Category: movies

(1929; director: James Parrott)

There’s got to be at least one critic who’s written about how Laurel and Hardy are actually a subversive gay couple in their films, right? I’m not ready to drape a rainbow flag over the boys’ shoulders just yet, but the hints are there if you want ’em. Have at it, folks. Let’s make Laurel & Hardy hip new gay icons. Fine with me.

Exhibit A: They Go Boom!  It’s the two-reeler short in which Oliver Hardy comes down with a case of the sniffles and it’s a problem for both him and Stan Laurel because they sleep in the same bed together. Shoulder-to-shoulder almost. Closer than the Clintons have slept together in forty years and closer than the Trumps have probably slept together ever.

Now, I don’t know, maybe in 1929 two men could bed down under the same blanket and it didn’t mean anything other than that they were sleepy. I’m not sure. I was only four years old in 1929.

Also, one could argue that Stan and Ollie are simply poor and this is how they save money. Their room, which is about the size of–ahem–a closet is pretty shabby.

Or maybe they’re hiding out from their wives to live their secret life and are simply on a budget.

Anyway, while Ollie suffers through his cold, Stan tries to help out by applying antiquated home remedies that lead to the usual giant mess. The pratfalls are plenty, Ollie loses his temper, the police show up because of the noise and an air mattress explodes. It could happen.

It’s a bad night for our heroes, but a good time for us as this is easily one of the funniest of the team’s early shorts, all the more impressive because the production couldn’t be more economical. It’s just two guys in a room with brief appearances by a few bit players, including old school comedy stalwart Charlie Hall as the angry landlord.

(1929; director: James Parrott)

To my knowledge, the famous Lou Reed song is NOT based on this 1929 comedy two-reeler in which Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy completely fuck up a picnic. They don’t even get to the picnic, actually. Just packing up the sandwiches and getting their Model T out of the driveway brings disaster. The slapstick between Stan and Ollie as they get in each others’ way dealing with flat tires, an uncooperative engine and a neighbor whose window they accidentally break is good stuff, but the funniest parts are how everyone pretends that the great day that their wives planned is still possible after all of this (see the cheerful, and repetitious, goodbyes to the neighbors). Also, comedy stalwart Edgar Kennedy as the cranky old brother forced to tag along even with a gout-riddled foot in a cast (do you think it’s going to get stepped on and knocked around throughout the film?) is reliably despairing.

It’s a good one. Also, as a man who feels like he pretty much bumbles his way through most days, Laurel and Hardy continue to resonate. If you see me at the ice cream shop, ask me about my several Oliver Hardy moments last week when my cat got stuck in a tree for a few hours.

This is the fourth film on the massive Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection DVD box set and the first one to have a bonus feature, which is simply an alternate soundtrack. Like most films in 1929, the original release of “Perfect Day” has no music beyond the opening titles. When Hal Roach put it back into circulation in 1937, it came with a score of jaunty studio library music newly added for your pleasure. The DVD offers both versions. Party like it’s 1929. Or 1937. Your choice. They’re both good.