H.M. Walker Movies

This rollicking comedy is Harold Lloyd's second feature film and like the first, A Sailor-Made Man was originally conceived of as a short film. During the shooting, Lloyd and long-time collaborator Hal Roach insisted on continually developing his character and moving beyond pure gags into a real story. $100,000 and five reels later the film was ready to preview. Because the entire work was so funny and well-done, it was decided to leave it intact and market it as a feature film. Following the success of Grandma's Boy, Lloyd abandoned short films in favor of full length films. The story centers on Sonny, a flighty young boy who is required to join the rest of the men in his small town on a manhunt for a murderer. Totally frightened by the prospect of finding the killer, Sonny heads for the safety of his grandmother's home. She inspires the cowering youth with a stirring tale about her formerly timorous husband who went to a mysterious old witch for the courage to fight in the Civil War. The old wise woman gave him a magical Zuni charm which made Sonny's grandfather invincible. Armed with his amulet, the newly courageous grandfather rushed out to steal some important Yankee plans. The story enraptures the wide-eyed Sonny. Suddenly grandmother hands him the very amulet that made her husband a hero. Not realizing that the bauble is really only a handle from one of grandma's umbrella's, the emboldened Sonny charges off to single-handedly save the town from the fugitive villain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Our Gang kids argue amongst themselves over which of their dogs is the cleverest and best trained. This brouhaha is forgotten when Gang member Mickey Daniels rescues rich girl Mary Kornman after her pony runs away. As a reward, Mary invites Mickey and his pals to her parents' ritzy mansion for a high-society party, which of course the youngsters quickly reduce to their low-society level. The story concludes when one of the dogs proves beyond question that she can do something none of the male dogs will ever be able to accomplish. Originally released on March 8, 1925, the silent, two-reel Our Gang comedy Dog Days is available only in the abbreviated, stretch-framed print prepared for home viewing by Walton Films in the early '50s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and producer Hal Roach all name Putting Pants on Phillip as the first true Laurel and Hardy film, the comic pair had appeared in films together for The Roach Studios over a dozen times previously. In addition, while this two-reeler helped establish many of the classic Laurel and Hardy reactions, they are not playing the characters for which they later became famous. Oliver Hardy is Piedmont Mumblethunder, who is at dockside, waiting for the arrival of his nephew from Scotland, Phillip (Laurel). An exceedingly quirky man in a kilt comes off the ship and becomes the subject of ridicule amongst a crowd of onlookers. With horror, Piedmont realizes that it's his nephew. Piedmont haughtily instructs Phillip to follow him down the street of his town. Phillip, however, is distracted by a pretty girl (Dorothy Coburn), who he pursues. He also loses his underwear, and a gust from a ventilator shaft blows his kilt up. The sight causes several women to faint and a policeman to exclaim, "That dame ain't got no lingerie on!"

