Big Business (1929)

See All Available Formats

Synopsis of Big Business

Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) are selling Christmas trees door-to-door. Stan unintentionally insults their first customer (a single woman) when he asks, "If you had a husband, would he buy a tree?" The second house has a sign up that says "No Peddlers." Ollie rings the bell anyway and gets a couple of knocks on the head with a hammer. When they come to Jimmy Finlayson's (James Finlayson) house, he tells them that he doesn't want a tree, and he closes the door -- on a tree branch. They ring the bell again, and Finlayson says that he still doesn't want a tree. He closes the door again, and Stan's coat is stuck in it. So they ring the bell again. Soon, tempers begin to flare, and the orgy of destruction starts small. Finlayson chops their tree in half and cuts Ollie's tie with scissors. Laurel and Hardy rip out Finlayson's phone and the doorbell. By the end of the movie, Finlayson has destroyed our boys' trees and their car. They have smashed his furniture, dug up his yard, and cut down all of his landscaping, as a crowd forms to watch the spectacle. ~ All Movie Guide

Complete Cast of Big Business

Director(s):

James W. Horne, Leo McCarey

Writer(s):

Leo McCarey, H.M. Walker

Producer(s):

Hal Roach

• 1991 - Library of Congress - U.S. National Film Registry

Looking for special editions of Big Business?

See All Versions

Subtitles:

Check All Versions

Closed Captioning:

Check All Versions