Stan Laurel Movies
Actor, screenwriter, and producer Stan Laurel was born to British stage performers. He started acting on stage in his mid-teens in music halls and theaters before touring the U.S. in 1910 and 1912 as Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He remained in the States to perform in vaudeville and, in 1917, supplemented his stage work by appearing as clownish misfit types in comedy shorts often spoofing dramatic films of the period. One of these was a two-reeler called Lucky Dog (1918), in which he appeared totally by accident with Oliver Hardy. The two would not appear together again until 1926, when they both found themselves working for comedy producer Hal Roach. Laurel, who had been hired by Roach as a gagman/director, was persuaded to appear in front of the camera and, thus, auspiciously again with Hardy. It soon became obvious that the two men had a certain comic onscreen chemistry, and they ended up starring together as an incredibly popular comedy team in more fifty films in the 1930s and early '40s, with their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box winning an Oscar for Best Short Subject. Laurel, the creative member of the team, had numerous run-ins with producer Roach; the actor wanted the team's films to aspire to the higher quality productions of their contemporaries, while Roach was firmly content with maintaining a low-budget norm. Laurel had a few short-lived victories, serving as producer on the team's Our Relations (1936) and Way out West (1937). The team left Roach in 1940 to seek more artistic control over their work, but were given even less at Fox and MGM. In the late '40s and early '50s, they enjoyed touring English music halls while continuing to make films. After Hardy's death in 1957, Laurel stopped performing but kept active. He died from a heart attack in 1965. ~ All Movie Guide
In the early years of cinema, nothing kept audiences in stitches quite like a good dose of physical comedy -- affectionately known as slapstick. Though it may not be as prevalent today as it was in the days of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and W.C. Fields, audiences can still look back on this lost art form and relive the noggin-knocking fun of yesteryear in this hilarious compilation of some of the best slapstick routines ever committed to celluloid. Featuring the antics of the Marx Brothers, Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, and many, many more, this nostalgic release is sure to please comedy lovers everywhere. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eli Wallach
- 1990
Interviews with Laurel and Hardy are combined with clips from some of their films. Also includes Be Big in which the duo go to great lengths to attend a party and The Flying Deuces in which they manage to get on the wrong side of the French Foreign Legion. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1990
A documentary video that looks at the many hilarious comedians in history. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
A profile of Charlie Chaplin, most noted for his lovable "Little Tramp," from his childhood in England through his early career in vaudeville to his stardom in Hollywood. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1970
Robert Youngson once again compiles scenes from the golden age of comedy's silent film era. Laurel and Hardy are shown battling a gum machine, and Hardy is a debaucherous Romeo whose amorous plans are thwarted by Rex, the Wonder Horse. Charley Chase is hampered by hiccups and a female professor, and he fleeces a drunken Oliver Hardy with a mannequin in a nightclub. The third part finds bachelor Buster Keaton desperately trying to get married by 7:00 PM in order to collect a $7-million-dollar inheritance. Keaton is pursued by money-hungry prospects in one of the best chase scenes ever filmed. Narration is provided by Jay Jackson. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1967
The second of Robert Youngson's compilations of the silent comedies of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, The Further Perils of Laurel & Hardy suffers a bit from too much repetition and gee-whiz obvious narration. Still, the vignettes offered herein are first-rate, as fresh and funny as they were when first released seven decades ago. Among the L&H shorts represented in this collection are Do Detectives Think and Sugar Daddies, two 1927 releases made before Stan and Ollie were an official team. We are also treated to generous portions of such rib-tickling 2-reelers as Should Married Men Go Home? (1928), Early to Bed (1928), That's My Wife (1929) and Angora Love (1929). The film is rounded out with choice selections from the work of such Hal Roach contractees as Charley Chase, Jean Harlow and Snub Pollard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1965
Five of Laurel and Hardy's best features from the silent film era are compiled in this collection by Robert Youngson. Included are From Soup To Nuts, Wrong Again, The Finishing Touch, and iberty. On hand are legendary comic foils like James Findlayson and Edgar Kennedy, both masters of the "slow burn" when showing their disapproval. Watch for Margaret Dumont, famous for her characterization as the flustered dowager in many Marx Brothers films, in the pie-fight scene. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jay Jackson, Stan Laurel, (more)
- 1964
