Should Sailors Marry? - 1925

Country: United States

Director: Jess Robbins

Writers: Jess Robbins (story), H.M. Walker (titles)

Stars: Clyde Cook, Noah Young and Fay Holderness

Release Date: 8 November 1925 (USA)

Also known as: Mogen zeevaarders trouwen? (Netherlands - DVD title)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Question In Title

Genres: Comedy | Short

A Wrestler and his ex-Wife (Noah Young and Fay Holderness) try to con a recently-discharged Sailor (Clyde Cook) out of 4 years' pay. When they learn that he lost the money in a 'shell game', they put him to work in the hazardous job of a High Steel Worker, and insure him against accident, then try to see that he has one.  

Three of a Kind - 1926

Country: United States

Director: Harry Sweet

Stars: Hilliard Karr, Frank Alexander and 'Kewpie' Ross

Release Date: 13 June 1926 (USA)

Production Co: Joe Rock Comedies (I), Standard Photoplay Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

A young woman is taken to a fancy nightclub by her uncle, but is stuck with the bill when the stingy uncle gets into an argument with a waiter and leaves without paying. While working off the debt, she recommends some friends of hers as an act for the club. Her friends are hired, but their performance does not go over very well, and soon the whole club is in an uproar.  

Along Came Auntie - 1926

Country: United States

Language: English (intertitles)

Directors: Fred Guiol, Richard Wallace

Writers: Carl Harbaugh, Stan Laurel, James Parrott, Jerome Storm, Beatrice Van, H.M. Walker (titles), Frank Wilson, Hal Yates  

Stars: Oliver Hardy, Glenn Tryon and Vivien Oakland

Release Date: 25 July 1926 (USA)

Also known as: Tante kwam langs (Netherlands - DVD title)

Filming Locations: Hal Roach Studios - 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Hal Roach | Aunt Niece Relationship | Violin | Inheritance | Two Reeler  |  Character Name In Title

Genres: Comedy | Short

A divorced woman is set to receive $100,000 and quarts of diamonds from her divorce-disapproving aunt. Having taken in her first husband as a lodger, due to financial difficulties, and now living with her second husband, she must act to convince her aunt, that she is still married to her first husband, which is not taken gracefully by her second husband. 

Connections

Edited into Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's (1965) 

Be Reasonable - 1921

Country: United States

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Stars: Billy Bevan, Mildred June and Eddie Gribbon

Release Date: 12 December 1921 (USA)

Production Co: Mack Sennett Comedies

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

Silent comic Billy Bevan looked like a cross between Chaplin's Little Tramp and the Thompson Twins (from the Tin Tin books, not the 1980's electro-poppers). In this reasonably funny two-reeler, he plays a sad sack who gets doused by the world's fullest watering can and then tries to weedle his way into the heart of a bathing beauty (Mildred June) via the unusual means of a submarine periscope. He's also presented with the opportunity to rescue Fifi the Dog from drowning, as the regular lifeguard (Eddie Gribbon) is an over-muscled knucklehead who rides his bicycle into the waves. There's a hilarious sequence featuring Billy wearing pillows for shoes and a rip-roaring chase scene with dozens of coppers in pursuit of our hero. All in all, Be Reasonable is an ever so slightly above average Mack Sennett production guaranteed, at the very least, to bring a smile to your face.

The Lucky Dog - 1921

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Jess Robbins

Writer: Jess Robbins (screenplay)

Stars: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel and Florence Gillet

Release Date: October 1921 (USA)

Also known as: Cane fortunato (Italy), De geluksvogel (Netherlands - DVD title), Le veinard (France)

Filming Locations: Eastlake Park - 3501 Valley Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA

Production Co: Sun-Lite Pictures

Runtime:Germany: 17 min  | USA: 24 min (uncut version)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Dog | Landlady | Accident | Bag | Hit On The Head  |  Dynamite | Seeing Images After A Bang On The Head | Bandit | Butler | Automobile | Money | Trolley | Explosion | Hit With A Broom | Hit By Car | Fence | Kicked In The Butt | Animal Licking Someone | Seeing Stars After A Bang On The Head | Metro | Seeing Stars | Gun

Genres: Comedy | Short

In their first screen appearance together, Stan plays a penniless dog lover and Oliver plays a crook who tries to rob him and his new paramour.

This was Laurel & Hardy's first on-screen pairing – although not as a partnership: that was still 10 years away. Stan Laurel is the star, while Ollie – thinner than in his heyday, but still a hefty chap – plays a supporting role as a heavy. It's strange to see them working together as jobbing actors, neither of them aware, as we are, of what an important role each would eventually play in the other's life.

