Big Business

If you know one Laurel & Hardy silent movie, this is the one, and it deserves to be. There are other fine Laurel & Hardy silent shorts, and I adore them, but this one has the slow build-up in violence, the tit-for-tat rhythm as each side does something even more destructive while the victim alternates standing there calmly while watching a tree be uprooted or a car torn to pieces, while a crowd gathers to watch the growing chaos.

There are lots of stories about this short, none of which are true. No, they didn't tear apart the wrong house by mistake. No, it's not about selling Christmas trees in July. There's no need to ornament the movie. It's perfect as it is.