JoeytheBrit
This is probably one of the more well-known of Laurel & Hardy's shorts. I remember when I was a kid this one was shown all the time – although without that extra reel, which wasn't re-discovered until 1985. They don't seem to show Laurel & Hardy shorts on TV anymore which is a real shame; there's a whole generation growing up knowing little about the duo.In this one they try to conceal their little dog Laughing Gravy (possibly the only dog in cinema history to have a film named after him rather than the other way around) from their pint-size landlord, the permanently grumpy Charlie Hall. Of course, they're unsuccessful and when the landlord pitches the dog out into the snow, Ollie braves the elements to smuggle it back in. As always, the boys complicate things by attempting to haul Ollie up the side of the building using a couple of sheets tied together – with inevitable results. Although the snow is obviously fake and the location is a set, the film really does succeed in making you feel the cold as the boys slide around on the roof in their nightshirts.There isn't that much dialogue in this film – or at least in the first twenty minutes – nearly all the humour is physical, punctuated by a number of long despairing looks into the camera from Ollie. Stan stares at the camera too on occasion, but you can tell there isn't much going on inside his character's head. He looks at the camera and you can almost hear the cogs creaking as they turn.The laughs are pretty solid and arrive at fairly regular intervals until that final reel when things change entirely. It's not difficult to see why it was cut from the original because it just bears no relation to the rest of the film other than the fact that it is a protracted build up to a decent punch-line involving the dog.
theowinthrop
In the pantheon of character actors that supported Laurel and Hardy over the years Charley Hall is second to Jimmy Finleyson as their constant foe (or victim). Hall was a good journeyman comedian, and appeared in many shorts besides those with the boys. Inevitably they irritate him (which may be why Finn is somewhat higher in the rating of their foes - Finn reacts to their comments, sometimes asking for mistreatment, but frequently being somewhat in the right; Charley usually just is bad tempered. In BE BIG Ollie and Stan are trying to get some ice cream for dinner at home that night. Charley is selling ice cream, and repeatedly tells Stan that they don't have Chocolate (apparently Stan's favorite). Finally instead of rattling off all the flavors he has, Charley grits his teeth and decides to list all the flavors he doesn't have! It still doesn't work.It's very possible that Charley's best performance against L & H was in LAUGHING GRAVY (possibly THEM THAR HILLS is equally good - but that was one of two shorts that are interconnected). LAUGHING GRAVY stands on it's own feet - it was a sound version of the silent short ANGORA LOVE, about the difficulties of the boys sneaking a goat into their rooming house when it won't stop following them. Later this plot would also be used in THE CHIMP, with a chimpanzee as the animal they have to keep hiding from their landlord (Billy Gilbert). But here it is Hall who is the landlord, and has been having problems with these two roomers some time before the short begins. He keeps being awaken by them and keeps threatening to send them out into the snow drifts outside. Stan has a cute little dog, "Laughing Gravy", and does not want to put the dog out into the snow. But there is a no-pets rule. The short expands on how they boys try to keep the dog in the room, but try to keep Charley from finding out. The results are usually at Ollie's expense, although both boys get locked out at one point. Ollie keeps getting soaked, and Charley keeps getting angrier and angrier at Ollie's making one disturbance after another. The culmination is when they are washing the dog, and Stan sees Hall staring at them - and pushes the dog out and starts washing Ollie's head in the soapy water instead!They are told to leave the boarding house. Here an interesting thing developed. It seems that many of the Laurel & Hardy films had scenes shot that were cut out (and not necessarily by television). Few of these have been found, though occasionally we know what they are (the Spanish version of PARDON US has a sequence involving the boys saving the warden's daughter from Walter Long during a fire - which apparently was in the English version too, but finally cut out of that version). In the case of LAUGHING GRAVY a ten minute sequence involving Stan getting a telegram and Ollie dying to know what it is about was dropped. They are packing when the telegram is delivered, and Stan reads it, but quickly folds it into his pocket. Ollie keeps asking what is on the telegram, but Stan says it's nothing. Ollie gets so annoyed, he starts singing a song, "You'll be sorry when it's too late...when our friendship has turned to hate!" Stan finally gives in, and gives Ollie the message. Stan has inherited a fortune from an uncle - but he has to give up his friendship with Ollie, who the uncle could not stand. The sequence is not a bad one, but one realizes why it was cut - it did nothing to further the plot line of the short. In fact, it was rather weak in comparison with the rest of the short (and costs the short a "10" out of "10" - it gets a "9" as a result). Still it is nice to occasionally see a lost sequence returned to any film.The real conclusion is when Hall (holding a hunting rifle) is waiting for the boys and Lauging Gravy to leave the boarding house. But as they are about to leave they hear nailing. They open the door and see a policemen has put up a quarantine sign there - Stan and Ollie can't leave with their dog now! Shocked beyond endurance by this twist, Hall says there is just so much a man can take. We see him walk off the camera's range. Then we hear two shots. The policeman enters to check the body, while Stan, Ollie, and Laughing Gravy head back upstairs. A really good conclusion to the short.
