Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy #

Growing up Laurel & Hardy were my childhood heros, and I don't know what that says about me as a person. I would watch their movies religiously. I knew all the gags. I could see them coming a mile away, but I always laughed. And even to this very day, after some 15 years once in a while I'll still watch them. And that was what made them so special. The characters they played were so likeable. You didn't mind watching them over and over. Even if you knew the bits, you just still liked to take some time out of your day and watch these two characters. I personally think of Laurel & Hardy as the greatest comedy team in history. What other comedy team has managed to still make of laugh for the past 80 some odd years? And who still have fans all over the world? The only other team I can think of is The Marx Brothers.

Someone let me borrow this dvd knowing how much I enjoy their comedy. I've seen very very few silent Laurel & Hardy comedies. On this dvd there are 6 short subjects, 5 on which star Laurel & Hardy. "Mixed Nuts" made in 1934 does not include them, therefor I will not review it. I will go through each short individually.

"UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE" (1929) - This is billed as their first talking picture. The chemistry is in place but the piece feels rushed. It's 21 minutes and it doesn't allow "the boys" to go into their facial expressions..ie Stan's blank stare Oliver's disgusted look as he stares at the camera suggesting "Do you see what I have to put up with?" Had this one been made a little later it could have been better. ** 1\2 out of *****

"SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME?" (1928) - It took me awhile to appreicate this one. At first it thought it was OK now it think it's a little better. The beginning moments are the best. A gag involving a door is very funny and would later be used in their talking short "Come Clean". Here though the gag works best. Also you'll notice to "15 cents" gag as "the boys" find out they do not have enough money to buy 4 drink. It would later be used in "Men O' War" but the dialogue is needed to make the piece truly funny. The usual characters are not here but it doesn't matter. That chemistry is there. I feel the end is a bit disappointing but it the piece does have it's highlights. *** out of *****

"SAILORS BEWARE" (1927) - "The boys" do not have many scenes in this one together, Infact it's Stan Laurel and Stan Laurel only who is the star. It's very funny to watch and at times reminded me of a Harold Lloyd short. Stan had enough presense to him to carry the short. There is one very funny scene involving Stan and baby and a dice game. Just watch and see. *** out of *****

"Double Whoopee" (1929) - Originally release as a silent someone got the "bright" idea to add sound to this piece. As one could imagine this becomes not only distracting but annoying. All of the male voices are done by Chuck McCann. As with some of the pieces here pacing and chemistry are in place but I felt the piece didn't really go anywhere. Also of note is the fact that Jean Harlow is in this. Not one of "the boys" best but OK. *** out of *****

"WITH LOVE AND HISSES" (1927) - "The boys" are not playing their usual chatacters in this one and have a few scenes together. To be honest the piece kind of bored me. The ending though is comedic brilliance. If not a little risque. ** out of *****

So there you have it. I would not recommend this as an introduction into Laurel & Hardy's work. I personally wouldn't show this to young kids or older people who have never heard of Laurel & Hardy or are not familiar with their work. This is for the fans. It's fun to watch these early pieces and see how infact the chemistry did grow and how they wold become one of the greatest comedy teams in history.

Bottom-line: Early collection of Laurel & Hardy shorts. I would say is really just for the fans. Shows how the team grew. Some highpoints but nothing really shows the team at their best.

"Unaccustomed As We Are" -- A funny title that plays off the fact that this was Laurel and Hardy's first talkie. The setup is rather simple, and has since been stolen by virtually every sitcom ever made. Hardy invites Laurel home for dinner. His wife, refusing to cook for another of Hardy's friends, promptly walks out, leaving the two in the position of fending for themselves. In the process, the kitchen explodes twice, and they manage to set their neighbor's dress on fire. The comedy comes from trying to keep the neighbor's (played by Thelma Todd) state of undress from her husband and from Hardy's wife, who both naturally return at an awkward moment. A lot of the humor is done via sound (a great gag is when Hardy turns on the phonograph during his wife's tirade and she begins ranting in time with the music) and some of it is quite funny, while other gags are experiments that fall flat. An amusing short, but not one of the funniest that I've seen. Talkie.

"Should Married Men Go Home?" -- When Laurel begins to haphazardly destroy the Hardy family home, Mrs. Hardy throws the two characters out of the house. At a golf course they befriend two young women, and in doing so manage to short-change the waiter at an ice-cream parlor. The golf game begins with the standard jokes of people being hit in the head and ankles with golf clubs. It ends with a giant mud wrestling competition (I kid you not) starring Laurel, Hardy, Edgar Kennedy and about a dozen female extras. A mere five decades later, this sort of thing would be available via mail order and would arrive in a brown paper wrapping. There are a few good jokes scattered throughout this one, though none of them are exactly hilarious. An entertaining, if average short feature. Silent.

