Original subtitles

Thank you.

Ah!

Thank you.

Thank you.

I can't play without it, explains Oliver. My soul is hushed.

So with immortal music ringing in our ears, we begin our cavalcade of classic

comedy moments, unseen for 40 years.

Films so old, we think you'll find them fresh and new.

Here then are the further perils of Laurel and Hardy.

A Mack Sennett bathing beauty appears to pose prettily for Charlie Chaplin on a

summer afternoon in 1915.

Actually, it's a double deception.

The beauty is really young Oliver Hardy in his third year as a supporting

comedian.

The admirer counting the curves is Billy West, who with uncanny accuracy imitated

Chaplin's walk, mannerisms, and even his plots.

This tale of a country girl's deception resembles Tilly's punctured romance.

Little Miss Gingham bounces into the general store.

In comedy's golden days, the best comedians, Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle,

Langdon, all impersonated women at one time or another.

Fifty years ago, trains stopped for quick lunch, much as buses do today.

Chaplin imitator Billy West flipped some pepper-flavored flapjacks in the

direction of Oliver Hardy playing a dapper intake valve.

In his day out, Oliver Hardy played what was long his customary role, that of the

pompous heavy, with brows and mustache so thick they almost hid his cherub

face. They also disguised the fact that this supposedly worldly villain was then

only 23 years old.

In 1918, Stan Laurel was featured in Just Rambling Along, an improvisational

comedy, which meant that the actors were sent out with a two-line script,

scrawled on the back of an envelope, and told to build it from there.

Quick-witted Stan was brilliant at ad-lib wordless comedy.

Note this bit with another beginner who was to become a silent comedy star,

Charlie Chase.

early Stan Laurel was brash and self-confident, almost a direct opposite

from the dim, forlorn character who, ten years later, was to become a world

favorite. His actions were a succession of quick visual surprises.

If there's a suggestion of Charlie Chaplin in his style, it's only to be

expected, for Laurel understudied Chaplin with Fred Carno's Music Hall

Review, in days before either one had even thought of joining that upstart

medium, the movies.

realization the talents of Stan and Oliver had to be teamed, and that team

required a third ingredient.

The third ingredient was the Hal Roach Studios.

In the early 20s, when Laurel and Hardy had only a nodding acquaintance, the

Roach Studios specialized in visual comedy, rich in invention and

breathtakingly fast.

Roach Studios' leading one real star of the period was little Snub Pollard, who

wore a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache upside down.

Snub is low man in a friendly game of toss the anvil.

Snub Pollard's comedy, Stage Struck, is a nostalgic look at the stock companies

which once toured the sticks, made at a time when these primitive shows were

still part of the American scene.

Snub and fellow patriots had to hold the scenery together while winning the Civil

War.

A sensational news story of 1922 was human rejuvenation by surgery through

the grafting of monkey and goat glands.

The once exhausted snub emerges a paragon of pep and finds his newly

installed monkey glands of immediate use in riding the streetcar.

Their value on the subway would be beyond estimate.

Snub's rival Tom Kennedy prepares supper after an injection of goat glands.

Snub discovers monkey glands increase his zest for wide open spaces.

Tom testifies goat glands improve his appetite.

A breakthrough in science.

This How Roach Studios comedy of 1921 with Burleigh Noah Young told the age

-old story of crime and pursuit in slapstick shorthand.

mother's goodbye.

It wasn't Hal Roach, but chief competitor Mack Sennett, who specialized

in the chase, sometimes making comedies that were one big chase from start to

finish.

However, the Hal Roach Studios could whip up a pretty good chase, too, as

here in Young Oldfield with the aptly named Charlie Chase behind the wheel.

In Do Your Stuff of 1923, Charlie Chase, who also used the names Paul Parrott and

Jimmy Jump, did a delightful and acrobatic spoof of Doug Fairbanks.

Stan Laurel is a caveman swain in the early and rare Flying Elephants, which

might be called a Laurel and Hardy comedy, except that Stan and Ollie

operated mainly as soloists, hardly at all as a team.

To add depth to the hubbub, Roach Studios comedies needed characters

audiences could identify with and love.

The time was growing ripe for Laurel and Hardy, who individually had been

underfoot for years.

a la Stone Age.

Look, murmurs Oliver, the elephants are already on the wing to Capistrano. It'll

be an early spring this year.

Fishing a la Stone Age.

Dentistry, a la Stone Age.

Friendship a la Stone Age.

Millionaire Jimmy Finlayson awakens with a headache peculiar to men who develop

weightlifter's muscles picking up champagne glasses.

Butler Oliver Hardy brings news of a wedding, Finlayson's wedding, the

blacked out night before.