Stan plays a young man down on his luck. Evicted from his digs he's literally thrown into the street where he sees angelic women dancing around him. Mistakenly believing one of these ladies is kissing him he discovers it is actually a stray mongrel that has taken a liking to him. Stan takes a liking to a young lady, a passenger in a car who runs Stan over, and the dog proves useful in winning her over. Stan looks very young and gawky here, and there's very little sign of the mannerisms that would later become so familiar to his legions of fans. Hardy, a shy gentle man in real life, plays a ruffian with guns, always on the outlook for a fast buck. The lady's jilted beau hires him to put a bullet in Stan's head, but of course things don't turn out that way.

Trivia

The first time Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were in a film together. In the film, Hardy was a robber who robbed Laurel at gun point.

This film was already made in late 1919, but shelved for several years.

The popular version of this short ends with the wealthy, dog-loving heroine falling for Stan because of his stray dog. The full version, where she takes Stan home to meet her father and the jilted boyfriend appears with the criminal (played by Hardy) to attempt his revenge, was re-discovered from William K. Everson in his last days. 

Revealing mistakes

Traffic can be seen going backwards when Stan almost gets hit by a streetcar.

Connections

Referenced in Columbo: How to Dial a Murder (1978). The murderers dogs are named Laurel and Hardy, The Lucky Dog was L&Hs first film together.

Featured in 30 Years of Fun (1963) - compilation movie, Classic Comedy Teams (1986)

Laurel & Hardy: Their Lives and Magic (2011)- Documentary about this title's stars.

She Said No - 1928

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Leslie Goodwins

Stars: Ben Turpin, Edwin Argus and Addie McPhail

Production Co: Weiss Brothers Artclass Pictures

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

Wandering Papas - 1926

Country: United States

Language: English (intertitles)

Director: Stan Laurel

Writers: Edward Dillon, Carl Harbaugh, Stan Laurel, George O'Neill, James Parrott, H.M. Walker (titles), Hal Yates

Stars: Oliver Hardy, Clyde Cook and Sally O'Neil

Release Date: 21 February 1926 (USA)

Also known as: Enough to Do (UK - short version), Genoeg te doen (Netherlands - DVD title)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Cook | Cake | Bridge Constructor | Collecting Food | Sunflower Seed  |  Hal Roach | Baking | River | Skunk | Fishing

Genres: Comedy | Short

A cook for bridge constructors is told to collect food for dinner-Ritz style trout, Palmer house rabbit and a 15cm frosted cake. He sets off into the wide open spaces to collect the food, coming into contact with a mad hermit, who hates anybody seeing his daughter, before returning to cook dinner.  

Innocent Husbands - 1925

Country: United States

Language: English (intertitles)

Director: Leo McCarey

Writer: H.M. Walker (titles)

Stars: Charley Chase, Katherine Grant and Jane Sherman

Release Date: 2 August 1925 (USA)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Party | Seance | Fake Suicide | Dancing | Gunfire  | Spiritualist | Jealousy | Hotel Detective | Chase | Flat Tire | Friendship

Genres: Comedy | Short

Despite his faithfulness, Melvin is always under suspicion by wife Mame. Complications erupt when a woman from a party across the hall passes out in Melvin's bedroom just before Mame returns.

Perhaps you've heard about the great-but-neglected comedian Charley Chase, and perhaps you wonder what was so great about him. If so, this little gem from Chase's silent era heyday would be a good place to start an acquaintance. Judged on a bare plot outline INNOCENT HUSBANDS may sound like a run-of-the-mill marital farce, the sort of dreary two-reeler comics like Leon Errol cranked out by the dozen, but the difference lies in the execution. Charley Chase was a charming, agile performer with a highly expressive face and a lanky build, rather like a cross between Dick Van Dyke and John Cleese. Chase also possessed a gift for physical comedy and a fertile imagination for gags, which he demonstrated not only in his own movies but also when he directed films featuring his peers.

When we talk about "physical comedy," by the way, it doesn’t mean the sort of primitive butt-kicking slapstick found in the early Mack Sennett comedies. Like many of his contemporaries Charley Chase's film-making apprenticeship took place at the Keystone Studio during World War I, but by the '20s he'd refined his skills to the point where his work was comparatively sophisticated, with an occasional touch of the risqué. One example from this film: when Charley is sent to an apartment building to fetch a young lady to bring to a party, he is told to stand in front of her building and whistle three times; she'll throw down her room key. Charley dutifully stands before the building and whistles three times-- and is pelted with dozens of keys! Maybe that isn't your idea of "sophisticated," but it's miles ahead of a Keystone food fight. Next we have a funny scene where Charley actually has to fend off the hot-to-trot young lady in the back of a cab. He's not merely an innocent husband, but one who has to FIGHT to uphold his virtue!

