Hog Wild

A lot of people consider "Way Out West" or "Sons of the Desert" or even "Flying Deuces" to be Laurel and Hardy's funniest film, but I consider this short to be the most amusing thing they ever did. From the simplest plot--Ollie and Stan try to hang a radio antenna--comes some of the funniest situations imaginable. Everything that could go wrong does, usually with Ollie blaming Stan, Stan getting emotional, and havoc ensuing. L&H had to turn out several shorts every year, so some are funny and others are indifferent at best. This time, all the elements came together wonderfully. Hopefully "Hog Wild" will wind up on DVD before they disappear. Someway, somehow, find this and watch it.

Oliver is having memory problems and is losing stuff which causes a fight with his wife. In a strop she demands he put up the aerial so her radio can pick up stations from Japan. Stan comes round and is enticed by the chance to hear Japan that he offers to help put the aerial up on the roof. However with two men on the job the chances of accidents doubles!

After a seemingly pointless and confusing start this short settles down to be a very enjoyable film that has good routines that sound basic but are very well executed and are, more importantly, very funny. The opening title card talks about Hardy losing his memory and Laurel never having had one to lose. There is then a short scene where hardy can't find his hat and then the whole amnesia thing is forgotten as the film moves to the aerial plot. It gets much better at this point and is very funny.

Although really it is simply a list of ways for one of the characters to fall down - it is done well and some of the bits are clever. The final sequence of the film is the best and must have been the most difficult to film. As always it is the delivery of the lead duo who make the material work (and last over decades). They do sterling work here – as always my favourite is Hardy. In this short more than others you can see him when he jumps up in frustration and points his fingers into the air – it reminds me so much of modern characters (such as George from Seinfeld) and it shows what an influence they have had.

Although on paper this doesn't sound that inspired I assure you that, if you enjoy the comedy of Laurel and Hardy, that you'll find much to enjoy here. But even if you are yet to discover them this is a fine example of their talents before they progressed from shorts into features.

This is one of many Laurel & Hardy short features that show how much mileage the great comedy duo were able to get out of a single situation. After a somewhat slow opening sequence, Stan and Ollie have to install a radio antenna on Ollie's roof, and things quickly get "Hog Wild", as everything that can happen does happen. You can see a lot of the gags coming in this one, but they are still very funny, done cleverly and with expert timing. It gets even better as it goes along. This one is worth making a point to see if you are a fan of Laurel and Hardy.

As is usually the case, a series of unfortunate events lead to the near destruction of Oliver Hardy. Ollie would like the day off but his wife insists that he finally get on the roof and adjust the radio antenna. Of course, he will need someone to help and we know who that is. After destroying the chimney, there are continuous hilarious mishaps, including bricks falling on Ollie's head. It is classic to watch him sit there, thinking each brick is the last and the another falls. Oliver was the master of the despairing victim. Stanley means well but is a horror when it comes to fixing things. Eventually, Stan makes the mistake of tying a rope to the car to anchor the big guy. Well, it's expected and, once again, a delight. The car starting scene with Stan is stunningly funny.

At a time when Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and other great silent comedy stars were struggling to deal with the new technology of sound recording, Laurel & Hardy were doing some of the best work of their career simply by continuing to make the sort of movie they'd been making all along. Hog Wild, a highly enjoyable talkie short released in the spring of 1930, is a case in point. The premise is that the boys must install the Hardys' new radio aerial on the roof before Mrs. Hardy will allow them to go out-- it seems that she wants to "get Japan" --and needless to say, the work doesn't go all that smoothly. Just the sight of these guys setting up a ladder on the back of Mr. Laurel's car is enough to get the chuckles started. But where film-making technique is concerned the team could have made substantially the same movie as a silent short a year or two earlier without changing much. Most of the action, after all, consists of sight gags and slapstick up on the roof of the Hardy home, topped with a wild ride in a runaway car through the streets of Culver City, one of L&H's all-time best finales. Dialog is kept to a minimum, and what dialog there is between Stan and Ollie and Ollie's wife is simple and straightforward, without any of the strained wisecracks we hear in some other early talkies featuring other performers.

But although the material is primarily visual, I'm glad this film was made with sound for a couple of reasons. Ollie and his wife (Fay Holderness) have a spirited verbal tiff at the beginning concerning the whereabouts of Ollie's hat, and this sequence wouldn't be nearly as effective if we were reading the dialog on title cards. Oliver Hardy had a terrific voice, and he uses it to nice effect in this exchange, blasting his wife with heavy sarcasm . . . until he realizes that the hat in question has been sitting on his own head all along, at which point -- after directing one of his patented 'looks' into the camera -- he attempts to brazen it out by claiming he's just found the hat under the bed! Stan Laurel doesn't speak much here, but as ever the contrast between his soft Lancashire accent and Ollie's earthier tone achieves a mysteriously perfect blend. The boys were lucky; Lloyd and Keaton had voices that didn't seem to suit their looks, and limited what they could do in talkies, while Stan and Ollie were blessed with voices that suited their screen characters perfectly and guaranteed they would thrive in the new medium. The other reason I'm glad Hog Wild has a soundtrack is that this movie features some of the liveliest L&H musical themes, those incredibly catchy little tunes so familiar from the Hal Roach comedies of the '30s. The scenes of Stan and Ollie puttering away on the roof (and plummeting to the ground) are just made for this music, which serves as icing on the cake for their fans.

Hog Wild is a real treat, and that climactic sequence with the car, the ladder, and the double-decker bus can hold its own with the funniest and best-edited chase sequences devised by any of Laurel & Hardy's contemporaries.