This compilation film is one of the few Robert Youngson productions to incorporate sound as well as silent excerpts. All the clips are culled from 40 years' worth of MGM comedy material. The silent scenes spotlight such funsters as Marion Davies, Buster Keaton, Karl Dane and George K. Arthur, while the talking sequences feature the likes of Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Jimmy Durante, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Abbott & Costello and even the Three Stooges. Highlights include Laurel & Hardy's egg-breaking sequence with Lupe Velez from Hollywood Party (1934), the train-chase climax from the Marx Brothers' Go West (1940), Red Skelton's two-sided flag bit from A Southern Yankee (1948) and the Robert Benchley short subject A Night at the Movies (1935). Current prints of Big Parade of Comedy end with a montage of actor/stuntman Dave O'Brien's scenes from the Pete Smith Specialties; when the film was originally released in 1964, snippets from several then-current MGM films were also included. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, (more)
The fourth of Oscar-winning short-subject director Youngson's comedy compilations (the earlier ones were Golden Age of Comedy, When Comedy was King, and Days of Thrills and Laughter) is, amazingly, almost as full and fresh as those earlier efforts, containing highlights from such silent comedy classics as Chaplin's Floorwalker, Easy Street, Pawnshop and, best of all, Rink; Buster Keaton's Balloonatic and Daydreams; Harry Langdon's Smile Please, and the prototypical Laurel and Hardy team-up, Lucky Dog. Youngson's choice of material is unquestionably fine, and equally satisfying is the quality of the film clips, courtesy of archivist Paul Guffanti. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1961
This is one in a series of entertaining cinematic compilations by Robert Youngson that reviews aspects of the history of film (The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy Was King directly preceded this release). As in its predecessors, this compilation looks back on the more distant past. Renowned comics like Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennet and the Keystone Kops, Fatty Arbuckle, Stan Laurel, and others are featured in some of the best moments in their filmic careers. As for the thrillers, those times when the heroine was tied to the train tracks or the hero's car balanced on the edge of a cliff, they are as hilarious in retrospect as the comedies were to that generation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Robert Youngson's second feature-length compilation of silent comedy highlights (the first was The Golden Age of Comedy), When Comedy Was King covers the years 1914 to 1929. Using snipettes from the 1929 Charley Chase 2-reeler Movie Night as a framing device, Youngson offers vintage clips from the silent era's greatest clowns. The film's first section is devoted to Charlie Chaplin's formative Keystone comedies, notably Kid Auto Races at Venice and His Trysting Place (the humor in this sequence is slightly dampened by the narrator's sanctimonious comments concerning Chaplin's political views). We are next regaled with Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand in the riotous Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1915), followed by top-hatted Wallace Beery chaining 17-year-old Gloria Swanson to the railroad tracks in Teddy at the Throttle (1916). From Sennett, we move to the studios of Hal Roach, where wacky inventor Snub Pollard holds court in It's a Gift (1923) and Edgar Kennedy, Stu Erwin, Anita Garvin and Marion Byron try and fail to purchase four ice cream cones in A Pair of Tights (1928). Baby-faced Harry Langdon is next on the docket, dealing with aggressive kitchen help, unwelcome old pals and a mysterious spy in The First Hundred Years (1925). Next up, Buster Keaton inadvertently lays waste to a police parade in the brilliant 2-reeler Cops (1922). Brief snippets of such mid-1920s Mack Sennett stars as Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde and Ben Turpin follow Langdon and Keaton. The closing sequence of When Comedy Was King consists of the 1929 Laurel and Hardy tit-for-tat classic Big Business, virtually in its entirety. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first of documentary producer Robert Youngson's feature-length silent comedy compilations, The Golden Age of Comedy began life as a short subject, consisting of vintage clips from the Mack Sennett vaults. When Youngson struck a deal with the Hal Roach studios, he was able to expand the film's running time with pristine-quality vignettes from the Roach catalogue. While many past greats are highlighted in Golden Age, the compilation's true "stars" are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, shown at their very best in lengthy excerpts from such 2-reel classics as The Second Hundred Years (1927), You're Darn Tootin' (1928) Two Tars (1928) and Double Whoopee (1929) (the latter featuring a 17-year-old starlet named Jean Harlow). Thanks to Youngson, the legendary pie fight scene from Laurel and Hardy's Battle of the Century (1927) was saved from the brink of extinction and is included herein. The rest of the film offers choice comic bits from the likes of Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Will Rogers, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, and even Carole Lombard. Our only carp is that the narration is frequently superfluous; we can see the gags, we don't need them explained to us. The Golden Age of Comedy was the surprise hit of 1958, spawning several future Youngson compilations, including a brace of 1960s films devoted almost exclusively to Laurel and Hardy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon
- 1954
