Although Laurel & Hardy's "talkie" short subjects finally got their due on a lavish American DVD set in 2011, their silent shorts aren't as readily available in the U.S. (because they are owned by different hands). So if you have trouble obtaining L&H's terrific silent shorts as a set, your best bet is to check out Laurel & Hardy's Laughing '20s, one of the many silent-comedy compilations lovingly put together by film historian Robert Youngson in the 1950's and '60s.
Youngson's efforts, well-chronicled in the L&H biography Laurel & Hardy From the Forties Forward, were instrumental in rekindling interest in silent-film comedy in general and L&H in particular. Though Youngson's narration tends to be a bit verbose, his affection for Laurel & Hardy's peerless comedy is obvious and infectious. And this compilation, especially, presents most of its subjects virtually complete (except for subtitles) and, with modest but effective musical scoring, nearly as lovingly as the originals.
Among the L&H gems presented here are: Liberty (1929), one of my personal L&H faves, with Stan and Ollie doing a "Harold Lloyd" stunt number atop an unfinished skyscraper; From Soup to Nuts (1928), with Stan and Ollie wreaking havoc as waiters at a dinner party; and The Finishing Touch (1928), with the duo building (or, more exactly, not building) a house. The film's closer features climaxes (and only the climaxes, unfortunately) from L&H gems such as The Battle of the Century (with its famous pie-throwing melee) and Two Tars (a hilarious traffic jam that inspired much in Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend).
To a film generation acquainted only with color, sound, and fury, the methodical pace of Laurel & Hardy's silent work is almost like a foreign language to be learned. But the beauty inherent in a second language is on ample display here, especially as an anecdote to latter-day bodily-function comedies.
(C) 2006, Steven Bailey.
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