8mm Forum: FROM SOUP TO NUTS Laurel and Hardy

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 04, 2006, 11:44 AM:

Being a fond lover of this magnificent duo, I thought I'd review one of thier silent comedies and being that I watched this one yesterday, I thought this would make an awesome choice!

A snobbish socialite, newly rich, decides to throw a big party. Her husband would rather sit on the porch in his bare feet. She needs two more servants for the dinner party.

Guess who? Yup!

They arrive. Laurel wants to pull the bellrope. Ollie insists upon it and promptly breaks it.

Upon entering, Ollie continually insists on Stan taking off his hat, (it's gentlemanly), and Stan constantly ends up with his hat back on. They give the Matron thier letter and it states that thier only expereince before this was to work at a train car cafe, (very lowbrow). As the Lady leaves thier presence, the two watch her "wiggly walk" going away and make happy mention of it .... to her husband! Now thier on his bad side, (The husband, by the way, played a cop in "double Whoopee" as well as many parts in thier other films).

They go to the kitchen. Stan sees that the chef has his hat on and insists that he take it off, as it makes Ollie mad to see hats on in a house. The chef refuses, breaking a plate over Stan's head. Stan reciprocates and soon greater number of plates are being broken on each others heads! Stan wins by breaking a whole stack of plates on the chef's head, knocking him quite silly.

As they prepare for dinner, a dog chews on a bananna, he gets tired of it and tosses it on the dinning room floor.

It's time for dinner!

Ollie comes out with much pomp, carrying a large cake. He promptly slips on the bannana peel, ending up face first in the cake. Hilariously, he just sits there in the cake, staring at the audience and at himself. He angrily throws the banna peel across the room.

Ollie comes out and promptly falls on the peel as well. He throws it a little further across the room. Ollie fianlly rises up and carries destoyed cake to the kitchen and

SWIP!! falls again into the messed up cake. "You Faw Down". Ollie goes to the kitchen, much to Stans amusement, just as Stan falls again. This time Stan is enroaged when he gets up. He yells at the guests to "SIDDOWN!!!" which they worriedly do!

Ollie comes out with another beautiful cake. He promptly falls into this one as fell. "You Faw Down on Purpose!" states Stanley.

Meanwhile, all this time, the Matron of the party has an ongoing battle with her Tiara falling in front of her face an a annoying cherry that she can't seem to get out of her fruitcup.

Now it's time for the salad, (they never do get to the main course!), the Matron insists on having the salad "undressed" (without dressing). Stan is shocked! How dare she. He goes to the kitchen and starts to cry to one of the serving ladies about it. She replies, "I serve it that way all the time!" This shocks Stan further. "What kind of Party is this?!" He asks. However Stan complies.

He comes out, stripped down to his underwear, serving salad! He shocks everyone. Ollie tries to do the right thing and gives Stan his coat. "Hows that?" he asks the Matron, who promptly slaps him hard, sending Ollie off his feet and yup, back face first into food! Fade out. The End!

At this time, Stan and Ollie, while a duo, were still in thier formative period. Most of the groundwork was in place. Stan, however, is in more of an aggressive role in this short, taking charge, (as this would be Ollies main perogative in the future) This is a fine example of just taking one little incident, (a dinner party) and getting great humour out of it.

It appears that a few of the roiginal title cards are missing, as it begins with decent Blackhawk titles, and then returns to the original great titles of the original short a half way into it. This short was still a good year before they would do thier first sound shorts, and everything we love about the two is all here.

From what I have seen, it appears that Blackhawk recieved it's best prints from this silent era, as I have never seen a bad print of thier silents by Blackhawk. Incredibly good focus and contrast, which really make even thier features from Blackhawk look bad by comparison. This delightful print is no exception.

A delightful example of thier early work and well worth buying up. Occasional prints show up on ebay. Good hunting!

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