Host Ralph G. Edwards surprised the famous comic team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in this episode of his popular show, This Is Your Life. Many of Laurel and Hardy's acquaintances from childhood and co-workers from their days at Hal Roach Studios appear and reminisce about their experiences working with the team. The most interesting thing about this episode, though, is that Oliver Hardy clearly does not recognize or remember several of the people he was supposed to have been close to (but graciously doesn't let these people know it), and it is obvious that Stan Laurel is not happy about the whole situation at all. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
In their very last feature film, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy travel to London so that Stan can claim his uncle's inheritance. All of the cash has been eaten up by taxes, but at least Stan is able to claim a tax-free island and yacht that his uncle has left him. Boarding the yacht (actually a run-down tub) in Marseilles, Stan and Ollie set sail for their island in the company of stateless refugee Max Elloy, who signs on as a cook, and Italian bricklayer Adriano Rimoldi, a stowaway. The little party is nearly torn to bits by a storm at sea, but the yacht runs safely aground on a newly formed atoll. Its population is increased to five when nightclub singer Suzy Delair, fleeing her domineering naval-officer fiancé Luigi Tosi, takes refuge with the other castaways. Laurel & Hardy and their friends live an idyllic, Robinson Crusoe-like existence until Delair's fiancé shows up. He announces he hasn't come to claim her, but to investigate reports that the atoll is rich with uranium. Indeed it is, and soon every nation in the world is clamoring to claim the island's radioactive deposits. Laurel and Hardy take quick action, declaring sovereignty over "Crusoeland." They then devise an anarchic government over which Ollie presides. Stan is relegated to the position of "The People." Comical chaos reigns when their "no laws, no taxes" policies attract the attention of various unsavory types, including rabble-rouser Michael Dalmatoff. Filmed over a period of 12 months, this expensive Franco-Italian co-production suffers from a too-complex plot, lazy direction, poor voice-over dubbing of the largely European supporting cast, and especially the horrible physical condition of Laurel, who was suffering from several life-threatening illnesses during filming. Fortunately, he regained his health after the production wrapped, as proven by his hale-and-hearty appearance on a 1954 installment of TV's This Is Your Life. Though some disciples of Laurel and Hardy will have a great deal of difficulty sitting through Atoll K, it does contain a few isolated moments of pantomimic brilliance and first-rate sight gags. Originally running 98 minutes, Atoll K was judiciously pruned down to 82 minutes for its English-language release. In Great Britain, the film was titled Robinson Crusoeland, while it was released as Utopia in America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1945
Laurel & Hardy's last American film is a marked improvement over their previous 20th Century-Fox features, though still not in the same league as their 1930s classics. Stan and Ollie play a couple of detectives from Peoria, Illinois, who fly to Mexico City to arrest the notorious Larceny Nell (Carol Andrews). Their South-of-the-Border visit coincides with the much-anticipated arrival of famed Spanish bullfighter Don Sebastian-who happens to be the exact double of Stan Laurel! When Don Sebastian's Mexican debut is delayed by passport problems, press agent Hotshot Coleman (Richard Lane) persuades Stan to take the toreador's place in the bullring. Stan is understandably reluctant until Hotshot threatens to turn the boys over to his business partner, sports promoter Richard K. Muldoon (Ralph Sanford). It seems that several years earlier, Stan and Ollie wrongly sent Muldoon to prison; upon his release, he vowed to someday catch up with the boys and literally skin them alive ("First the little one, then the big one!") With this threat hanging over their heads, Laurel & Hardy are forced to acquiesce to Hotshot's scheme-leading to a chaotic nightclub incident, a hectic misadventure at a bull farm, and a climactic riot at the bull arena when the real Don Sebastian finally shows up. Though it falls apart in the final reel thanks to an overabundance of mismatched stock footage gleaned from Blood and Sand (1941), The Bullfighters is for the most part a fond throwback to Laurel & Hardy's glory days: the highlight is an egg-breaking routine revived from 1934's Hollywood Party. Curiously, none of the reviewers in 1945 mentioned the film's grotesquely hilarious closing gag, which must be seen to be believed. Rory Calhoun (billed as Frank McCown) shows up in a bit as a rival bullfighter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Lane
- 1944
