The Silver Screen Oasis

Lemme guess.......Stan signed the book with a big 'X'.

I missed this earlier but November's Silent Sunday Nights on the 6th and 13th are to be L & H silent shorts. Two hour slots on each Sunday. This is big news, for me at least.

Notables include -

6th - "Putting Pants on Phillip" and "Two Tars."
13th - "Big Business" and "Angora Love." (The latter is an earlier version of "Laughing Gravy" but with a goat.)

"Putting Pants of Phillip" is unusual because the boys aren't really the boys in this one. Stan plays a guy coming from Scotland who creates quite a stir when he shows up wearing his kilt. Ollie decides he needs to wear pants and they go all over the place trying to find somewhere they can get some pants on him. It doesn't really work out.

Come on! PHILLIP is hilarious for being a typical Roach silent situation comedy. Ollie plays a stuffy man about town and continually registers various forms of embarrassment over the antics of his nephew. And Stan doesn't just play a kilt-wearing Scotsman, he plays a girl crazy, skirt-chasing Scotsman. His scissor kick is on full display throughout this short as his phallic reaction to each cute flapper that crosses his path. In fact, this short is filled with risque humor as Stan flashes the crowd after losing his underwear, to the simulated rape scene in the tailor's store (it's funnier than it sounds...).

It's true they are not playing their beloved derby-wearing characters here, but they were such terrific comic actors that I still find this film a delight.

I didn't mean that the film didn't work out. Quite the contrary. I was commenting on that getting his pants on didn't work out. I expressed myself badly there. I agree completely.

In fact, I think part of its charm is a chance to see the boys early on and show just what you mention about their fine skill outside of the familiar characters.

Yes, I knew that you weren't putting down the entire film. I could tell there was a deep and abiding love for Stan & Ollie in that cold and stoney heart of yours.....
(This is where I'm suppose to place one of those 'smilie faces' on the page but I just can't in all good conscience).

I remember for a long time that this film threw off a lot of L&H fans because the films released both previous and after PHILLIP saw the Boys back in their traditional outfits (DO DETECTIVES THINK?, BATTLE OF THE CENTURY) so the assumption was that this short must had been filmed earlier in the year and then released later. But in fact it was following the normal release pattern of all their other films at that time. It shows that for a time McCarey and Laurel were not so locked into creating permanent characters for Hardy and himself as to finding funny stories that the two performers could play off of each other. In time it became too obvious that the chemistry of the two together worked best with a dominant/subordinate role playing and yet there were still more variations to occur the following year as the teaming became cemented (FLYING ELEPHANTS, EARLY TO BED).

I just got my Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection from Amazon. I've been trying for a long time to get good copies of these films.

10 discs that include all their sound shorts plus there Roach feature films. These certainly render my TCM recordings superfluous. It is actually a rather compact box set that looks like a book. Within each page there is a description of the films and a sleeve where the disc lives. Among the films are several Spanish language versions that are often longer than the versions we know. Can't wait to get through them.

I'm off to lunch in a bit to watch some on a computer in the back.

They've been talking this up on other blog sites and I've yet to read about any real complaints about the quality.....just the usual nit-picking here and there. I have the British Universal set and these copies sound similar to that. If you've been waiting for L&H on Region 1 this is the set to grab.....for now. And when the massive UCLA restoration job of the Boys films are completed in 5 years or so, that should be the definite word in quality (...we hope!).

I've read a few things on Amazon but those are a mix of normal people and some people who have no clue what they're talking about. (Some want colorized or widescreen versions!) Yes, the discs don't have their own plastic place that they lock into but slip neatly in the sleeve between the pages and are all in a cardboard box.

There is even a disc that includes guest shots in Chase and Pitts/Todd shorts and even one from the Dept of Agriculture in 1941. It looks pretty comprehensive.

If they're working on the silents then good for them.

It sounds awesome, Chris! Congratulations! I know you've been waiting forever for these.

There is an interesting night coming in January. On the 18th you can have English and foreign language versions of several of their short films. (Apologies to the European members.) There are versions of films in Spanish, French and, I think, Italian (though they don't name the language in one of them.

8:00pm - Chickens Come Home.
8:45pm - Politiquerias (Spanish version of Chickens Come Home. At 60 minutes.)
9:45pm - Blotto
10:15pm - La Vida Nocturna - (Itailian? version of Blotto.)
11:30pm - Be Big
Midnight - Laughing Gravy.
12:45am - Les Carottiers (French version of Be Big and Laughing Gravy.) Not exactly sure how they mesh but it will be interesting to find out.

Awesome! Any night with Stan and Ollie is good watching, no matter the language.

Stan and Ollie tonight in English and other languages.

I can't imagine how much work it must have been making and remaking these in different languages. Fascinating how they padded the films.