Jimmy vanished after the ceremony and now wife and in-laws are after his blood

and maybe a buck or two.

Call my lawyer, cries Jimmy.

Finlayson's lawyer, the perfect advisor for bargain hunting clients with

unlimited time for regrets.

I'll be right over, says Stanley Z. Laurel. A short time later, bride, mom,

and dad storm into Finlayson's hotel and are spotted by Stanley, who has also

just arrived.

Where is that skunk, cries Papa.

Stan takes immediate action.

He begins to cry.

Stanley sounds the alarm.

They're trapped.

If this marriage was made in heaven, Finlayson may soon be visiting its place

of origin.

this sunflower queries suspicious dad why she's my little wife says Oliver

when I find that petrified playboy I'll shoot off his ears threatens Papa

Much of the classic comedy of the 20s was photographed out of the studio on

natural locations, a practice that is again popular today.

This was the Pike Amusement Area in Long Beach, California, at a time when knees

were just beginning to peek out from under the flapper's ever-shortening

skirt.

The perilous pursuit careens to the fun house, which in the 20s was filled with

gadgets to make insurance adjusters blanch.

Though in this comedy called Sugar Daddies, they are together in scene

after scene.

Laurel and Hardy are still not a team.

They have almost no chance to play against each other, and the addition of

their old friend Jimmy Finlayson makes them a threesome.

In a tense courtroom, Judge Fusil sentences Cutthroat Nash the Slash to a

most unpleasant form of necking.

I'll escape, and when I do, I'll come around and cut out your tonsils, cries

Nash the Slash, who likes to work by direct incision.

Detection Central gets an anguished cry for protection as Nash the Slash escapes

at once.

The chief calls Operative 01 and 02.

From this moment on, Laurel and Hardy were a team.

you butler he's the slash

Detective Hardy always reads the crime news thoroughly, a syllable at a time.

Say, does this fellow look familiar to you, he asked Stan.

Instant recognition.

That's Nash the Slash. There are foul deeds afoot.

Quick, Stanley!

The handcuffs!

Nash the slash has one weakness.

He's afraid of ghosts.

They're so hard to cut

Now

where to put the momentarily subdued slasher why in the closet with Oliver,

of course

Well, it's all in a day's work, sighed Stanley.

Okay, men, the killer's in the closet.

Take him away and see that he gets his just desserts.

So, 40 years ago in this short film called Do Detectives Think, Laurel got

the glory, Hardy got the black eyes, and the mold was set for an immortal comedy

team.

The lovely Jean Harlow was little more than an extra girl plucked from the

ranks in this Hal Roach Studios production called The Unkissed Man,

which reflected the new sophisticated comedy, rapidly replacing slapstick on

the screen.

The doctor trying to say no is Bryant Washburn,

once a leading matinee idol.

who was as surely sliding to oblivion as Harlow was destined to skyrocket to

stardom. The very next year, she and her low-cut gown were to create a sensation

in Hell's Angels, produced by Howard Hughes.

Another example of the new sophistication in comedy was the work of

Charlie Chase.

Clerk Charlie catches the eye of the boss's wife.

Why, you're just my husband's size, she declares.

I want to surprise him with a new pair of riding breeches. We can have them

tailored to fit you.

Hubby is the jealous type who imagines a rival lurking behind every filing

cabinet.

for lunch.

See you after I deliver these pants, says Charlie.

Headed for the same destination, hubby and important friends.

Charlie gets there first.

Please bring those riding breeches upstairs, orders the boss's wife.

Try them on. Let me see how they look on you, the boss's wife asks Bashful

Charlie.

Charlie Chase was the master of the comedy of embarrassment and at one time

the most popular star of two-reelers in the world.

Today, he is strangely and unfairly forgotten.

The boss spots Tom Dugan, the neighborhood private eye.

There's a strange man in my house. Get him out quietly.

I have influential guests.

There must be no scandal.

The wife gently notifies Charlie. My husband is here with the entire social

register. Get out, quick.

pampered pamela who pants for pants

charlie

whispers to the butler in the name of humanity and a 50 cent tip show me the

way out of here

Detective Dugan.

Pamela Stool Pigeons.

Aha!

Deduces Detective Dugan.

Half a pair of pants.

Or one pant.

This could be a clue.

Bye bye.

A canine raspberry.

Naughty, naughty.

you have no trousers whispers the host says the butler i certainly have look

Pantsless in my wife's bedroom was bad enough, cries the boss.

But pantsless under my dining room table, that's going too far.

Wifey explains everything as the riding breeches gallop away.

Exactly on time.

Riding breeches, doesn't he look silly?

