The Pest

Despite being the star of this pre-teaming with Oliver Hardy short, Stan Laurel is not the title character. That happens to be a woman played by Joy Winthrop who follows Stan as he tries to sell a book about Napoleon. I found this rarity on the "Saved from the Flames" DVD collection. There's three gags that I found really funny: The time a dog that Stan's trying to get away from jumps high enough to his window to bite him in the neck, Laurel's inadvertently punching a judge because of his tripping on the floor, and a stop motion scene of Stan getting away from that lady I mentioned by immediately sliding down the banister of a large set of steps that looks similar to the one he and Ollie pushed a piano (and fell with it) on in The Music Box. Not everything works, for instance, Stan's tiger disguise leads to an unconvincing chase between police and dogcatchers not to mention a tasteless racist gag involving a chauffeur. And his suddenly becoming a heroine's boyfriend also is unbelievable. Still, for anyone that's a fan of Stan Laurel, The Pest is worth a look. P.S. Stan's common-law wife, Mae, is credited on IMDb as appearing as a woman in court but I found no such scene.