The Music Box

Laurel & Hardy! Just the names alone brings to my mind the most talented comedy duo ever, bar none! And this, "The Music Box" is probably the finest of their work, though there are others that are very close! Too many to mention in fact.I've spent the last month or two having a Laurel and Hardy film season, and I watched around 35 of their films, and naturally I laughed many many times....theres nothing better to cheer you up. "The Music Box" itself stands out-it was the film that won them an oscar, wonderfully written, and marvellously filmed! Those steps would put most people off just to climb them on their own, but with a piano!!!Classic! If you haven't seen this movie, and there can't be many who haven't, see it as soon as you can, and when you want a good old fashioned laugh! 9.5/10

This is one of the great classics of comedy, with Laurel & Hardy at their very best. It has a wealth of good material, and also shows their ability to extract every possible laugh from a relatively simple situation. It also includes appearances by Billy Gilbert and Charlie Hall, two of their best supporting players.

Stan and Ollie are delivering an old-fashioned player piano (or music box) to a house at the top of a hill. They encounter one difficulty after another getting it up to the top, and when they do, their troubles are just beginning. They use the situation to set up a lot of creative gags, all delivered with excellent timing.

There isn't any description that could really do justice to this hilarious short film - if you enjoy classic comedy, you will want to see "The Music Box" for yourself, so that you can enjoy two masters of comedy at their best.

L&H are without doubt the best comedy double act of all time regardless of media format. Its amazing that their best movies are now 70 years old and yet remain timeless in their humour and inventiveness.

I've had the pleasure of seeing most of their movies - shorts & full format - and all of them have their own individual quirky qualities that other comedians still can't fathom.

The Music Box won them a well-deserved Oscar and although it is an excellently choreographed movie I personally don't think its their very best.

However, my opinion doesn't matter because any L&H fan will regard this movie as their favourite. The story is so simple yet so inventive and full of kinetic & emotive energy.

Stan & Ollie have to deliver a Piano to a highly strung guy who can't stand pianos. But just to make life a little interesting the guy's home just happens to be perched on a hill with the longest flight of steps in history to whit S&O have to push & pull their awkward delivery.

Some of the gags we've seen many times before but it doesn't matter because the added sparkle derives from the human emotions & expressions delivered with such panache from Stan & the long suffering Ollie - the way he looks-to-camera in a pleading kind of way just drives me wild with laughter & sympathy.

I can't find a single fault with this movie short, except that it just flies by so quickly. How I wish today's contemporary comedy writers could spend a few hours in a dark room watching how the masters of comedy produce such wonderful scripts. It proves that there is no need to have cheap & vulgar language, innuendo & explicit violence to make any audience, young or old, laugh with mirth.

The Golden Age of comedy is dead, long live the Golden Age; long live Laurel & Hardy!!!

*****/*****

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

Stan & Ollie are hired to deliver a piano - to a home at the top of a monumental series of steps. During this task of Sisyphus, they encounter every kind of hindrance, from a savage nursery maid to outright police brutality - which is only prologue to the chaos that awaits them when they get THE MUSIC BOX to the top...

This little classic is generally regarded as the Boys' best film, and, indeed, it won the 1932 Oscar for Best Short Subject, their only Academy Award. This is slapstick of a very high level, that born of the utmost frustration, and they make it all look so easy. If only one of their films could be saved for posterity, to show future generations what Laurel & Hardy were all about, this would be it.

Highlight (besides the stairs): the Boys' little dance to `The Arkansas Traveler'. That's Charlie Hall as the postman & the one and only Billy Gilbert as the apoplectic Professor Schwarzenhoffen.

This L&H-short relies solely on a premise. Stan and Ollie have to deliver a piano to a house. To get there, they have to get up an incredibly long staircase before they can even get to the front door. But even when they've reached the house there is no end to the chaos. The greatness of this short lies in it's deliberate pacing and perfect timing. Many jokes you see coming miles ahead, but the timing of the punchline always catches you off-guard and leaves you roaring with laughter. The best gag involves Stan pulling up the piano using a sunscreen, a joke too brilliantly executed to spoil. Watch it, enjoy it, marvel at the legend of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.