first Roach film in which The Boys function as anything resembling co-stars or a team. The plot is a bit too convoluted and dialogue-dependent to really work as a silent film, and the whole farce fared better when they later remade it as Another Fine Mess. Still, the mere fact that they pretty much co-star and seem to have a rudimentary grasp on their ultimate screen characters makes this an important milestone. Slipping Wives Released by Pathe Exchange, 3 Apr 1927 - 2 reels Similar in plot to the later L&H talkie, The Fixer-Uppers, this film shows us that it had not yet dawned on the Roach crew that Stan and Babe, who played off each other so well together in the previous film, might function as an ongoing team. The Boys work together in this one, but just barely. They were still just players in the Roach stock company, placed in proximity to one another only by chance. Laurel is a delivery boy hired by a woman to romance her and drum up some jealousy from her husband, who has been neglecting her. Hardy plays the butler of the woman. Not a great film. Love 'Em and Weep Released by Pathe Exchange, 12 Jun 1927 - 2 reels A precursor to Chickens Come Home, with Jimmy Finlayson in the role Hardy would later assume — that of a businessman being blackmailed by a former (and tawdry) girl friend, played in both films by Mae Busch. Frankly, Finlayson is funnier in that humiliating position than Hardy would later be. In this version, Hardy is cast as a guest at a dinner party and, again, is in no sense "teamed" with Laurel. The film itself was altogether typical of product from the Roach lot where, Our Gang films excepted, an unusual percentage of films dealt with marital infidelity. One wonders about the solidity of the marriages of those who worked there. (One other note: This was the first Laurel and Hardy film to feature Mae Busch, Jimmy Finlayson and Charlie Hall, who would be the most important members of the L&H stock company in the years to come. Hall would eventually appear with The Boys in 47 of their films while "Fin" would be in 33.) Why Girls Love Sailors Released by Pathe Exchange, 17 Jul 1927 - 2 reels Hardy's the bad guy in this one. In fact, he kidnaps Laurel's lady friend, prompting Stan to disguise himself as a female passenger to rescue her. A fun, fast-paced film but not at all a Laurel and Hardy comedy. As one might expect, most of the laughs in this film come from putting Stan in a dress. This is the film in which, Ollie later said, he invented his famous "tie-twiddle" gesture...though he certainly did similar bits of physical business in earlier pictures. With Love and Hisses Released by Pathe Exchange, 28 Aug 1927 - 2 reels The Boys' first military comedy, although they are not teamed. They again play rivals but, at least, they have a lot of scenes together. Hardy is a bullying sergeant who orders Private Laurel about, with Finlayson as the captain. Many of the gags in this mild short fared better when used in later films. Sailors, Beware! Released by Pathe Exchange, 25 Sept 1927 - 2 reels Another Roach "All-Star" comedy in which Stan and Oliver are two unteamed players. Laurel plays a cab driver who accidentally winds up on an ocean liner. Hardy is the captain who fancies himself quite the romantic type. Funny but unmemorable. Do Detectives Think? Released by Pathe Exchange, 20 Nov 1927 - 2 reels We're finally back in the realm of what we know as the "real" Laurel and Hardy for the first time since Duck Soup. Their personalities still aren't set (Stan is too smart and too pushy) but they're in derby hats and operating as a team...in this case, a team of detectives assigned to protect a judge (Finlayson) from an escaped convict. A very funny, albeit frenetic comedy that foreshadowed several later films, including The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case and Going Bye Bye. Finlayson has some of the funnier bits in the film but The Boys hold their own. Flying Elephants Released by Pathe Exchange, 12 Feb 1928 - 2 reels A notable, inexplicable step backwards in the evolution of the team...especially odd when you learn that they started filming it only a few days after completing Do Detectives Think?, in which they work so well together. Stan and Ollie are cavemen competing for the affections of the same woman (Finlayson's daughter) but they share very few scenes and show almost no personality. It's a film that could have been made by any two comics at Mack Sennett, ten years earlier, and probably was. The title refers to a scene where someone says the elephants are flying south for the winter...and we then see some pachyderms doing so in an animated sequence. This is one that used to really disappoint purchasers in the 8mm and 16mm home movie market. Folks would buy it, figuring the title promised something silly, then discover that Laurel and Hardy were barely recognizable in it. Sugar Daddies Released by MGM, 10 Sept 1927 - 2 reels Finlayson has the centerpiece role: He's a millionaire who wakes up after a party to discover that he got married in a drunken stupor. Hardy is his butler and Laurel is his lawyer, working more-or-less together, though not in the characters we know and love. For contrived reasons, Stan has to dress in drag. A funny short but like so many, frustrating for those of us who today want to see Stan and Ollie act like Stan and Ollie.
