Laughing Gravy

The boys rent an apartment from Charley Hall, who always seems to be angry. They take in a dog and call him Laughing Gravy. Of course, there is a "no dogs allowed" policy in the place and this puts the crabby landlord to the test. Stan and Ollie try so hard to keep the dog without disturbing the landlord (actually without letting on that the dog is there). This leads to incredible physical demands on the two guys, who even end up on the roof at one time. It's touching to see how much they care, but they are not very wise in their choices of action. This is another one of those episodes which are shown over and over. I guess there are lots of dog lovers.

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.

"Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy stuck together through thick and thin; one pocketbook between them - always empty." - The opening title card of Laughing Gravy.

Laurel and Hardy's comedy short Laughing Gravy is probably the funniest thing in film that ever dealt with the ideas of hypothermia and suicide, let alone those two topics together. In a humorous and well-spent twenty minutes, we see Laurel and Hardy as roommates in a small apartment, housing their dog they nickname "Laughing Gravy" against the landlord's policies. After the dog's incessant barking wakes up the landlord, along with Laurel and Hardy breaking their bed and having the plaster on the wall crumble on top of him, the landlord (Charlie Hall) finds the dog and proceeds to throw him out the window. This leads to a series of comedic improvising by Laurel and Hardy to get the dog back as soon as they can, as well as not waking their landlord up from his slumber.

Laughing Gravy is simplicity well done, as the general bulk of Laurel and Hardy shorts are. The most evident issue here, however, is that this is an early talkie short, so you get the feeling that writer H.M. Walker, at that time, wasn't totally sure of how to structure dialog for a short/feature-film. As asinine as that sounds, after we've been graced in America with films with sound for over eight decades, it's easy to overlook that idea. However, the lack of distinguished dialog and conversation in Laughing Gravy had the ability to make me forget I was watching a short with sound half the time, as music constantly plays in the background.

Other than that, there's little else to say about Laughing Gravy other than the situational comedy in the picture works for a surprising twenty minutes, and that the ending, as unexpected as it is, finds ways to be darkly funny in a way I would've never expected an American short from the early thirties to be. The short is a simple, effective piece of early-American comedy, but not on par with the numerous other fantastic shorts of Laurel and Hardy, or the ones directed by James W. Horne.

Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall, and Harry Bernard. Directed by: James W. Horne.

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.

This is a very typical Laurel & Hardy short. It's filled with some typical and very well executed slapstick humor. This is a great example of how a Laurel & Hardy movie should be.

It's no secret that Laurel & Hardy made their best picture together in the early '30's. This movie is definitely one of their greatest and most enjoyable ones.

The first halve of the movie is mostly filled with slapstick comedy. It's most definitely the best part of the movie. The comical slapstick moments are typical and amazingly funny, mostly due to the fact how well executed and timed they are. The second halve of the movie drags on for a bit too long and doesn't rely anymore so much on its slapstick and visual humor. If only the movie would had been about 10 minutes shorter, how great than it would had been. Not saying that it isn't great or enjoyable enough now but yet the movie had more potential of becoming truly one of the greatest or most memorable Laurel & Hardy shorts.

Their mishaps with Laughing Gravy the dog are funny and provide the movie with its best moments. Also good are the comical moments with the landlord played by Laurel & Hardy regular Charlie Hall, who of course doesn't like the boys having living a dog around in his house. Still it makes me wonder why they didn't gave James Finlayson the part and why didn't Arthur Houseman played the drunk in this one? I missed the both of them in this movie and I had the feeling that the movie would had been even a more fun one with them.

A near perfect slapstick comedy, that more or less falls short of greatness in its second halve, which prevent this movie from being the best or most memorable Laurel & Hardy comedy short but nevertheless it's one of their most fun and typical comedy shorts around.

8/10

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