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play janitors for a detective agency who pose as super-sleuths when they're hired to protect inventor Alva P. Hartley (Arthur Space). Moving bag and baggage into Hartley's gadget-laden house, Stan and Ollie must first contend with the inventor's bratty son Egbert (Bobby Blake, aka Robert Blake) and much-married Aunt Sophie (Esther Howard). More problems ensue when Hartley's next door neighbors Charlton (Frank Fenton), Hartman (James Bush), Dutchy (Phil Van Zandt) and Mayme (Veda Ann Borg) reveal themselves as the crooks they really are. Entrusted with Hartley's latest invention, super-bomb called "The Big Noise", Stan and Ollie skeedaddle to Washington, just one step ahead of the criminals. Escaping the villains, the boys take flight in a balky airplane, only to find that they're the targets for Army gunnery practice. Our heroes save themselves-and the day-when they use the bomb to destroy a Japanese submarine. Long regarded as the worst of Laurel & Hardy's feature films, The Big Noise has in recent years been championed by several of the team's fans, not least because the admittedly patchy storyline incorporates several of their classic routines from such earlier 2-reelers as Habeas Corpus, Wrong Again and Berth Marks. Arguably the film's best scene finds Stan and Ollie trying to gorge themselves on a "banquet" consisting of dehydrated food capsules. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Hardy, Doris Merrick, (more)
- 1944
The second of Laurel & Hardy's two MGM starring films, Nothing But Trouble casts Stan and Ollie as, respectively, an unemployed butler and chef. Despite their inherent ineptitude, there's a wartime servant shortage, so the boys are hired by flighty dowager Mrs. Hawkley (Mary Boland), who hopes to impress visiting dignitaries from the kingdom of Orlandia. While purchasing food for Mrs. Hawkley's dinner party, Stan and Ollie meet a likeable child named Chris (David Leland) - who unbeknownst to them is Orlandia's young monarch-in-exile King Christopher. The boy's uncle, Prince Saul (Philip Merivale), intends to assassinate Chris and take the throne for himself, so the bumbling twosome set out on an improbable rescue mission to save Chris from the Prince's evil clutches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1943
This lesser Laurel and Hardy vehicle casts Stan and Ollie as the proprietors of the "Arthur Hurry" dance studio. Despite a rather sizeable student body (consisting mainly of 20th Century-Fox contract starlets), the boys would starve to death were it not for their only paying customer, socialite Trudy Harlan (Trudy Marshall). Trudy is in love with Grant Lawrence (Robert Bailey), an aspiring inventor who needs financial backing for his revolutionary new flame thrower. Laurel and Hardy undertake several moneymaking schemes to help Grant, most of these coming a-cropper. Finally, Ollie remembers an accident-insurance policy taken out on Stan. He tries to arrange an accident so that the boys can collect a huge fee, but this scheme culminates in a wild bus ride, resulting in Ollie breaking his own leg. The plot of Dancing Masters is a hodgepodge of underdeveloped situations and old gags lifted from such earlier Laurel & Hardy comedies as The Battle of the Century and Thicker Than Water; only occasionally does the comic genius of Stan and Ollie shine through. If the film is memorable at all, it is because of the presence of Robert Mitchum, in an unbilled but sizeable role as an insurance racketeer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1943
This short educational film, produced by the United States Department of Agriculture, offers a look at just how many products are made from wood, and stresses the consequential importance of forest cultivation. The film is best remembered today for a cameo appearance by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, in which the comic team show off a number of wood-based items; it was the first and only time Stan and Ollie appeared in a full-color film. Pete Smith, who was best known for his short comedies for MGM, serves as narrator. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1943
If Jitterbugs is, as has often been claimed, the best of Laurel & Hardy's 20th Century-Fox films (an otherwise fair-to-mediocre lot), it is because the studio was using the picture as a showcase for their newest singing discovery Vivian Blaine. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play a couple of travelling "zoot suit" musicians who innocently team up with likable con man Chester Wright (Bob Bailey). In the course of their travels, Chester and the boys meet small-town girl Susan Cowan (Blaine), whose mother has been victimized by real-estate swindlers Corcoran (Robert Emmett Keane) and Bennett (Douglas Fowley). Reasoning that it takes a crook to catch a crook, Chester masterminds a complicated "sting" to recover Mrs. Cowan's money. Chester's scheme requires Hardy to disguise himself as amorous Southern colonel Wattison Bixby, and obliges Laurel to don women's clothing as Susan's Aunt Emily. Alas, the boys aren't quite up to the rigors of the confidence racket, and as result they end up the prisoners of Bennett's partner, gangster Tony Queen (Noel Madison). In escaping their captors, Laurel and Hardy utilize Chester's phony "gas pills", which when swallowed cause the bad guys to float to the ceiling! The film concludes with a wild runaway-showboat sequence, consisting largely of stock footage from the 1938 Fox musical Sally, Irene and Mary. A reworking of Arizona to Broadway (1933), Jitterbugs is hardly a classic, but Laurel & Hardy-and Vivian Blaine-are in fine form. Worth the admission price in itself is the romantic rendezvous between Oliver Hardy and phony Southern belle Lee Patrick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivian Blaine, Bob Bailey, (more)
Set in wartime (WW II), this film finds the fat guy, skinny guy comedy duo not much good at any attempted professions; they can't even enlist in the war effort. None of the services want them. But they do become air raid wardens, at least for a while, until their misadventures continue. They get all boozed up and are kicked off the air raid squad, too! But things get better when they thwart a spy ring and save the day. ~ All Movie Guide
