Laurel and Hardy Two-Reelers
Laurel and Hardy Two-reelers. In the1950s in my hometown of Nederland, Texas, we came home from school to sit down and watch ancient Z-grade westerns with Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson, and Our Gang comedies. The third leg of this public domain afternoon trilogy, and the best, was Laurel & Hardy two-reelers. How we loved this mismatched set of goofs! A few days ago TMC had a full day of L&H shorts, and I TiVoed ten of them. They are still as good as they ever were.
Thicker Than Water (1935) The henpecked husband was a frequent theme. And why not? Big as Ollie was, he had no real violence in him. For all his bluster he could be bossed around by anyone in the world except poor clueless Stanley, so it makes perfect sense that his wife, about a third his size, terrifies him. Here he has lost the money that should have gone for rent, and has to find a scheme to get it back. There is a lovely bit of business whereby, when he is leaving a scene, he reaches up a grabs something at the edge of the frame and pulls a ‘wipe” across the screen, with the next scene already playing on it. (We don’t see wipes much these days. Here’s is how they go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wipe_%28transition%29 )
Later, Stanley tries the same thing, loses his grip and the next scene rolls back like a window shade rolling up. He has to go back and grab it again. I loved it.
Tit For Tat (1935) The title could sum up some of the very best bits L&H ever did. You know how it goes. Somebody does something nasty to somebody else: Dumps a bucket of water or paint over his head, pours molasses over him, makes him sit down on a crate of eggs, stuffs something awful down his pants. The offended guy retaliates. Then comically increasing retaliation. All through these indignities the offended party just stands there and takes it, blood boiling, then takes his revenge. There is no reason in the world why anyone would just stand there and take it … except that it’s funny that way, and that’s reason enough. This time its with an angry grocer next to the electrical appliance shop the boys have just opened, and it’s a classic.
Towed in a Hole (1932) They run a business selling fresh fish. They decide to buy a boat and catch their own fish. It has a few leaks, so naturally they fill it with water, and naturally Ollie gets soaked in every way it is possible to get soaked. Then they can’t get it moving, so they put up the sail …and car, trailer, and boat are demolished.
Them Thar Hills (1934) Ollie has gout. Well, serves you right, you bonehead, for eating all that rich food! Says Dr. Billie Gilbert. He advises a rest cure in the mountains, drinking plenty of water. What they don’t know as they pull up in their ‘30s RV (a box like a large packing crate on wheels) is that a bunch of moonshiners have dumped their hooch in the well. They get jolly drunk and are joined by their standard nemesis, a short, choleric, mean-spirited little man. Soon they are engaged in a very good “Tit for Tat” battle (see above). A really great one. Ollie was one of the all-time great laughers.
The Live Ghost (1934) A captain hires them to Shanghai sailors. They end up being the last ones Shanghaied, and have to avoid the crew’s vengeance. They think they have killed the drunken first mate, who falls into a vat of white paint and comes back to haunt them. Not one of their very best.
Beau Hunks (1931) The opening credits list 3,897 Arabs, 1,944 Riffians, and 4 Native Swede Guilders. It’s a take-off on Beau Geste, with Ollie going into the French Foreign Legion to forget a failed romance. (Turns out every man in the army is mooning over the same picture he is; it’s Jean Harlow.) At 37 minutes it’s neither a short nor a feature. Apparently they liked it so much they just kept expanding it. There’s a pretty high budget here, before they began making real feature films.
Going Bye-Bye! (1934) The boys have testified against a violent, angry hoodlum and he is going to jail, but vows to get them, tear off their legs, and twist them around their heads. They decide to leave town, but somehow end up with the escaped hood packed in a trunk. They try to get him out, not knowing who he is, and almost manage to kill him. Naturally they end up sitting on a couch with their legs tied around their heads.
The Hoose-Gow (1929) Here’s one made on the cheap. There’s a minimal prison set, and the rest takes place on a road gang. The extended bit: Ollie drives a pickax through the radiator of the visiting governor’s car. To plug the leak they fill it with rice. The rice boils out, and soon everyone in sight is playing tit for tat with handfuls of boiled rice, seldom hitting what they are aiming at. Good one.
Dirty Work (1933) Just as you know that if L&H get a job whitewashing a fence they are going to end up white from head to toe, you know that when they become chimney sweeps they will be black. Lots of good gags, culminating in a mad scientist who invents a rejuvenating formula that turns a duck into an egg and Ollie into a chimp.
Oliver the Eighth (1934) Stan and Ollie both plan to marry a rich widow, not knowing the reason she wants to have Ollie in her house is that she has declared war on Olivers because it was an Oliver who broke her heart. She has killed seven Olivers, in cahoots with her mad butler who plays cards with an invisible deck. It’s a hoot, except for the cop-out ending that it was all a bad dream. Ran out if ideas, I guess.