Stan Laurel Movies

In this early Laurel and Hardy sound short, Stan and Ollie are a pair of sailors on leave. They meet two girls at a park (Anne Cornwall and Gloria Greer). They have also found a pair of bloomers, which they assume belongs to one of the young ladies. Delicately, they try to discern if either of the girls has "lost something," and since one of them has lost her gloves, a dialogue loaded with unintentional double meanings ensues. When the situation is finally cleared up (a cop finds the girl's gloves), the foursome goes for sodas. Stan and Ollie only have 15 cents between them and since this won't fund four drinks, Ollie orders Stan not to order one for himself. Stan does not comprehend this, and his confusion increasingly irritates the fountain's manager (James Finlayson). Finally he figures it out, and the boys order one soda between them. Stan drinks it all, and Ollie sticks him with the 30 cent bill. Stan gambles what he does have on a slot machine and not only comes up with the money for the sodas, but also enough for a boat ride on the lake. The boys are terrible sailors and manage to annoy the rest of the lake's boaters. Their boat, to no one's surprise, sinks in the end. This is the second time Laurel and Hardy portrayed sailors; the first was in the excellent 1928 silent, Two Tars. A version of the soda fountain segment was done previously in Should Married Men Go Home?, another silent 1928 two-reeler. Originally filmed in black & white, a colorzed version was released for home viewing in the late 1990's. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In her family, Mrs. Pincher (Fay Holderness) keeps a firm hold on the purse strings, but Mr. Pincher (Stan Laurel) has managed to squirrel away three dollars in the pocket of a portrait hanging in the hallway. Mrs. Pincher discovers the hiding place, takes the money, and substitutes her trading stamps. Mr. Hardy (Oliver Hardy) and his wife (Lyle Tayo) stop by. It isn't long before Mr. Pincher and Mr. Hardy decide to ditch their wives and hit the town, the stash from portrait in hand. They meet two girls (Anita Garvin and Kay Deslys) outside the Pink Pup Cafe and escort them inside. After much entertainment at the club, including a performance by a midget troupe, the wayward husbands finally discover their only means of payment is a handful of trading stamps. The head waiter (Tiny Sanford) and the duo's wives converge upon them and a pie fight ensues. This was one of Laurel and Hardy's earlier shorts; they were not yet consistent with using their real names for their characters. The ending was changed before its release, but the original version looks intriguing from stills: Stan and Ollie are attempting to leave the club by disguising themselves as female members of the midget troupe. ~ 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

Laurel and Hardy are poor and unemployed until a letter arrives informing Hardy that he has inherited a fortune. Hardy moves to a large mansion, and Laurel becomes his butler. One night, Hardy comes home drunk and plays some practical jokes on Laurel. When Laurel has had enough ribbing, he chases Hardy around the house, smashing expensive art and furniture on the way. Fans of Laurel and Hardy are deeply divided over this film. Since the team does not play their normal characters, and Hardy treats Stan terribly, many fans dislike this movie, but if you overlook that fact, this is still a very funny film. Director Emmet Flynn had worked in silent films a long time but did not get along well with Laurel and Hardy and the Hal Roach team. This would be his only film with the team. ~ Bruce Calvert, All Movie Guide

Laurel and Hardy want to slip out of the house and play poker. Their wives want them to stay home, so they make up a story about having to meet their "boss" at the Orpheum Theatre. On the way to the poker game, they run into two women who have lost a hat under an automobile. While they attempt to retrieve the lady's hat, a street-sprinkler soaks them with water. Soaking wet, they go to the girls' apartment while their clothes dry out, and while waiting, the girls flirt with them. Unfortunately, boxer "One-Round Kelly" is the boyfriend of one of the girls. He bursts in on the two couples and chases the boys from the apartment. Meanwhile, a fire has burned down the theatre that day, and Laurel and Hardy have a lot of explaining to do when they return home. While this film is only an average comedy, it is still worth a look. Laurel and Hardy's explanation of the "show" and why they didn't know about the fire, is priceless. ~ Bruce Calvert, All Movie Guide

Although they had appeared together in several films before this two-reeler was made, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were still a ways off from adopting the comic personas that made them famous. Here, the boys form a trio with James Finlayson, who lent them great support in later films. The picture opens with Finlayson playing millionaire Cyrus Brittle, who awakens with a hangover and no remembrance of the events from the night before. His butler (Hardy) informs him that apparently he has married some woman (Charlotte Mineau) who is waiting for him downstairs, along with her daughter (Edna Marian) and whacko brother (Noah Young). The new wife and in-laws are extortionists, plain and simple, so Brittle calls on his trusty attorney. Since the lawyer happens to be Stan Laurel, and he, Brittle and the butler all run away together, a melee is just about guaranteed. They hole up in a fancy seaside hotel, and news of their wild parties reach Brittle's unwelcome in-laws, who swoop in on their prey. The lawyer sees them in the lobby and he creates a disguise to evade them -- the butler appears with a queen-sized "wife," which is actually the lawyer sitting on Brittle's shoulders. The family, not one hundred percent fooled, follows this "couple," as does a policeman. All parties visit an amusement park, where the "wife" amazingly remains intact through a series of rides. Finally the disguised runaways are lost in the crowd, but the policeman sees a man in a bowler hat escorting a very tall lady. Convinced this is the trio, he lifts the woman's skirts. But it's a real woman, and she gives him a hearty sock in the eye. ~ Janiss Garza, 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

