Laurel ‘or’ Hardy; and ‘and’ (4/4/15)

Saturday afternoon’s silent movies showed us that Stan Laurel and Oliver ‘Babe’ Hardy each had movie successes on their own before being teamed in 1927. Laurel’s background was as a vaudeville comedian in England before traveling to the US and ending up in Hollywood. Hardy, on the other hand, was running a movie theater in the South in 1910 and decided, in 1913, to move to Jacksonville, Fl, which had numerous film studios. Who knew? Obviously, he also ended up in Hollywood. Okay, the history lecture is now over.

Just Rambling Along (1918) is a funny one-reeler that has Laurel as a fellow thrown out of a diner for lack of funds. After finding a wallet and being finagled out of it by a kid whose father is a cop, he eventually manages to get some money from the kid and follows a pretty young thing (along with a gaggle of other gents ogling her) back into the diner. In the funniest scene, he gets a taste of everything in the cafeteria line, rejecting each item and settling for a ten-cent cup of coffee. As the coffee is being poured, he stuffs his pockets with food and even gets his straw boater filled with flapjacks. While sitting with the pretty young thing, she slyly switches bills with him, and when he doesn’t have the $1.25 for the bill, he gets thrown out all over again.

In Smithy (1924), Laurel (Smithy) is mustered out of the Army and manages to find employment at a building site, though he has absolutely no experience. Via a letter delivered to him by mistake (intended for a different Mr. Smith, the boss’ second-in-command), Smithy ends up being the head honcho on the building site for a new house, even though he’s pratfalled his way through earlier attempts at different tasks on the site (ladder climbing mishaps, dropped construction materials, mayhem with hammers and nails and tarpaper, etc.). When the right
Mr. Smith arrives, demanding to be the building chief, Smithy’s house is already completed. Alas, when the last support beam is removed, the house tumbles to the ground like a house of cards, and Smithy ends up back in the Army. Funny stuff from Laurel sans Hardy.

The two Hardy shorts had him as a feature player, as opposed to Laurel’s starring appearances. Should Men Walk Home? (1927) was a vehicle for Mabel Normand and Creighton Hale as a pair of bumbling criminals who decide to hook up and work together after trying to con each other. A lot of the funny stuff happens at a big party in a fancy home. The two criminals are out to steal a precious piece of jewelry. When the brooch gets unceremoniously plopped into a punch bowl, Ms. Normand decides to keep an eye on each and every cup of punch that is poured. Unfortunately for Mr. Hardy, every attempt to get and drink a cup of punch is thwarted by the diminutive Ms. Normand. Slapstick ensues and is very funny. The crooks never get the brooch, and as they’re being tossed out of the party, tons, and I mean tons, of silverware tumbles out of Mr. Hale’s tuxedo.

Fluttering Hearts (1927) also had Mr. Hardy as a supporting player. Here’s what I wrote about it when I first saw it in June of 2012:
“Fluttering Hearts starred Charley Chase (not Chevy) and Martha Sleeper (touted as the “ultimate flapper”). It also had a very funny Oliver Hardy in a supporting role. The plot: Our flapper rushes off to a sale (bed linens at 89¢—with a caveat of only three to a customer). She enlists the help of the beau who followed her and the cop who wanted to give her a speeding ticket (did I mention that this was a comedy?) and mayhem ensues at the shopping spree.

Meanwhile, Flapper’s father needs to retrieve a compromising letter—if he doesn’t pay $10,000 it’ll be made public and ruin him. Our hero, Mr. Chase, convinces dad to dress in drag to allow them entry into a speakeasy. Mayhem ensues, dad is chased by the cops, hero gets a female doll (literally) and even attaches its feet to his shoes in a very funny dance sequence (a precursor to “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and countless drag show routines). Mr. Hardy has the letter. Our hero eventually gets it—then loses it—then our flapper replaces the female doll, with the letter down her bodice and all ends well! Did I mention that this was a comedy?”

The final film on this past Saturday was Two Tars (1928) starring Laurel and Hardy. I’ve also seen this one before in December 2011 but did not write a synopsis. Laurel and Hardy are two sailors on a brief shore leave (sound familiar, Comden & Green?). They meet and pick up two sweet young things in their rental car, after first going through a bit of slapstick involving gumballs and pratfalls. The rest of the film is essentially one long (very long) running joke about different ways to beat up on cars and their owners involved in a massive traffic jam. There’s a lot of funny stuff, and a few of the repetitions are good, too, but it’s really just too much. However, it certainly cemented their partnership for the future.

Saturday’s segment of the series was curated by Rob Stone, of the Library of Congress and, as always, the indefatigable Ben Model supplied the piano score for each film. Bruce Lawton and Steve Massa were also on hand for the Q&A session afterward. I didn’t stay for that, but did hear as I was leaving that we had gotten the UK version of Two Tars as evidenced by the Title Cards. There was much laughter involved all afternoon.

ConcertMeister