Laurel and Hardy combined the heedless slapstick of the old short comedies and

the well-developed characters and slower pacing of the new.

They had been teamed almost by accident.

They had experimented, and they had perfected the Stan and Ollie whose

popularity remains undiminished.

In the second hundred years, they played convicts on the lam, mistaken for

visiting diplomats, and forced to bluff out the unbluffable.

The old chases used to utilize wagons, cars, boats, airplanes, submarines,

dirigibles, runaway locomotives, and a wild array of animals and people

hurtling at breakneck speed to make audiences laugh.

Stan Laurel could accomplish the same end by chasing a cherry.

Thank you.

The comedy Leave Them Laughing touched upon one of the unpleasant facts of

life, the midnight toothache.

Through long sequences and sometimes entire pictures, Laurel and Hardy, with

surprising frequency, played entirely alone, a test of their ability to be

self-sufficiently funny and a blessing to the budget.

Stan and Ollie explore the perils of lunch.

The rarest of moments, Oliver prevents disaster.

Of all occupations, which one would seem most unlikely for Laurel and Hardy?

Grave robbers?

Well, that's just what they are in habeas corpus.

Since the graveyard gate is locked, they'll have to scale the wall.

Try it this way, says exasperated Hardy.

A crazy old professor called them in to do the body snatching. And Stan and

Oliver were always so eager to please.

Go ahead and dig, commands Oliver.

I'll protect you.

A sheeted figure of law enforcement slithers in.

Unknown to the snatchers, the professor has been dispatched to the booby hatch

and a detective sent out to keep an eye on their clammy kidnapping.

imperiled by a battling bat.

Oliver leaps up for a better view.

And gets it.

Silence, darkness.

whispering winds, goose pimples, and in the dirt from the grave, something's

moving.

i'll teach him a lesson figures the detective get back and dig orders oliver

can't stand a man who's scared

Stan return?

Never. The detective substitutes for the body.

If I want a job done, I always have to do it myself, complains Ollie.

Where's the button?

In That's My Wife, Oliver Hardy's helpmate prepares to leave his bed and

board for the most insignificant of reasons.

How more insignificant can you get than Stan Laurel?

Stan came for an overnight visit. He's been planning to depart for months.

I'm through, says the wife.

But honey, reasons Oliver, if we part, Uncle Bernal will disinherit us.

Mrs. Hardy has a word.

Deleted for Uncle Bernal.

After eight months of hints about leaving, Stanley's feelings are easily

bruised. Meanwhile, destiny approaches the front door.

It's Uncle Bernal, the millionaire sheep dip king.

Nephew Oliver will inherit all his money, but only if Ollie is happily

married.

Says Uncle to Oliver, I just dropped in to visit your wife.

You know, I've never met her.

Uncle continues, if this marriage is solid, I'll buy you a fine new home.

Now, where is Mrs. Hardy?

I'll bring her down, says Ollie.

She's crazy to meet you.

You've got to be my wife, Hardy tells reluctant Stan.

There's a fortune at stake.

Something's missing.

She's no beauty, says Oliver, but what a clown.

See, I told you, always clowning.

This, announces Ollie, is the little woman.

She's clowning again says Oliver

It's

dinnertime says uncle I'll take you to the chow dog cafe If I go out like this

something terrible will happen cry Stanley to Oliver

The chow dog cafe where the waiters bark

and the checks bite

Holly explains, I always carry a dumbbell for my spare time exercises.

Asks the intruder, didn't I meet you at the flea circus in Palm Springs?

Do something forceful, says Uncle to Oliver.

Waiter.

My check. And a bowl of soup to take out.

Slippery Carmichael, a waiter who gets what he's been waiting for.

Don't worry, we'll find your necklace. I'll have everybody here searched,

assures the head waiter.

Time to dump the evidence.

The stolen necklace, it's down my back, cries Stan.

We'll dance and shake it out, whispers Ollie.

Says the band leader, we allow every kind of dancing here but that kind.

Believe it or not, we were calling Philadelphia.

found on the dance floor.

The main attraction, Garrick and Lucille in the Pageant of Love.

Uncle Bernal can take no more.

Uncle Bernal is through.

He'll leave his money to a home for dachshunds with back eggs.

Bah!

Bah!

Poor Oliver.

He's lost his wife. He's lost his fortune.

What can happen to him next?

turtle soup.

Some people are followed by good fortune, some by bill collectors.

Continuing their further perils, Stan and Ollie are followed by a goat.

An unwritten law on the Howl Roach Studios lot.

All puddles that Oliver Hardy stepped into were bottomless.

Nearby, a pet shop owner discovers his prized goat has either strayed or been

kidnapped. Meanwhile, Laurel and Hardy are adjusting to a new roommate.

cautions Ollie. The landlord sleeps right under us. If he finds a goat here,

we're finished.

