Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were one of the greatest comedy teams of the silver screen. Thin Stan and fat Ollie were a perfect visual contrast. Stan was the dumb one. Ollie was just as dumb, but never realized it. Yet, they always maintained a certain dignity despite their pratfalls. And there was always an obvious affection between them, even if circumstances pitted them temporarily against each other.
Interestingly, unlike most comedy teams of the period, they did not hone their chemistry together on the vaudeville stage. Nor did they enter the movie business together. Their backgrounds could have hardly been more different.
Arthur Stanley "Stan" Laurel was born on 16 June 1890 in Ulverston, Lancashire, England, into a theatrical family. He hit the boards at a young age and came to America with the
Fred Karno Company as an understudy to
Charlie Chaplin. Like Chaplin, Laurel felt the lure of the motion picture business, but he did not enjoy the same initial success. Starting in 1917, Laurel starred in dozens of short films without truly clicking with the audience. His initial screen persona was that of a brash young man, in the style of Harold Lloyd. By the mid-twenties, when he signed his contract with producer Hal Roach, Laurel considered his career as a performer nearing its end. He anticipated moving into writing and directing instead.
Oliver Norvell Hardy was born on 17 January 1892 in Harlem, Georgia. He experienced hardship as a child with the death of his father a year after his birth. However, Hardy had a talent for singing which his mother encouraged with lessons. Working as a projectionist at a theater, Hardy developed a love of the movies. He moved to Florida, where many movie companies operated at the time, and was soon appearing in films. He was frequently billed as Babe Hardy. Babe was a nickname he got early in his career. In fact, lip readers will notice that Stan frequently addresses him as Babe in their silent films together. Hardy appeared in hundreds of films prior to signing with Hal Roach, mostly working as a comic heavy, most famously for
Billy West, a Chaplin impersonator, and
Larry Semon. If Laurel was frustrated by his film career, Hardy seemed perfectly contented with his second banana status.
Producer
Hal Roach had lost his star attraction,
Harold Lloyd, prior to the time Laurel and Hardy both found their way to his studio. Although Roach enjoyed continued success with film series starring
Our Gang and the now underrated Baltimorean
Charley Chase, none of them had the star power of Lloyd. Laurel and Hardy both found themselves thrown together in films featuring the Hal Roach All Stars. Supervising producer
Leo McCarey, who would later become one of the top directors of the 1930s and 1940s, noticed a certain chemistry between Laurel and Hardy and began deliberately pairing them. They soon developed their familiar personas and the studio began billing them as a comedy team. Both of the men were pleased with the development, but they were not legally a team. They both had separate contracts with Roach that ran out at different times. This situation gave Roach the needed leverage to reign in and control them as they grew increasingly popular.
The roles of Laurel and Hardy were reversed behind the screen. Onscreen, Hardy was the leader. Offscreen, it was Laurel. No matter who was listed as producer, director or writer, Stan was the boss of their production unit. With very little interference on their short films from Roach himself, Stan and his team of gag writers would develop a script usually based on a simple story. In the silents, H.M. Walker would usually receive solo writing credit since he wrote the title cards. He often received solo writing on the early sound films as well. His role was usually to work on the dialogue of the scenarios developed by Stan and his team. What was Hardy doing during this time? He preferred to spend his time on the golf course. That isn't to say that he didn't have any input into their films, but he trusted Stan's guidance. And Stan trusted Hardy's instincts as a performer. He thought Hardy was hilarious. One of the reasons for the team's successful duration was their mutual respect for each other's roles. When they began working together, they were essentially only acquaintances, but they grew into fast friends and partners over the years.
Although producer Hal Roach didn't interfere much with the production of their shorts, he and Stan often battled over the higher stakes feature films. Arguments over the production of their 1934 feature film
Babes In Toyland, aka,
March of the Wooden Soldiers, and simmering resentment about the team's inability to bargain collectively because of their separate contracts, eventually led to a break with Roach. Finally a true partnership, Laurel and Hardy did a series of features for MGM and 20th Century Fox. Sadly, what creative control Stan had enjoyed at Roach was lost entirely at the major studios. Their final film was an unfortunate international production called
Utopia, aka
Atoll K, which was released in 1951.
Oliver Hardy died 7 August 1957 at the age of sixty-five after a series of strokes. Laurel announced his retirement after Hardy's death, declaring, "There is no Laurel without Hardy." He lived in an apartment in Santa Monica and kept his name and number in the phone book, and talked frequently with fans and celebrity admirers. Dick Van Dyke and Jerry Lewis, in particular, sought out his advice. Jerry would send Stan his scripts, and Stan would send him back notes. Stan received an honorary Academy Award in 1960.