The Second Hundred Years Released by MGM, 8 Oct 1927 - 2 reels Stan and Ollie are back as a functioning team, albeit as a team of escaped convicts trying to evade the law. The funniest and most memorable scene has them pretending to be painters, wandering around town, painting everything they see (including a woman's rear end) in order to appear innocent to a suspicious cop. This film also shows more of the methodical pace that would characterize The Boys' films and set them apart from frenetic, Sennett-style slapstick. One of their best silents. Now I'll Tell One Released by Pathe Exchange, 9 Oct 1927 - 2 reels A fairly recent discovery is this Charley Chase short in which Stan and Ollie play separate supporting roles. The film, only half of which is known to exist, was apparently a Rashomon-style story with Chase and his wife in court, each telling a different version of their lives together...and these accounts are illustrated in a series of flashbacks. Laurel played Chase's lawyer and Hardy played a cop on one of the flashback sequences. Call of the Cuckoos Released by MGM, 15 Oct 1927 - 2 reels This is another one that used to really disappoint purchasers of 8mm and 16mm copies since it was billed, falsely, as a Laurel and Hardy movie with an all-star cast. Stan and Oliver are only in it for a few unmemorable seconds. What it really is is a Max Davidson short in which several other Roach players — Stan and Ollie, among them — make brief cameo appearances as patients cavorting about the yard of an asylum. The Boys sport shaved heads, owing to their roles in the concurrently-filmed The Second Hundred Years. Judged as a Max Davidson comedy, it's probably fine but his screen character (a Jewish stereotype who does long, slow takes) is not particularly appealing. Hats Off Released by MGM, 5 Nov 1927 - 2 reels A "lost" film, Hats Off is said to be the antecedent of The Music Box, which involves essentially the same plot and even the same stairs. The main differences are that the object being transported up those stairs in the silent version is not a piano but a washing machine, and that the chore eventually devolves into a street fight of people getting their hats knocked off, not unlike the pants-ripping scene in the later, available-to-be-seen You're Darn Tootin'. How good is it? Your guess is as good as mine. Putting Pants on Philip Released by MGM, 3 Dec 1927 - 2 reels Putting Pants on Philip is sometimes cited as "the first Laurel and Hardy film," supposedly because it was the first released with their names as stars. Further research has rendered this distinction questionable, and it's also another false step in their development as, again, they don't function as a team. Stan plays Ollie's visiting nephew who wears a kilt and chases everything in a skirt. Much of the screen time is involved with attempts to measure Stan's inseam, making for a lot of long but very easy laughs. Laurel once reportedly cited this as a personal favorite but it's hard to see why, especially since it contains so many elements — particularly relating to Stan's character — that they opted to never use again. Director Clyde Bruckman would later be known primarily as a gag man, not just for Laurel and Hardy but for most of the great comedians, including Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. In later years, most of Bruckman's "writing" consisted of rearranging and reusing gags he'd invented in more sober times. When he worked with Stan and Babe, he was still productive and clever, far from the days when Hal Roach would describe him as "another great comedy mind killed by the bottle." The Battle of the Century Released by MGM, 31 Dec 1927 - 2 reels This is the film with the great, record-setting pie fight finale and for many years, that was all that remained of Battle of the Century. But the first reel was eventually located, and we still have the latter half of the second. (The pie orgy was saved by producer Robert Youngson, who included the sequence in his 1958 compilation film, The Golden Age of Comedy.) The result suggests the intact version was something of a treasure...though as in many of The Boys' silent shorts, the plot seems to make an abrupt shift, midway through. Laurel is a prize fighter whose losses are so inevitable that Hardy takes out an insurance policy on him...then tries to get him to slip on a banana peel. The peel leads to the pie fight and history is made. Laurel and Hardy threw almost no pies anywhere else in their film career. It's like they got it all out of their system with this one movie. |
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© 2011 Mark Evanier Hosted by Dreamhost |
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