This is the sort of farce in which an obsessively jealous wife tries to catch her husband cheating, and he eventually winds up-- innocently, of course --with an unconscious floozy in his bedroom, scrambling to conceal her presence. Again, what makes it work is the freshness Chase brings to this admittedly familiar material. A highlight comes early on, when Melvin (Charley's character) tells his wife Mame that he's become so tired of her suspicions he's going to end it all. He stomps into the next room, finds a revolver, fires it into the floor and falls in a histrionic manner. No response. So, naturally, he does it again. Still nothing. Now Mame opens the door to watch as Melvin performs this ridiculous act a third time. Flat on the floor Melvin looks up, realizes Mame is watching, and quickly resumes playing dead. This may not sound so funny in the telling, and God knows plenty of hack comics have performed similar routines to little effect, but, when Charley Chase does this, it's funny. INNOCENT HUSBANDS is a comic treat that deserves to be better known, and so does its star performer.  

Roaming Romeo - 1928

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Lupino Lane

Stars: Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino and Anita Garvin

Release Date: 29 July 1928 (USA)

Also known as: Bending Her (UK)

Production Co: Lupino Lane Comedy Corporation

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

Belle-Hure and Horatio Babaorum escape from a Roman galley only to land in a Roman palace where they indulge in their antique antics!

Lupino Lane is seldom ranked with the greatest silent screen comics, yet he was clearly a gifted performer of physical comedy. He was an amazing acrobat who could run up a wall like Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain, and take a fall with the best of them. Moreover, Lane wasn't just a knockabout clown: he turned in a well modulated dramatic performance in D.W. Griffith's last great feature Isn't Life Wonderful, and later demonstrated his flair for comic song & dance in the early talkie musical The Love Parade.

Lane made quite a few two-reel comedies in the late '20s, but although they tend to be jolly, fast-paced and packed with gags I've yet to find one that could hold its own with the best work (or even the middling work) of Chaplin, Lloyd, or Keaton. I suppose the main reason is that Lane was overly focused on gags at the expense of basic characterization and story construction. He races willy-nilly from one routine to the next, but without much rhyme or reason. Neither the star nor his supporting characters slow down long enough to give us a sense of personality, nor is anything Lane does motivated in any meaningful way. If it's funny, he does it. The laughs are there, and the bits are often beautifully performed, but taken as a whole these films seem curiously hollow.

Roaming Romeo is about par for a Lane two-reeler. The opening is a parody of the galley sequence from Ben-Hur with Ramon Novarro, a smash hit of 1926 that was still fresh in viewers' memories. Below decks in the galley ship we meet our star comedian and his sidekick, the latter played by Lane's real-life brother Wallace Lupino. The two of them, enslaved as oarsmen, manage to overpower the guard, then escape from the ship and swim to shore. Stealing outfits from two centurions who happen to be skinny-dipping, the escapees find themselves in a palace and masquerade as soldiers. From then on Lane and his buddy contend with various antagonists. First there's a hostile centurion officer who takes a dislike to our hero. One of the funniest bits comes when Lane starts to aim a kick at this guy, but when the officer catches him in the act Lane and his buddy quickly turn the action into a soft shoe dance. Later, our hero wins a wrestling match and is summoned by an aristocratic lady of the court (played by the great Anita Garvin). Before long, Lane has offended just about all the palace's authority figures, and must flee with his sidekick. Incidentally I've seen two prints of this film, one of which is missing the final sequence. The incomplete version ends flatly with a shot of the two comics running away from the palace. The complete version ends on a far more disturbing note when the former galley slaves willingly swim back to their ship!

As with most Lupino Lane comedies one can enjoy the good bits and ignore the filler. Unfortunately the scene with Anita Garvin feels haphazard and doesn't amount to much. (For what it's worth, Garvin gave an interview late in life in which she said she disliked Lane, though she didn't say why. This film marked their second and last collaboration.) The best routine is a familiar one, but nicely executed: when Lane and his buddy attempt to flee the palace guards they knock over a pair of statues and must take their place. When the Emperor comes along and stands nearby they attempt to sneak away, but have to freeze into statue-like positions every time he turns and looks at them. It's a funny routine up to a point, but nearly ruined by a tiresome punchline when a pair of black servants come along, see the "statues" move, and react with great fright. All too often Lane would fall back on hackneyed stuff like that.

In sum, this short gives a newcomer a good idea of what a Lupino Lane comedy is like, for better or worse. Buffs will enjoy watching the star execute his trademark scissor-jump and other physical bits. From what I've seen thus far, however, Lane's best performance on film is in the talkie The Love Parade, where he sings nicely and performs a terrific eccentric dance number with Lillian Roth. Perhaps this was one silent comedian who needed sound to fully come into his own as a performer in the movies.

Connections

Spoofs Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925).