Cinema_Fan
Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Pete and Dud a.k.a. Derek and Clive, The Blues Brothers, Matt Lucas and David Walliams etc, etc these are just a tiny percentage of comedy double act's, the comedy duo's, that throughout the age's have entertained us all. Each with their own twist and turn of a gimmick that set's them apart, but in the final solution following, at times, the tradition of smart-aleck and buffoon.However, there is just one pair that set themselves very much apart from the herd, originators and comic geniuses that no one has surpassed, surpassed by either skill, wit and personality the late, great Laurel and Hardy, British born Stan Laurel (1890 - 1965) and his American counterpart Oliver Hardy (1892 - 1957).Their first outings were of the short silent movie variety, consisting of at least two reels in length, a reel being often around ten minutes long, this first short together was to be Slipping Wives (1927). Their first talkie was Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929, the advantage that both Laurel and Hardy had over most of their silent movie companions were that they adapted very well to this new genre. The Music Box (1932) won them an Academy Award for best short film, their only such Award.Yet again, the famous Hal Roach Studios had a part in the making of Laughing Gravy, along with the writing credits to H.M. Walker (1885 - 1937) who with a vast order of merit as writer of dialogue and title creator for works for many of the silent, and not so silent, era's shorts. A snippet of Laurel and Hardy titles that includes Night Owls, Another Fine Mess, Below Zero, Brats and Our Wife. Directed too by one James W. Horne (1880 - 1942) whose career started out as actor way back in 1913, then progressed to writer then director of many, many shorts and full-length movies.Then what about poor Laughing Gravy? Well, he, or more be it to the point she, went on to work with Laurel and Hardy twice more in Pardon Us (1931) and The Bohemian Girl (1936) as well as working in other Hal Roach (1892 - 1992) productions.Laughing Gravy was filmed between the 2nd and 18th of February 1931 and released April 4th of the same year, and it is here, in this studio setting, we find this enduring duo shacked up in lodgings, one dark cold winter, and of course with their tiny pet dog Laughing Gravy, who has been sneaked into said bed-sit. It's in this predicament that poor old Laughing Gravy is finally found out by the mean spirited Landlord, with the assistance of the bungling and inept pair in the room above, of course.So begins the absurd battle to retrieve this poor unfortunate mutt from the grasps of the freezing, howling winds and heavily snow ridden night. This is typical Laurel and Hardy starting out with good behaviour that very quickly turns to fanciful farce, with the ever blundering pair digging that inevitable hole so far deep that only sheer stealth and luck could bring them back over the edge and back to normality. Laughing Gravy is a wonderful insight into the world of this dynamic comedy duet, their antics and slapstick timing, and our joyful laughter at their own hilarious and often painful expense.It is the ever-comic mental and physical abuse, which Oliver has to suffer, and suffer in silence, by the hands of his slimmer partner Stan, that makes this pair an extremely unfortunate accident-prone comedy act. It is Oliver's camera baiting, his looking directly into the audience and pleading for sympathy and understanding, and in this technique, this interacting with the audience, that has been turned into a powerful tool that both enhances the comedy and draws us into the plight. This alone, has Laughing Gravy warming our hearts to the duo's plan of action and its dire and hysterical results.Around a week after initial shooting, extra scenes were added, a third reel, an extra ten minutes that does deviate from the first two reels, but non the less is just as funny in conjoining all three reels nicely, albeit a story in itself. This third reel had been lost for some decades, until the 1980's, and is now available as a full package. If sought out in the right places, the three different versions of Laughing Gravy, the original English language release two reeler, the three reel foreign language version (in English too) and now, the whole three reel's in 30 minutes of glorious computer generated colour can now be squandered at our leisure, for always. Another fine mess? On the contrary, a fine comedy feast with lavishing of laughter and gravy.
