Quote: Eat_My_Shirts @ January 15, 2008, 2:53 PMWTF. wow..I didn't even realise.
Anyway, who here has heard about the theory that Clint Eastwood is Stan Laurels "illegitimate" son?
Has anyone else noticed how Clint Eastwood can go from looking like a big, tall, macho bloke, one minute, to suddenly looking like "Ethel" from 'Eastenders', the next?
Quote: SlagA @ January 15, 2008, 6:40 PMLaurel and Hardy, Lennon, and Monroe, would be the heroes I wish I could have met
You've mis-spelt "McCartney"
Dont know the names of the shorts but loved them trying to push a piano up steps, Stan falling into a barrel of water and drinking it all, a hoodlum twisting their heads around so that they were walking north but facing south.
Who remembers the cartoon? I think each episode used to last about 3 minutes.
My husband looks like Hardy. Ugly bastard!
Quote: catskillz @ January 15, 2008, 11:44 PMHas anyone else noticed how Clint Eastwood can go from looking like a big, tall, macho bloke, one minute, to suddenly looking like "Ethel" from 'Eastenders', the next?
You obviously watched Dirty Harry and Million Dollar Baby back-to-back.
Quote: Badge @ January 15, 2008, 11:49 PMYou've mis-spelt "McCartney"
Even if you liked him beforehand, how does the guy have any credibility after marrying that crazed peg-legged psychiatrist's dream?
Badge, I ummed and arghed about where to put it but eventually settled for foreign.
Yes to Way Out West. And Busy Bodies is ace, especially the moment Ollie gets dragged by the moving belt into the chute system. Helpmates is also class, when Ollie asks Stan to help him tidy up before the wife gets back and they systematically end up razing the house to its literal foundations.
Our Relations has the brilliant rocking and rolling on the edge of the jetty scene. I love it when Ollie swings past the camera lifting and lowering his bowler hat, while bellowing. Then the moment they both get buckets on their head so they're hurtling back and forth blind. It creases me up each time I see it.
The chain gang short with the rice pouring out the radiator is Hoose Gow. The title must have made sense to the audience back then but it's lost on me, I may google for the reason it's called that.
SlagA bangs his head with a saucepan.
Yep, that would make sense, Griff. 
Yes spot on. I've got the DVD box-set
Best Silent Film: Flying Elephants
Best Short Film: Me and My Pal
Best Feature Lengh: Sons of the Dessert.
Quote: SlagA @ January 16, 2008, 1:39 PMOur Relations has the brilliant rocking and rolling on the edge of the jetty scene. I love it when Ollie swings past the camera lifting and lowering his bowler hat, while bellowing. Then the moment they both get buckets on their head so they're hurtling back and forth blind. It creases me up each time I see it.
That scene is pure class. I love the way it is so over the top and the wobbling seems to disobey all laws of physics.
On a related point so many of their films have pretty good special effects for the time, often using animation - e.g. stretching Ollie's neck like a piece of elastic.
Ooh yes, the neck stretch was great and it's just after the brilliant Finlayson kicks the bucket in which Ollie's head is being hidden.
My favourite animation is the mouse in Brats. It is so cute.
The title sequences were also revolutionary and cutting edge for the time. I'm thinking the bandsaw in Busy Bodies and the bubbling chemicals in Dirty Work.
So many brilliant moments to select from. I watched these when the Beeb used to show them on Saturdays during the seventies and used to laugh me head off. But to name but a few gems.
The Saw Mill sequence: when Stan is stuck behind the mast in the one about the boat: the one where they both play kids in romper suits: when Stan is being chased around the bedroom by the woman trying to get the key(?): Where Ollie is pulled down the chimney and ends up in the fireplace as the bricks from the stack rain down on his head - the last few bricks are a masterclass in visual comic timing and of course...the Piano.
Timeless and totally brilliantly fantastically wonderfully dead good.
I will always remember Sunday the whatever of January as the day I went into Zavvi (the company that popped Virgin's cherry) and purchased the L&H collection.
I've watched the first film on DVD 1 (Chump at Oxford) and it includes a computer coloured version of the film which was quite interesting. Its amazing how they ease into the slapstick without any big "Oh look what's coming" build up. Very enjoyable!
There is no commentary by L&H which I thought was a bit lazy - something for the future.
