(1930; director: James Parrott)
My favorite Laurel & Hardy situation is when they’re henpecked husbands. He’s a klutz. She’s an unpleasant harpy. Together they have a perfect marriage straight out of a nightmare. His idea of fun is going out with his buddy. Her idea of fun is squashing his fun.
Call it misogyny, I call it comedy. There are no good jokes to make about a happy marriage. Comedy is a crop that grows best in cold climates and these films are short enough that they end before it gets depressing.
Also, let’s just say that for some of us out here, this shit is highly relatable.
In this one, Stan Laurel is married to a total bitch and bachelor Oliver Hardy is married to nothing but a good time out on the town. They’re friends, but they have to make their plans together on the sly. Stan’s wife does not like him going out. (They don’t seem to have children, but this was The Great Depression; maybe they were pinching pennies. Or, more likely, maybe she’s just awful.)
Stan’s wife is SO opposed to fun that when she learns, through eavesdropping on the phone extension, that he plans to swipe the bottle of liquor that she’s had stashed away ever since Prohbition went into effect, she secretly POURS ALL OF IT DOWN THE SINK DRAIN and then replaces it with tea and a random mixture of common spices in their kitchen.
That’s what Stan takes with him when he hooks up with Ollie for a night of outlaw drinking at a beautiful old art deco night club.
They drink and drink and drink this no-doubt foul-tasting shit until they THINK they’re drunk (top-shelf comedic performance from Stan Laurel here, laughing his ass off at nothing).
But they’re not drunk.
The wife has the last laugh.
She also has a rifle. And some bullets. And she’s ready to use them.
There’s always someone who wants trample on your good time. Maybe you’re even living with them.
This film speaks to me.
Also, this is one of those Laurel & Hardy films that was remade for the Spanish-language market. Stan and Ollie broke out their uncomfortable phonetic espanol for La Vida Nocturna, a version extended by about fifteen minutes that aren’t an improvement on the original, but I did like the dancing girl toward the end.
Also, we are now into disc 2 of the Laurel & Hardy Essential Collection 10-DVD set. At this rate, I should have the whole thing reviewed by 2028.