This is the last straw for Piedmont, and he drags his nephew to a tailor's to be outfitted with pants. Ultimately Piedmont has to use force to measure Phillip, and Phillip's resulting look of hurt and violation is sublimely memorable. The Scot leaves the tailor's to chase after the same pretty girl he pursued earlier, catching up with her in front of a puddle. He gallantly removes his kilt and lays it on the puddle (luckily he's obtained some underwear). She laughs at him, jumps over the kilt, and goes on her way. Piedmont, however, insists on stepping on that confounded kilt himself and sinks completely into the mud-hole. When he emerges, the camera closes in for that soon-to-be-classic Oliver Hardy look of chagrin. While not the Laurel and Hardy that made film history, the duo's characterizations in Putting Pants on Phillip nevertheless give it a timeless humor. The idea for this film was Stan Laurel's -- it was loosely based on a true experience related by a friend during Laurel's music-hall days. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Up until this two-reeler, Laurel and Hardy's films for Hal Roach were released under the "All-Star Comedy" label; Should Married Men Go Home is the start of the duo's own series, showing the faith Roach had in their future. The film opens up on a peaceful day for Ollie and his wife (Kay Deslys). The calm is broken by the arrival of Stan, who manages to visit even though the couple at first pretends not to be home. Stan wants to play golf; Ollie wants to stay home. Stan, however, causes so much unintentional mayhem that Mrs. Hardy finally tells them both to go. The golf course, it turns out, allows only foursomes, but Stan and Ollie solve this dilemma by pairing up with Edna Marian and Viola Richard. After taking the girls for a soda, they hit the course, with Stan, as is his wont, making a total mess of things. He befuddles another golfer (Edgar Kennedy) and finally the guy's ball lands in a puddle of mud. A mud fight involving a large number of people ensues. Eventually Edgar Kennedy finds his ball. The premise for this short was Oliver Hardy's real-life love of golf. No need to look "closely" for John Aasen during the mud fight -- the 8'-9" actor who co-starred with Harold Lloyd in Why Worry certainly stands out! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are perhaps unique amongst comedians of the 1920s and 1930s, and their silent and sound films are equally funny. This two-reeler was originally released with music and sound effects; it would be nearly six more months before the boys made their talkie debut. This short (which some claim is not one of the duo's best silent films, a point definitely to be argued) is so entertaining that it's easy to forget that it's a silent film. Stan and Ollie have stopped at a mansion to beg for food. They don't realize that they're at the residence of a mad scientist (Richard Carle) who needs a pair of grave robbers to bring him a corpse for one of his experiments. The boys find themselves enlisted, and neither they nor the scientist realize that the butler (Charles Rogers) is an undercover detective who is trying to keep the madman under control. While Stan and Ollie head off for the graveyard, the scientist is carted away. The detective, meanwhile, goes to the graveyard himself in order to scare away the would-be grave robbers. Frighten them he does, but he hasn't counted on the boys' persistence (or their stupidity). The duo's attempt to climb the graveyard wall results in Ollie flying through it and smashing it to bits. Later on, Ollie is spooked by his own toes, which are peeping through a mound of dirt, and smashes them. The detective, wrapped in a sheet and trying to alternately play a ghost or a corpse, gets his share of knocks, too. When Ollie finally puts him in a sack and has Stan cart him off, the detective pokes his hands and feet through the material. He frightens the boys so much that he and Ollie wind up falling in a deep puddle (Stan, as usual, avoids this fate). The boys finally run away in fright. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Mr. and Mrs. Culpepper (Tiny Sanford and Anita Garvin, respectively) are a nouveau-riche couple who are throwing a fancy dinner party. Unfortunately for them, the waiters they have hired for the evening are Laurel and Hardy. The subsequent gags run from typical (Ollie destroys a cake) to the hilariously literal (when Stan is ordered to serve the salad undressed, he obliges and has only his long underwear on when he brings out the greens). This two-reeler offers one of Anita Garvin's finest moments in her Laurel and Hardy film career -- she has a long-running battle trying to nab a maraschino cherry while keeping her tiara out of her eyes. Director E. Livingston Kennedy is better known as Edgar Kennedy, the actor who most often played cops in the Laurel and Hardy films. This is one of only two films he directed for the boys; the other one was You're Darn Tootin'. Many of the situations in From Soup to Nuts were repeated at the start of 1940's A Chump at Oxford. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although the title of Laurel and Hardy's very first sound film is a joke on the phrase, "Unaccustomed as we are to public speaking," it already shows a firm grasp of the comic potential for sound. The boys, and the writers and directors of their films, realized that more than dialogue was necessary for a successful two-reeler. Techniques such as off-stage sound effects add richly to the visual and verbal humor of this and subsequent Laurel and Hardy films. This one starts off with Ollie bringing Stan home for dinner. Mrs. Hardy (Mae Busch) is fed up cooking for her husband's friends so she goes home to mother. With Ollie working on dinner and Stan helping, it is no surprise that the stove explodes. A neighbor, Mrs. Kennedy (Thelma Todd) comes in and tries to help; instead her dress catches fire. Wrapped only in a sheet, she begins to make her way home, but her policeman husband (Edgar Kennedy) arrives just then. Afraid of his reaction, Mrs. Kennedy hides in Ollie's trunk instead. Now the boys have to hide the contents of the trunk from both Mrs. Hardy (who has returned) and Mr. Kennedy, who has come by because of all the commotion that is going on. Eventually Mr. Kennedy finds out that there is a woman in the trunk (but not that it's his wife), and he offers to take the trunk to his place. While doing this, he sagely lectures them on being discreet -- like he is. This inflames the hidden but all-hearing Mrs. Kennedy, and she wreaks havoc on her husband once Stan and Ollie are gone. The bruised and battered Mr. Kennedy comes back to Ollie's and beats him up in the hallway. Then, once he's done with Ollie, he calls for Stan. But before he can lay the first blow, Mrs. Kennedy knocks him out with a vase. Stan, unscathed, goes back to Ollie's, picks up his hat and leaves. Ollie stares in disbelief at the unconscious Kennedy and Stan trips and tumbles down the stairs. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

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

The second "Our Gang" talkie, Railroadin' was filmed entirely out-of-doors, on location in and around the railroad yards behind the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood. The fun begins when train engineer Otto Fries, the father of Gang members Joe Cobb and Norman "Chubby" Chaney, takes a lunch break, leaving Joe and Chubby to their own devices. Goaded on by their pals, the two kids attempt to operate their dad's locomotive, leading inexorably to a riotous runaway-train sequence, expertly combining laughs and thrills. Originally released on June 15, 1929, Railroadin' was long unavailable because its soundtrack discs could not be located. Then in the late 1970s, a complete talkie print was made available from Blackhawk Films, and subsequently released on video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Accustomed to being the center of attention in his family, little Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins is upset when the spotlight is stolen by his new baby brother. Envious of the new arrival, Wheezer scheme to take the infant back to the maternity hospital whence he came. But Wheezer's sister Mary Ann Jackson and the kids' mother concoct a scheme that is guaranteed to teach the "little rascal" a good lesson. Originally released on October 12, 1929, this "Our Gang" comedy is seen at a disadvantage today due to a substandard soundtrack. Nonetheless, "Bouncing Babies" contains a generous supply of laughs, thanks largely to a typical Hal Roach running gag wherein Wheezer practices an ingenious method of "traffic control." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Laurel and Hardy two-reel silent involves the boys' attempts to repossess a radio from Collis P. Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy). A barking toy dog scares them off at first, but they come back with a borrowed Great Dane. The Great Dane is also scared off by the toy. Ollie apprehends Kennedy while Stan breaks for lunch, but escapes when Stan hands him a sandwich instead of the summons. Finally the paper is served and the boys have to take the radio. This they do after a number of pratfalls. The radio, however, ends up being run over by a steamroller. Kennedy finds this hilarious until his wife appears and informs him that she just paid for the radio; Stan and Ollie find this funny until the steamroller runs over their car. This unfairly-overlooked Laurel and Hardy film makes use of the boys' classic technique of building gag upon gag through a battle of wits. Big Business is a more well-known example of this strategy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide