Laurel & Hardy/ The Definitive Restorations Volume 2 (1929-1935)

Laurel & Hardy/ The Definitive Restorations Volume 2 (1929-1935)
1929-1935 – 1.33:1
Kit Parker Films – Blu-ray
Starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson
Written by Leo McCarey, Stan Laurel
Directed by James Parrot, Charley Rogers

Laurel and Hardy were a team so beloved they could unite even this country—it’s no small irony that they thrived in the comedy of destruction. Benevolent chaos agents, they specialized in calamity, their finest comedies exquisitely simple recipes for disaster. Henry Miller described 1927’s The Battle of the Century as “the greatest comic film ever made… there was nothing but pie throwing in it, nothing but pies, thousands and thousands of pies and everybody throwing them right and left.”

The dialog in their films was rote, peppered with catchphrases and insults and little insight into the human condition save for a simpleton’s smile or an exasperated groan. Yet these two baggy pants comedians managed to create fully drawn characters over the course of their career; they were great comedic actors but given the chance you feel they could have been superb tragedians; Stan’s perennial look of befuddlement would have suited a lost soul in one of Pabst’s films; Oliver’s slow burn might have caught fire and exploded into flesh and blood violence in one of Tod Browning’s more grotesque silents. But if they’d followed that road, there would be no chance of them uniting the country in anything except hatred and misery. Which is to say we still need Laurel and Hardy.

Stan and Ollie show no signs of fading from our collective memory and home video companies like Kit Parker Films are part of the reason why. Parker has just released the second volume in his “definitive restorations” containing a selection of well-known and lesser shorts, all of them worth spending time with.

1929’s Men O’ War might be considered one of those lesser-known films yet it plays an archetypal role. It was Laurel and Hardy’s third sound film, directed by Hollywood journeyman Lewis Foster and written by Leo McCary (McCarey is said to have been key in casting Stan and Ollie together in the first place.) The short is one of the boy’s more salacious adventures with gags seemingly fresh from the burlesque house. Stan and Ollie are sailors (they played a lot of sailors) on leave to do what sailors on leave usually do, look for available women. As usual in these situations, the duo’s ineffable innocence, even while cruising for ladies of questionable character, blunts the lewd atmosphere while making the naughty hijinks even funnier.

The hen-pecked version of Laurel and Hardy made several appearances over their careers—Should Married Men Go Home? was among the first to play with the concept—and 1930’s Blotto may be their most enduring take. Stan and Ollie want to laugh it up at a local club but Laurel’s wife, a firecracker with a whim of iron has other ideas (she’s played by Anita Garvin, a take-no-prisoners precursor to Lupe Vélez who man-handled the boys in 1934’s Hollywood Party). Directed by James Parrott, the film was written by McCarey and photographed by George Stevens whose work as a cinematographer soon blossomed into one of the great Hollywood careers.

Stan and Ollie are on the run from the police in Another Fine Mess, directed by Parrot and written by Roach standby H.M. Walker. The boys use a vacant mansion as their hideaway where they assume the roles of a lord and his butler. The unforgettable James Finlayson plays the mansion’s absent owner, an eccentric millionaire named Colonel Wilburforce Buckshot. Beverly and Betty Mae Crane make memorable appearances in their roles as curtain-raisers for Roach productions (they performed similar duties for the Our Gang comedies). Not to slight the charming Crane sisters but of more import was the first incidence of Leroy Shields’ music in a Laurel and Hardy film—his  jazzy, joyful rhythms were the ideal soundtrack for the boys and a welcome tonic to depression-era audiences.

Directed by comedian/writer Charley Rogers, 1934’s Going Bye-Bye puts Laurel and Hardy on the lam, not from the cops but a particularly vicious villain who they’ve just helped put in jail. Just as the court coppers lead him away, Stan has a question: “Aren’t you gonna hang him?” This doesn’t sit well with the scoundrel and he vows revenge. Naturally the crook makes his getaway and—in a bizarre bit of surreal slapstick—makes good on his threat to tie their legs around their necks.

In Them Thar Hills Ollie’s doctor sends him to the mountains to cure his gout, leading to the same predicaments that have befallen city-slickers from Fred MacMurray to—dare I say—Deliverance. No worries, Ollie and Stan’s adventures are considerably more light-hearted than Jon Voight’s. Written by Mr. Laurel himself, this delightful episode was directed by Charley Rogers and proved so successful it warranted a sequel, 1935’s Tit for Tat featuring the same supporting characters, Charlie Hall and Mae Busch. Not for nothing it was nominated for an Academy Award (Robert Benchley’s How to Sleep won the prize so no hard feelings here).

The set contains eight movies in all and Kit Parker Films’ boast about these restorations being “definitive” seems just about right; the picture quality is very fine and even the productions from the late ’20s have a clarity and depth remarkable for films near 100 years old. In an excess of generosity, Kit Parker (his motto, “Orphan Films…Adopted”) has graced fans with a boatload of fascinating extras including:

Previously lost silent versions of Blotto and Brats with scores by accompanist Andrew Earle Simpson. There are several unique trailers including Pardon Us and Fra Diavolo. One particularly interesting bit of esoterica is Galaxy of Stars, produced by MGM in 1936 for foreign exhibitors (Stan and Ollie parler français). Other archival items include Ship’s Reporter from 1952 and an episode of This is Your Life from 1954. There are also commentary tracks from authors Richard W. Bann and Randy Skretvedt and a rather sad interview with Hal Roach circa 1962 on the eve of the auction for his studio.