Stan Laurel Movies

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are victims of the depression in this tworeeler. They do have an old car, a tent and some clothes, though, so things could be worse. With Stan's help, things do get worse -- their tent goes up in flames and their laundry shrinks down to minuscule size. They are forced to beg for food and a kindly old lady (Mary Carr) offers to fix them a meal. They chop some wood (always dangerous in Laurel and Hardy's world) until they're called to the kitchen. While eating they overhear an argument between the old lady and a cruel-sounding man (James Finlayson). Her mortgage money has been stolen and the man is threatening to throw her out on the street. The boys are horrified when they hear this; what they don't know is that it is merely a scene being rehearsed for a local playhouse. Stan and Ollie want to help the old lady, as she helped them, so they try to auction off their car to come up with the money. The car winds up in pieces and Stan somehow gets his hands on a bystander's wallet. Ollie, thinking that the wallet belongs to the old lady, angrily drags Stan back to her to fess up. But the old lady finally tells them the truth about the play. Stan has been bullied by Ollie long enough and he fights back, chasing Ollie to the woodshed and chopping at it until it collapses on him. This ending is one of the few times in Laurel and Hardy films that Stan exacts revenge for the abuse he has received from Ollie. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Metropolitan opera star Lawrence Tibbett headed the cast of The Rogue Song, an opulent Technicolor adaptation of the Franz Lehar operetta Gypsy Love. Set (vaguely) in 19th-century Russia, the film stars Tibbett as Yegor, dashing leader of an outlaw band called "The Robbing Larks." During one of his excursions into Moscow, Yegor falls in love with beautiful Russian princess Vera (Catherine Dale Owen). But when Yegor's sister (Florence Lake) is betrayed by Vera's brother Prince Serge (Ulrich Haupt), the bandit kills the prince and kidnaps the princess. Upon her rescue, she orders Yegor's arrest and has him flogged. As the defiant bandit merrily sings away while the whip tears across his back, Vera realizes that she's still in love with him. Knowing that they can never live together as man and wife, Vera bids Yegor a tearful farewell as he rides off into the sunset with his comrades. After previewing the rough cut of Rogue Song, MGM realized that the film was in desperate need of comedy relief, so the studio borrowed Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy from Hal Roach, casting the team as two members of Yegor's outlaw gang. Written and directed without credit by Hal Roach himself, Laurel & Hardy's scenes wear spotted throughout the picture, bearing only the faintest relevance to the plot. In typical fashion, the two comedians tried to eat a wheel of cheese while being plagued by pesky flies, attempted to shave one another while being distracted by pretty girls and a flock of chickens, shared a darkened cave with a surly bear, and in general behaved more like "Stan and Ollie" than a pair of Russian bandits. Critics were divided as to the merits of Laurel & Hardy's contributions to the film, but audiences loved their antics, and indeed they were billed above star Lawrence Tibbett on some movie marquees. No matter what the reason, The Rogue Song was a huge moneymaker for MGM, earning a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination in the bargain. Alas, the film has apparently vanished from the face of the earth; the negative was destroyed decades ago, and no original prints are known to survive. In the mid-1970s, the film's soundtrack discs were rediscovered, and in the early 1980s a Laurel & Hardy collector came across a worn Technicolor dupe of a three-minute routine. A few years after that, a black-and-white print of the film was found in a Czechoslovakian archive -- with all the musical numbers and Laurel & Hardy scenes removed! One of the ten highest-priority titles on the American Film Institute's "most wanted" list of lost movies, The Rogue Song may indeed turn up intact some day, but the chances grow slimmer with each passing year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oliver Hardy wants to go see his friend Stan Laurel; his wife (Fay Holderness) tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he must put up the radio antenna first. When Stan comes by and gives Ollie his helping hand, the inevitable mayhem ensues. He begins by setting Ollie's pants on fire with the exhaust from his car. A bucket of water meant to douse the smoke coming from Ollie's behind hits him in the face instead. Ollie throws the bucket through a window; Mrs. Hardy whacks him with a frying pan. The boys climb onto the roof to get the antenna set up but just can't seem to keep from falling into the pond, causing a disgusted Mrs. Hardy to command them to stop playing. The boys get around to the wiring and Stan electrocutes Ollie, sending him down the chimney. Ollie gets back on the ladder, which has been set in Stan's car for support, but Stan starts the engine and they end up on a wild ride through town. The ladder ends up on a bus and Ollie falls in its path. He manages to escape getting run over when his tearful wife appears. Ollie tells her reassuringly that he is okay, but she's not crying over him -- she's upset because the radio has been repossessed. They all head back to Stan's car, just in time for it to be crushed by a streetcar. In most Laurel and Hardy films, Ollie's the one who suffers the most damage; this time around he seems to get it even worse than usual! Originally filmed in black & white, a colorized version was released in the late 1990s for home video. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The 1930 Laurel & Hardy 3-reeler Another Fine Mess is a remake of the team's 1927 effort Duck Soup--which, in turn, was based on "Home from the Honeymoon", a vaudeville sketch written in 1908 by Stan Laurel's father. Escaping from an angry cop, Stan and Ollie take refuge in a posh East Side mansion. It turns out that this is the home of great white hunter Colonel Buckshot (James Finlayson), who has just gone on an expedition to Africa, leaving his butler and maid with instructions to rent the mansion in his absence. But the servants have snuck out for the weekend, leaving Laurel & Hardy alone to contend with potential renters Lord Plumtree (Charles Gerard) and his sexy American wife (Thelma Todd). To avoid being arrested, Ollie poses as Colonel Buckshot, while Stan does double duty as both butler and maid (complete with flaxen wig). Originally lensed in black and white, Another Fine Mess was computer-colorized in 1986, but you'll enjoy it anyway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play both the fathers and their unruly children in this two-reel comedy. The really funny thing about this film is that as the kids, Laurel and Hardy don't behave much differently as they generally do as adults. The relationship is basically the same between the two youngsters, and little Ollie usually suffers the most damage. The father/son effect was created by making two sets exactly the same, with one set being more than twice normal size, to make the kid Laurel and Hardy appear child-sized. The two sets are seamlessly combined in several scenes, so we can see, for example, the fathers playing checkers while their sons are a few feet away, playing with alphabet blocks. There's not much plot -- the kids misbehave and are sent to bed early, but before they crawl into bed, they create more havoc -- and an overflowing bathtub that Ollie doesn't discover until it has flooded the whole bathroom. Because not every theater was yet wired for sound, a silent version of Brats was made, which still exists today, in addition to a colorized version released in the late 1990s. ~ 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