Below, landlord Edgar Kennedy never counts sheep. He counts tenants being

evicted.

My poor feet are killing me, says Oliver to Stan.

Says Stanley, scratch my back.

i'm telling you that landlord will murder it and maybe even ask for the

rent warns ollie

I want you guys to know this is a respectable hotel, says landlord

Kennedy.

If you must exercise, exercise quietly.

Watch me, instructs Oliver.

Oliver explains, it slipped.

Odor of goat.

A natural fragrance which boy and girl goats find fascinating, but which has

very little appeal for anyone else.

Asks Oliver, do you smell anything?

Answers Stanley, there sure is a tang in the air.

It's the goat, cries Ollie.

We'd better give that goat a bath, commands Oliver. And if her smell

doesn't improve, you and goat will get.

Charlie Hall, the midnight caller.

It's the landlord again, cries Ollie.

Sorry, wrong room.

Another in a long and honored series, The Great Water Fight.

Enter the law.

Aha, cries the cop.

There's the goat that was reported stolen.

A quick deduction.

Goat A is found in room B.

Landlord C owns room B.

Therefore, Landlord C must be the culprit.

Look. points out Stanley.

We lost our goat, but she left behind three brand new ones.

Isn't nature wonderful?

Should Married Men Go Home begins on a note of connubial bliss unheard of in a

Laurel and Hardy comedy.

There is, however, a serpent in golf knickers galumping down on paradise.

Don't make a sound he'll stay for hours warns Oliver.

It takes nerves of steel to outwit Stanley at the waiting game.

Mrs. Hardy is played by Kay DeLise out of Hal Roach Studios' choice collection

of naturally funny females.

Peek-a-boo.

Mr. Hardy declines Mr.

Laurel's golf invitation.

But Stan is only too glad to hang around until Ollie changes his mind or loses

it.

The new Victrola. Can I play Paul Whiteman? Asked Stanley.

Imagine my embarrassment.

Hold it, says Oliver.

I'll play it.

There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything.

Wrong way.

Cries Mrs. Hardy, go on and golf. Get out of here.

By merest coincidence, Ollie happens to have his golfing togs just beneath his

lounging robe.

Wrong way.

Deliberate stand, the coarse curse.

Hurry up, expert. Edgar Kennedy has several things on his mind.

One of them was his hairpiece.

Edgar used to cut his own hair.

Now he makes his own wigs.

That's my ball, growls Oliver. A playpen special.

Your ball is over there.

Oops.

Ah, ah, says Stanley, staunch defender of the rules.

Ball must be played from where it lies. No exceptions.

Voice over for those who have forgotten how to read.

The Great Mud Fight.

The year is 1928.

You probably noticed that short, short skirts have come into style.

They make slapstick more fun than ever.

Keep clean.

There's a right way and a wrong way, points out Oliver.

Wrong way.

You're going in. You started this, yells Oliver to Stan.

Come in here this minute, cries Ollie.

There's Hardy's hole again.

Serves you right, says Stanley.

This final further peril of Laurel and Hardy concerns the struggle between

capital and labor.

Stan is Labor, the loyal butler of Hardy House, whose work is never done.

Oliver is Capital, the fun-loving millionaire master of the mansion,

carrying just enough champagne to make his nose tickle.

It's bedtime, but Oliver has returned from mad revels in Babylon.

Babylon, Long Island, that is. And he'd rather play.

You've been drinking.

Says Stanley, you're going to bed.

I'll go to bed, but you've got to catch me first, calls Running Oliver.

Ten and you're out counts off Oliver

Stanley whimpers

I was only trying to do my duty

Next morning, poor Stan gives notice.

Oliver's had the good times.

Stanley's had the hangovers.

Says Laurel, my bill for services to date.

Says Imperial Hardy, not a penny. I won't let you quit.

You're just being mean, says Stan.

warns Oliver, be careful, this stuff is priceless.

A glint of an idea glimmers in Stanley's mind, which is as good as new since it

has hardly ever been used.

Stan falls face-first into a nice, creamy birthday cake, which just

happened to be lying around the living room.

You're frothing at the mouth, screams Oliver.

You've gone mad.

Blood, blood, cries Stanley.

The Hardy Fountain.

Decorated with life-size head sculptures of the great man.

Bad plumbing, muses Stanley.

You've got to whack these heads to keep them spouting.

Says Oliver, let's forgive and forget and be pals again.

The jovial fat one and his sad skinny partner have long since departed.

But the laughter, undiminished, roars on.

On strips of film where time stands still, they have left their shadows

behind.