Synopsis Of Laurel & Hardy Films

This list is not put forward as exhaustive. All the main films are here though, with a brief description to jog your memory if you’ve seen it, or whet your appetite if not.
This page is Lucky Dog to On The Loose (1917-1931)
Go to page two for Helpmates to Atoll K (1932-1952)

You can click on the Quote icon to see a quote or click on the Picture icon to view a picture for a particular film.
"Put your hands up, insect, or I’ll comb your hair with lead." The first words spoken by Ollie to Stan, making film history, albeit via a silent speech card. The first coincidental pairing, with totally unrecognisable characters and a standard 1920’s silent comedy plot: visual, violent and very quick.
Laurel and Hardy both appeared in the film but not together. For reasons best known to those there at the time, Stan is made up in a Fin-like moustache.
The same story as Another Fine Mess, based on a sketch written by Stan Laurel’s father. This version is described, not surprisingly for the period, as "frenetic and unsubtle" by Everson.
Laurel and Hardy’s roles are still not written with teamwork in mind but they are starting to work together smoothly. The plot is vaguely the same as The Fixer-Uppers although this version is less subtle in common with shorts of the period.
Another original which was reworked later – you probably know it as Chickens Come Home. This time Fin plays the Hardy role while Hardy is merely a guest at the dinner party. This short is also notable for being the first skirmish with ‘wives’. The usual picture of the female psyche is painted, even at this early stage.
Laurel’s girl is kidnapped by Hardy and to rescue her back he masquerades as a female passenger. McCabe’s joint biography has Hardy crediting his ‘tie-twiddle’ from this film.
Stan and Ollie are in the Army and come up against Fin as a Superior Officer. At last, the comedy is actually written for Laurel and Hardy as a team, rather than a situational pairing.
Millionaire Fin wakes up after a party to find he got married the night before. Butler Hardy calls Lawyer Stan and things get complicated enough to end up at a fun fair with Stan in drag. The most fun in this film is the glimpse of 1920’s fun fairs it gives us. Stan and Ollie begin to develop their on-screen chemistry although Stan is more aggressive at this stage.
Back to not being a team again, but they at least have equal footage. A contrived plot sees Stan as a cabbie being conned by a midget before accidentally boarding a passenger ship captained by an irate Ollie. The film includes such pleasures as Ollie going through his ladies’ man routine and appearances by Lupe Velez, before she made her big break, and the wonderful Anita Garvin who would become such a regular favourite.
Laurel and Hardy, intent on escaping from prison, try masquerading as painters then dignitaries to escape their fate, which ultimately ends in failure. The pace of their work was beginning to slow now, and the gags were getting more subtle. Much more of a teamed movie and much more material for Stan and Ollie to show what they could do.
Laurel and Hardy guest star in Max Davidson’s short as inmates of a lunatic asylum. Playing around in the back garden with Fin and Charlie Chase it looks like a home-movie inserted into a film but is no less enjoyable because of it. You can see clips from it in "Laurel and Hardy’s Laughing Twenties".
The Music Box but with a washing machine. It also includes a sequence where passers-by are goaded into destroying each other’s hats, an idea which would of course become a standard.
The first film in which we see Laurel and Hardy as we know them now. They appear dressed in the usual bowlers, are colleagues and friends and behave more cohesively as a team. The Boys play detectives assigned to protect a judge from an escaped convict but succeed despite themselves to capture the assailant. Standard routines such as the hat-dropping appear here. Going Bye Bye is a similar later work.
Late in life Stan was to name this as his favourite Laurel & Hardy film, although it is hard to see why. Ollie is the fashionable man-about-town, Stan is his visiting nephew in a kilt. Ollie is constantly embarrassed by Stan’s actions, which is of course familiar and there are a few examples of Ollie’s burgeoning pomposity ("No – I’ll go first") but other traits are wildly off; Stan as a lady-chaser is particularly surreal. At last though, their names appear together before the title of the film.
Laurel is a prize-fighter who will never win so Hardy slyly takes out an insurance policy on him. A attempt to cash in on it via a banana skin in front of Stan leads to Charlie Hall becoming involved and the pie fight to end them all. The Laurel and Hardy trademark of ‘building’ violence is present here. The first pie is accidental, the second necessary, the third a misunderstanding and after the fourth, who cares ? Certainly not Stan and Ollie who are selling pies to the protagonists. A mechanical gag like the pie fight is handled with subtlety and style with little vignettes by company players like Anita Garvin and Charlie Hall. The greatest pie fight of all time, which held the record for the number of pies thrown until a few years ago.
Stan has a toothache and at the dentists he and Ollie inhale too much laughing gas, leading to a traffic jam on the way home. A standard plotless two-section short, with Edgar Kennedy as the traffic cop.
Laurel and Hardy are back as solo comedians, occasionally sharing a scene. It is the stone-age and Stan and Ollie must find a girl to marry. They both decided on the same girl – Fin’s daughter.
Much more the characters we know. Stan and Ollie have to build a house – that’s the plot dealt with anyway. Ollie organises things so Stan does all the work, Stan constantly messes up and Ollie goes through a fair amount of pain. Sound familiar ? A wonderfully typical Laurel and Hardy day. While just trying to build a house the whole world seems to be against them and yet they manfully continue with their work. A nurse and a cop are casualties and like the famous picture from this film of Stan sawing through a plank that Ollie sits blissfully unaware on the end of, the film sums up their relationship perfectly.
Newly-rich Anita Garvin attempts to impress some friends at a dinner party. Unfortunately the agency sends her Stan and Ollie as butlers. Standard stuff, where Ollie continually trips headfirst into cakes and Stan has to serve the salad undressed. This material was later reworked in A Chump At Oxford.
As unsuccessful orchestra members, then even less successful street musicians, Laurel and Hardy start a fight in the street which passers-by get sucked into. Nobody knows who ripped the first trousers off but by the end of the film nobody has any left.
A story that may have suggested the later Blotto sees Stan and Ollie sneak out for a good time without the wives. Unfortunately the wives have substituted their money with cigarette coupons, which cramps the boys’ style a little, later on.
A peaceful Sunday morning with Hardy at home with wife is disrupted by Stan’s arrival. Mrs Hardy wisely throws them both out and they head for the golf course, much to Edgar Kennedy and two young ladies’ misfortune. This short contains the "we’ll pretend we’re out" routine from Come Clean and the "I’ll ask you what you want and you refuse" routine from Men O’War.
New millionaire Hardy employs Stan as his butler and proceeds to drive him mad. Stan tries to resign but seeing Hardy’s horror as he nearly breaks a vase, realises his power and goes on a rampage around the house. It has some inventive sight gags and is an interesting variation on the Boys’ relationship but it is debatable whether it improves upon it.
A classic Laurel and Hardy. The Boys are sailors and have hired a car to take two girls out for a pleasant day. An altercation in a traffic jam leads to everyone on the road becoming involved and the destruction of most of the traffic on it. The usual perfect pacing of what was described by Stan as ‘reciprocal destruction’.
Employed by a mad professor to obtain some corpses from a local graveyard for experiments, Stan and Ollie have a hair-raising time, complicated by a police spy and various other unlikely coincidences. Still vaguely the right characters but a disappointingly basic silent, relying on the usual devices and grotesque pantomime. Considering that Harold Lloyd had already made Safety Last (1923) and Girl Shy (1926), it is clear that Stan and Ollie had not yet found their stride.
The basic idea was later worked into the far superior Sons of the Desert. The boys go to a poker game claiming to their wives that they are going to a show. On hearing that the theatre burnt down, the wives are devastated. On finding the boys alive and (innocently) in company with two young ladies, the wives return to their usual selves. It uses the same "cheating husbands leap from every window" ending as Block-Heads.
Back in the right general direction, Stan and Ollie escape from prison but, having quickly changed out of their convict’s uniforms, find they have each other’s trousers on. The rest of the short is taken up with trying to swap them back with a high altitude finish inspired by Lloyd.
As stable-hands, Stan and Ollie hear that there is a reward for the return of the stolen Blue Boy. Assuming it is the horse of that name in their stables (rather than the famous painting) they deliver it to the owner, who is taking a bath when they arrive. "Just put it on the piano," he calls down. You can imagine the rest.
Mrs Hardy leaves her husband, just when Ollie needs a wife for a visiting rich uncle. Stan masquerades and makes it through the meal, but things go wrong in the nightclub afterwards.
Big Business is generally accepted as the definitive classic Laurel & Hardy film and although the characters still had someway to travel, from this point on they rarely changed. Stan and Ollie are selling Christmas trees and manage to pick a fight with Fin. From then on we are treated to the normal Laurel and Hardy pattern of inflicting pain upon one’s enemy then waiting patiently while he responds in kind. The utter dignity with which each participant hands out and accepts each indignity is a perfect example of the subtlety that Laurel and Hardy were able to bring to film comedy.
Their first full talkie sees Ollie bring Stan home for a meal, a surprise that makes Mae Busch’s Mrs Hardy storm out. A friendly neighbour, the delightful Thelma Todd, cooks for them instead, losing her dress in a cooking accident. When her policeman husband, Edgar Kennedy, returns home, followed by Mrs Hardy, things get complicated. The neighbour hides in a trunk, fooling Mrs Hardy but not Mr Kennedy. However, he has been in a few similar scrapes himself and with a knowing wink, moves the trunk next door, smoothing things over for Ollie but making things difficult for himself.
Doormen at a posh hotel, they are originally mistaken for visiting royalty, and then when the real royalty arrives they set to work with good intentions which naturally all go wrong. Jean Harlow also makes an early appearance and has her dress ripped off to mark the occasion.
As musicians going from one gig to the next, Stan and Ollie share a berth on an overnight train. This is of course, more difficult than it may seem. The short was released in both silent and sound versions.
The Boys play two sailors trying to impress two girls they have just met, but without much money. Getting Stan to refuse his drink is a problem, taking a ride on a boat lake is even more troublesome with Fin looking incredulously on throughout.
Stan, Ollie, the wives and gout-ridden Uncle Edgar Kennedy decide to go on a picnic. The delays are endless, however, with accident upon misfortune upon unlucky coincidence. When they finally get going they sink into a mud pool just around the first corner.
Ollie has a head-cold and Stan nobly attempts to look after him. Shortly afterwards their small rented room is virtually demolished. Charlie Hall is the landlord of course.
Stan and Ollie have to serve a notice on Edgar Kennedy, who has not paid his radio instalments. Mr Kennedy is not in the mood to receive it and various methods to persuade him are tried and failed. Stan and Ollie have to collect a rented radio off Edgar Kennedy who has not kept up repayments. Kennedy resists and the Boys need to use their initiative. Released in silent and limited sound versions. Jean Harlow makes an appearance at the end as Kennedy’s wife.
As newly arrived convicts, Stan and Ollie wreak well-intentioned havoc, cutting down a look-out post, demolishing the prison-warden’s car (Fin is the victim yet again) and covering everybody in exploding rice.
A musical review with a host of stars. Stan and Ollie did a sketch as Magician and Assistant, with predictable results. Jack Benny as MC, also became slightly involved.
A goat attaches itself to the Boys and they have to keep it in their rented room, while hiding it from a suspicious landlord. Essentially Laughing Gravy with a goat, this was the last completely silent film released.
Edgar Kennedy is a cop who can’t solve a recent spate of burglaries. He persuades Stan and Ollie to burgle a house, let him catch them and then he’ll fix things. Naturally, things don’t quite go to plan.
Blotto is a wonderful short blessed with many priceless moments: Stan resorting to desperate measures so he can escape from the wife Anita Garvin to have a night on the town with Ollie (Ms Garvin having known from the start what he was up to anyway); Stan and Ollie getting more and more drunk on the wine Stan stole from home and having a fit of the giggles in the club; Stan and Ollie being informed by Ms Garvin that she had replaced the wine with cold tea. The final shot is Stan and Ollie running from Ms Garvin with shotgun in hand. A classic.
Stan and Ollie play their own children here in what must have been fairly clever photography for the time and a pretty expensive set too. Again, the plot is merely to send the kids to bed at night but all the mannerisms are there and the way in which the adult Laurel & Hardy match the child Laurel & Hardy in attitude, thought and deed draws parallels for all to see.