This Laurel and Hardy short film has a thin plot but plenty of laughs. The two have escaped from prison, but the guards are hot on their tail. Some confederates pick them up, and Stan and Ollie change out of their prison uniforms in the car while a motorcycle policeman pursues them. In their haste, they put on the wrong pants, but they manage to elude the police. For most of the rest of the film, they try to find a inconspicuous place to switch their pants. Future star Jean Harlow has an early bit part as a lady who attempts to enter a taxi while the boys are without trousers. They finally get their pants switched, but find themselves on a construction elevator which takes them up to the top of a skyscraper. Now, they have to find their way back down to the ground without falling. ~ Bruce Calvert, 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

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have a Sunday picnic planned with their wives (Isabelle Keith and Kay Deslys) and Uncle Ed (Edgar Kennedy). But in the world of Laurel and Hardy, an easy, pleasant outing such as this is not without its pitfalls. Everyone piles into the car and after bidding goodbye to the neighbors, the boys discover they have a flat tire. After much effort, it's still flat and Hardy angrily throws the jack at Laurel. It misses, of course...and breaks a neighbor's window. This leads to a melee which halts suddenly when a minister comes down the street. Laurel and Hardy try to get going once again, but the car's engine won't turn over. Laurel does, however, get it to explode. An exasperated Hardy instructs Laurel to "throw out the clutch" -- and he does. Finally the car starts, after a fashion, and the boys and their families once again bid the neighborhood adieu. Then they drive around the corner, right into a very deep puddle. Laurel and Hardy wring quite a lot of humor from a very simple situation in this gag-packed two-reeler. Originally filmed in black & white, a colorized version was released in the late 1990s. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide