Laurel and Hardy's Short Films
Release dates 1929-1935
Country : USA
Running time : 20 - 40 mins approx
Genre : Comedy
Starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
 Screenplays by Stan Laurel, various gag writers
Directed by various supported by Stan Laurel



Best examples : Big Business (1929), Hog Wild (1930), Laughing Gravy (1931), Helpmates (1932), The Music Box (1932), Towed In a Hole (1932)

In Big Business Stan and Ollie attempt to sell a Christmas tree to James Finlayson, in Hog Wild Stan helps Ollie put up an aerial, in Laughing Gravy the Boys have a dog. In Helpmates Stan helps Ollie clear up after a riotous party, in The Music Box they have to deliver a piano to a house at the top of a flight of steps and finally in Towed In A Hole they attempt to cut out the middleman by refurbishing a boat so they can catch their own fish.

The Laurel and Hardy shorts are simply the greatest and funniest in film history. Stan Laurel was a huge influence on the films' content and always admitted the team's best work was in their shorts. They made some excellent silents but sound gave a new dimension to their antics and new reality to their world of nagging wives and hostile authority figures.

 

"Considering the speed with which the Laurel and Hardy films were made they still seem amazingly professional and subtly timed..." from a review by Leslie Halliwell.