"Mixed Nuts" -- Er, why is this one here? Laurel and Hardy don't even make cameo appearances in this "all-star" musical comedy (this is the first all-star anything where I've been unable to recognize the names or faces of anyone -- even the Internet Movie Database reveals nothing). Anyway, apparently the Great Depression was hard on everyone, including chorus girls. So, a government program is initiated to send the unemployed girls to finishing school. They manage to beat up the physical education teacher, confuse the art teacher with their empty canvas, and play practical jokes on the staff. By the end, of course, the girls have changed the school more than the school has changed the girls. Not an overly funny film, but it's sort of cute. Talkie.

"Sailors Beware" -- Hardy is the purser of a cruise-ship, and through a series of misadventures, taxicab driver Laurel is also on board. Their fellow passengers include a career criminal, whose husband is a midget dressed in children's clothes in order to help his wife steal from wealthy, gullible card players. A lot of funny material in this one, mostly stemming from the sweet and innocent looking "child" who smokes, gambles and inflicts as much pain on Laurel and Hardy as possible. Silent.

"Double Whoopee" -- This was originally a silent feature, but the version on this disc has been dubbed by two Laurel and Hardy sound-a-likes. Who on Earth thought this would be a good idea? The last thing a slapstick fight sequence needs is people dubbing "Ow!", "Oof!" and "My eye!" over it. I wanted to turn the sound off completely, except that would mean missing out on the period music that is usually helpful for setting the mood. The film itself is funny enough. Laurel and Hardy are workers in a hotel and manage to cause their usual havoc on the guests. A European prince is unceremoniously dumped down an elevator shaft multiple times, the boys tangle with an angry taxi-driver and a policeman, and a young Jean Harlow confidently strides through the lobby not realizing Laurel had caught her dress in a car door. Enjoyable stuff, but I'd recommend tracking down the original version. Silent, with "restored" sound.

"With Love and Hisses" -- Could also be called "Laurel and Hardy In The Army". The pair is sent into the armed forces and end up causing the expected mayhem. On the train ride to the base, Laurel shares a compartment with a soldier who appears to be eating raw onions and garlic, while Hardy consumes all of his superior officer's food. Once stationed, the ubiquitous unable-to-fall-in-line gags begin. Many of the jokes here have been "borrowed" by later comedians, diminishing the surprise factor. Still, they are funny enough to bring a smile to the face. Features a scene of a nude Oliver Hardy charging through the woods like a stampeding rhinoceros, which is, I'm sure, what everyone will be buying this disc for. Silent.

I'm not an expert on Laurel and Hardy, so I don't know how the film prints here stack up in terms of overall visual and sound quality. They seemed fine to me though considering the age of some of this material.

I wasn't terribly familiar with Laurel and Hardy before this disc, having only seen a few of their short films on television. I did like what I saw here, even if not all of the humor has aged well. This isn't what I would describe as a "must own", but it is a fairly pleasant collection all the same.

That said, the five L&H films are a joy to behold. For years, their first talkie, UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE, was unavailable because the surviving sound tracks were in bad shape. Fortunately, another source for the discs turned up - as explained in some microscopic liner notes - and we have a virtually rediscovered film. Despite the primitive technique of this early talkie, L&H seem to take dialogue in stride but Laurel's limited talk suggests there may have been some concern with audience reaction to Stan's British accent. They need not have worried.

SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME? is a variation of the reciprocal destruction gag used in TWO TARS, YOU'RE DARN TOOTIN", among others. Here, instead of ripping cars apart or people's pants off, a golf outing turns into a mud-flinging melee. Yet for some reason, it just doesn't work very well. The boys never revisited the idea even though they more or less re-enacted many of their silent screen gags in their talkies.

This DVD offers us the novelty of a latter-day "talkie" version of their 1929 silent, DOUBLE WHOOPEE, with a memorable walk on by a young Jean Harlow. This version was made in the 70s and has L&H impersonator Chuck McCann doing the voices of Stan and Ollie. It's a cute effort but the silent version is fine on its own terms so the question becomes, "Is this version needed?" My vote is NO.

The final two films are early L&H when their familar characters were still forming: SAILORS BEWARE and WITH LOVE AND HISSES, an Army comedy that gives more time to Jimmy Finlayson than to the boys. At the time, Fin was regarded as a star equal to L&H so he could not have been very pleased when he spent his later years playing a supporting role in their films. As they say, that's show biz!

Some of the films use parts of the original 35 mm. camera negative yielding absolutely stunning pictorial quality. In fact, when shots switch back to lesser material, the effect is quite noticeable. Highly recommended overall.