Stan died on 23 February 1965. I wish he would have lived a little longer. I would have loved to have called him myself.
I grew up in a great time to be a fan of classic comedy. The Laurel and Hardy sound shorts regularly played on the local television stations. Later I began collecting them on Super 8mm and then later still on 16mm. Before the days of DVD and streaming, that was the only way to see their silent films. I always anxiously awaited the Blackhawk Films catalog. Each issue usually featured a Laurel & Hardy short on sale for half price. Over the years, their films have grown to become a form of cinematic comfort food for me. I start smiling as soon as I hear the music from their scores by Marvin Hatley or Leroy Shields. The films take me back to a more innocent time, both in the world and my own life. However, the way I enjoy them has changed. When I young, I would myself concentrating predominately on Stan Laurel. However, as I have grown older, I find myself enjoying Hardy more.
Without further ado, here's my list:
Stan and Ollie get jobs as a doorman and a footman at a classy hotel. Naturally, chaos ensues.
This is one of their late silent shorts, and I think that is perhaps their finest period. This isn't a particularly big or showy film, but I always found it quite enjoyable. The film is most notable for an early screen appearance by the future sex symbol Jean Harlow, who loses her dress due to Stan's ineptness. In another brush with greatness, this film was photographed by
George Stevens, who would later become one of Hollywood's top directors with films like
Shane and
Giant. The Laurel and Hardy unit had talent in depth.
Yes, I still have a 16mm print.
Cop Edgar Kennedy finds himself in hot water because of all the burglaries during his shift. Promising to get them off the hook later, he blackmails vagrants Stan and Ollie to break into the chief of police's house in order to catch them in the act.
This is an enjoyable short that serves as a excellent showcase for
Edgar Kennedy, a great comic supporting actor, famous for his "slow burn." His most famous appearance in a feature film was probably the Marx Brothers film
Duck Soup, where he plays a lemonade vendor who unsuccessfully matches wits with peanut vendors Harpo and Chico.
The director of this film, Baltimorean
James Parrott, was the younger brother of the comedian Charley Chase. Parrott began his career as a comedian before switching to directing. Sadly, he would develop drug and alcohol addictions. He would die in 1939 at the age of forty-one.
No, I do not have a film print for this one.
No Credited Writers
Stan and Ollie are opening an electronics store. They introduce themselves to the owners of the grocery store next door, Charlie Hall and Mae Busch. After a misunderstanding, Charlie and the boys methodically destroy each others businesses.
The tit for tat battle between Stan and Ollie and Charley Hall is one of the later examples of a familiar trope of their films -- including a couple of ones that follow on this list. These conflicts are characterized by an escalating rounds of slapstick violence. The conflict usually starts with personal attacks before spreading to their respective homes, businesses, vehicles and sometimes innocent bystanders. However, it rarely devolves into free for all. One side does commits an atrocity, unhindered by the opponent. The opponent contemplates it calmly before reacting. And so on. It is this restraint that separates Laurel and Hardy from their contemporaries who find themselves in similar comic circumstances. Their comedy is built around anticipation, not shock or surprise.
BTW, this film is a sequel to their 1934 film
Them Thar Hills, in which Hall and Busch appeared as the same characters. Both of them made frequent appearances in Laurel & Hardy films. The immortal
Mae Busch frequently played an irritated Mrs. Hardy or a seductress.
Charlie Hall, who was also a veteran of the Fred Karno troupe, was a frequent opponent. Shorter than the boys, they didn't mind engaging him physically, as opposed to some of their more intimidating heavies like
Walter Long.
Yes, I have this film on 16mm.
Honorable Mention:
ANY OLD PORT!, 1932, Short of funds, Hardy convinces Laurel to step into the ring as a prizefighter against an old nemesis. This is a sentimental favorite since I was a founder of the Sons of the Desert tent named for this film.
COUNTY HOSPITAL, 1932, a pretty strong short ruined only by some terrible process traffic shots at the end.
THE SECOND 100 YEARS, 1927, Laurel and Hardy play prison escapees in this early short.
YOU'RE DARN TOOTIN', 1928. Fired from a municipal band, Laurel and Hardy try their luck as street musicians and one of their tit for tat battles with the passerbys ensues. This film was directed by their frequent onscreen nemesis Edgar Kennedy.
ME AND MY PAL, 1933, best man, Stan, brings the groom, Ollie, a puzzle as wedding present, which so distracts the everyone that the wedding never happens.
MEN O'WAR, 1929, Broke sailors, Stan and Ollie, try to pick up some girls in a park.
HOG WILD, 1930, Stan and Ollie try to install a radio antenna on the roof. What could possibly go wrong? This is a favorite of my five-year-old granddaughter Mara.
Here are some other lists:
