Hollywood Souvenirs

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 19281924

Complete Record: This film is a collection of excerpts from slapstick comedies. There is a narration over all the films, talking about their importance and different techniques used. 1-The boys play sailors on furlough. They have rented a Model T Ford for the day and meet a pair of pretty girls (Thelma Hill and Ruby Blaine). The foursome go on a drive and find themselves in a traffic jam. They drive past the long line of cars to discover the cause for the delay -- a driver who has run out of fuel on one side, and road workers on the other. Since they can't go forward, Ollie and Stan back up, running into another driver (Edgar Kennedy). They exchange angry bumps and the driver hits the next car back and breaks a headlight. Now the fun really begins -- the rest of the film is what Stan Laurel referred to as "reciprocal destruction." The fight that ensues goes all down the line, and very methodically, each car in the traffic jam is mutilated. Stan and Ollie, of course, are doing the most damage, pulling up fenders, removing tires, etc. Finally a cop comes and as the boys' girlfriends beat a hasty retreat, he puts a halt to the proceedings. All the drivers point at the sailors as the initial cause of the trouble, so the cop motions them to wait while the others leave. As the long row of sorry looking vehicles limp past, Stan and Ollie have a hard time remaining serious. When a truck runs over the cop's motorcycle, the boys take the opportunity to quickly drive off. The policeman orders everybody to "follow them sailors!" They do, even when they enter a railway tunnel. But an oncoming train puts the pursuers in reverse, while Stan and Ollie come out on the other side of the tunnel, their Model T squashed like a pancake on its edge. 2-Harry and Marcie are on a train headed for a new job. There's comedy in the berths and during Harry's morning shave, then a thief steals the money. Harry tries to find his bed inside the crowded train. He gets involved in a shootout on the train and falls back from shooting the gun. 3-A bunch of people are crowded around a lion in a cage. The lions tail is sticking out the back of the cage. A boy comes over to the back of the cage and ties the lions tail in a knot. A man in a straw hat comes over to the tail and tries to untie it with his hand, he is unable to and gets it untied with his teeth. He walks around the cage and the lion grabs him. The man finds that the lion has a huge splinter and takes it out. The lion thanks the man by patting him on the shoulder and on the head. Man plays checkers with cat A man is seen playing checkers with the cat. The cat is on a chair and moves the pieces with the paw. DOG helping with guys playing poker. A DOG is sitting watching people play poker. A man hides a card on his sock. The DOG goes over and grabs it. The men chase after the DOG. The DOG bites the leg of a policeman, the DOG holds a hose and sprays people. The three men with the DOG before get chased through a horse track by the cops. Film might star Cameo the DOG. 4-We pick up with Laurel and Hardy on a streetcorner, instruments in hand. Even without the benefit of a soundtrack, the visuals alone are convincing that they're as sorry a duo as they were cogs in the ensemble: the exaggerated, uncoordinated foot stomping, the attempts to play the first note together, the rapid unraveling of the effort. You don't have to hear them to know how bad they are. Sadly, they're unaware that their difficulties here are just an overture of those to come. First, a policeman comes by and asks if they have a license. "We have no DOG," a befuddled Ollie answers — and the resulting bum's rush from the officer finds them seeking out a new corner. The new locale doesn't ease the musical discord, though, so a friendly drunk offers to serve as conductor, until his zeal with his walking stick raps Stan on the knuckles. The cop's return sends them off yet again, and first Stan, then Ollie, fall into manholes. To add incendiary to insult, Ollie gets a blowtorch to the backside by an irate subterranean worker. One last try to earn a living through music: The Boys play a selection directly to a cross-eyed passerby who pauses, listens, digs in his vest pocket as if for a coin — then strides away without contributing when they pass the hats, both of them. It's too much for Ollie: he takes Stan's clarinet and breaks it over his knee, which in turn is too much for Stan, who kicks the French horn under a passing steam roller. Ollie picks up his squashed instrument, blows into it, and pronounces it "Flat." The Boys then enter into an atypical extended tit-for-tat routine, escalating from shin-kicking through hanky-tearing, then jacket-ripping, button-popping and hat-stomping. A man emerging from the ABC Restaurant finds himself involved, and the melee quickly widens to some two dozen well-dressed adult male participants. It takes a surreal turn with the de-pantsing first of Hardy by Laurel, then of everyone by his adjacent combatant, until all are displaying their (impressively white) BVDs — including the policeman. From the swirling maelstrom of boxer shorts, we cut to a solitary king-size gentleman, alone in the frame, with his arms up, his pants gone and his chubby pale legs peeking out from gleaming white shorts: "I've been robbed!" he cries. It's instantly clear what happened when we see Stan and Ollie — walking together, finally in synch, in the enormous trousers — tipping their derbies at the audience as they exit the shot.