Stan and Ollie are street musicians playing without much financial reward. On finding a wallet stuffed with dollars they treat themselves and a passing policeman to a meal. After lording it up during the meal (Stan: "Oh Gaston!"), when it comes to paying for the meal they discover that it is the policeman’s wallet. He takes back his property and leaves them to pay the bill. The head waiter is not sympathetic to their plight.
A vehicle for Lawrence Tibbit, Laurel and Hardy were added in to give the film lighter moments and box office appeal. Their material was poor and although no prints are known to exist, reviews were not kind.
Ollie has to put up an aerial on his house roof. Stan decides to help. "OK," says Ollie, "if you’ll really help me." He knows what is coming and several dives off the roof later he finds himself on the top of a ladder attached to an out-of control car driven by Stan.
Learning that Laurel has inherited a fortune, Ollie goes with him to collect. The old house they must stay in is scary and full of ghosts and murders. As the plot gets sillier and sillier, Hardy wakes up to discover it was all a dream.
Stan and Ollie take refuge from the law in a smart house. While they are hiding, they overhear the staff leave the house, commenting that the owner is away for the summer. The boys appear to have inherited a house temporarily, but there is soon a knock at the door with a gentleman looking to rent the house. What else can Ollie do but show him round ? Stan must play the butler and the maid (occasionally simultaneously) and by the time the real owner (Fin, who else ?) returns at the end, things have got fairly complicated.
In the absence of their wives (including Anita Garvin) Stan and Ollie plan to go to a convention. Riding clothing must be worn and after Ollie puts Stan’s boots on by mistake, the rest of the short is taken up trying to remove them.
Hardy is rich and successful but trouble arrives in the form of old girlfriend Mae Busch, who threatens blackmail. Stan tries to keep her at bay that evening while Ollie sorts things out but is unable to stop her gate-crashing the Hardy’s party, where Ollie attempts to keep everybody in the dark, while being blackmailed by his butler, Fin, who is smart enough to know the true picture.
A charity short made to finance a tuberculosis sanitarium in New York, the Boys make fleeting appearances as a couple of detectives' assistants.
Stan and Ollie must keep their dog a secret from suspicious landlord Charlie Hall. Rooftop escapades and several soakings all start with Stan getting hiccups.
Ollie is engaged to be married to a lady (whose silhouette matches his own). Stan is best man. The lady’s father, Fin, on seeing a picture of Ollie declares the marriage off. The boys then "whisk" her away via an impossibly small car. On finding a justice of the peace they attempt the marriage but with Ben Turpin in charge, the wires get crossed.
Their first feature. Stan and Ollie are imprisoned for illegal brewing of alcohol. They fortuitously make friends with the toughest inmate, Walter Long, then inadvertently ruin his prison break while escaping themselves, although they are soon recaptured. On re-incarceration they again accidentally quell a prison riot, which the warden mistakes as bravery and pardons them. Stan’s buzzing tooth and Ollie’s rendition of "Shine on Harvest Moon" are particular highlights.
A quiet morning in the Hardy household ends with Stan’s arrival. His demands for ice-cream necessitates a shopping trip, during which they rescue a suicidal Mae Busch. She reasons that having saved her they have to now take care of her and follows them home. They conceal her in the bathroom. The wives suspicions are aroused, however, but by the time Ollie has carefully placed all the blame on Stan, the police arrive to capture her, for she is an escaped lunatic. As Stan is responsible, he gets the reward.
When Mary Carr takes pity on Stan and Ollie’s lack of money and food, they look for any way to repay her. After overhearing her rehearsing some amateur dramatics with Fin they think she is about to be thrown out of her home and set about trying to raise the money she needs. After various complications they succeed in selling their car and return with the money only to find out the truth.
Mini-feature (four reels). Hardy’s love affair goes pear-shaped so he and Stan join the Foreign Legion to forget. On discovering that the girl wasn’t worth all this heartache they announce their decision to resign. Commandant Charles Middleton, does not take this well, but they redeem themselves by defending the fort from attacking Arabs.
Thelma Todd teams up with ZaSu Pitts in this amiable comedy short about two girls who are taken on a date to a fairground they've visited previously. The excellent supporting cast includes Laurel & Hardy regulars Billy Gilbert and Charlie Hall as well as the Boys themselves.
Go to page two for Helpmates to Atoll K (1932-1952).
Copyright © 2001 Stan & Ollie