Jewish comic Max Davidson stars in this Hal Roach farce that would most likely have been completely forgotten had not Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Charley Chase turned up in cameo appearances. Davidson, wife Lillian Elliott, and son Spec O'Donnell are attempting to sell their house, which is located right next door to an insane asylum inhabited by a group of would-be radio announcers (the Messieurs Laurel, Hardy, Chase and James Finlayson). At the end of their ropes, the Davidsons finally find a buyer willing to swap houses, "no questions asked." The proud little family takes possession of their new abode, the street number of which is 1313, but it proves to be a lemon of gargantuan proportion where everything is topsy-turvy. A housewarming party ends in a free-for-all that nearly wrecks the house, and, after surveying the damage, the Davidsons discover that the insane asylum has relocated as well -- to right next door. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Until the rediscovery of Duck Soup in the 1970s, this comic short was thought to be the first time that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared together in something akin to their now-familiar personas (before teaming up, Laurel and Hardy appeared in quite a few of the same films at the Hal Roach studios -- just not as a duo). It isn't quite yet a Laurel and Hardy film -- the boys are given silly names (Stan is Ferdinand Finkleberry and Ollie is Sherlock Pinkham) instead of using their given names. In addition, as Judge Foozle, James Finlayson's role is as important as the boys'. There are also smaller details which indicate that the duo was still a ways off from refining their act -- the titles refer to Laurel as "the world's second worst detective" and Ollie is the worst. The way we know Laurel and Hardy now, it would be the other way around. But there is a lot that is familiar -- the bowler hats which get switched around (although Stan's isn't exactly the same as he would wear in later films), and many of the pair's mannerisms here would become part of the act. While this was a funny picture, it would still be a few more films before the team was considered official. Which picture signals this is still up for debate -- many (including Hal Roach and Stan Laurel himself) claimed it was Putting Pants on Phillip, others say it was The Second Hundred Years. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

A pair of adle-pated vagrants on the run from the police take refuge in a posh mansion, assuming the identities of its vacationing millionaire owner and the housemaid. Complications ensue when a couple arrives to enquire about renting the house. Forced to play out the charade to its ultimate exposure, the itinerant hoboes are once again sent fleeing from the law.

Long believed to be lost forever -- when this early Laurel and Hardy film (only their third together) finally turned up again in the mid-'70s it was a positive revelation for both film historians and die-hard Stan and Ollie fans. Their familiar characterizations and razor-timed teamwork, though somewhat rough around the edges, are already fully in evidence, as if they'd been working together for years. Adapted from a Music Hall stage sketch penned by Arthur Jefferson, Stan's father, the same basic material later reappeared in the four-reel comedy Another Fine Mess (1930), in which the boys repeated their roles and most of the gags with even more successful results. ~ All Movie Guide

If not the funniest of the silent Our Gang comedies, Seeing the World is certainly one of the most famous. James Finlayson is cast as the gang's schoolteacher, who manages to win a trip to Europe in a local contest. Gathering the kids together, Finlayson leads them on a whirlwind tour of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican, Venice, London, and finally Paris, where the trip nearly ends in disaster atop the Eiffel Tower. The location sequences in Europe were filmed during a vacation taken by star James Finlayson and director Robert McGowan. Combining business with pleasure, the two vacationers hired local kids in each city and dressed them to look like the Our Gang youngsters (from a distance, of course); then, upon returning to Hollywood, McGowan matched the European scenes with studio mockups using the real Our Gang troupe. As a result, audiences were convinced that the kids actually visited the capitals of Europe, a deception still virtually undetectable. As a bonus, the film features cameo appearances by two other Hal Roach contractees -- comedian Stan Laurel and writer-director Frank Butler, both cast as very proper Englishmen. Seeing the World was originally released on February 13, 1927; unfortunately, most available prints are choppy and incomplete. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Laurel is Canvasback Clump, an underfed and thoroughly clueless prize-fighter, and Hardy his rather overly optimistic manager. In confronting his ape-like opponent, Thunder-clap Callahan (Noah Young), Canvasback is quickly out for the count and the boys are left with the five-dollar loser's end of the purse. Later, considering their bleak prospects in the park, they encounter a smooth-talking insurance salesman (Eugene Pallette), who talks them into taking out a five-dollar accidental injury policy on Canvasback. After seeing his friend almost slip and fall, his manager decides to take matters into his own hands -- hurling banana peels into his pal's path. Instead, he topples a pie seller exiting a bakery -- thus inciting the silver screen's first real pie fight -- and arguably it's most inventive and funny.

An about average Laurel and Hardy short until the extravagant climactic blowout, it was made near the start of their collaboration and helped prompt their swift rise as worldwide favorites. The pie fight itself, building methodically and hilariously to all-out Armageddon, has been endlessly copied but certainly never equalled. The short's early boxing sequences laid the groundwork for portions of Any Old Port (1932), a later Laurel and Hardy three-reeler. ~ All Movie Guide