Big Business

Thus far, my only experience with Laurel and Hardy has been their talkies; I wondered how I would fare with their silent comedy, that era of cinema being virtually unknown to me. I needn't have worried: such is the comedic excellence of the bowler-hatted duo that they're more than capable of reducing the viewer to fits of giggles without the need for dialogue.

Big Business is an example of what is known to L&H fans as 'Reciprocal Destruction', wherein the pair engage in tit-for-tat violence with an irate stranger, in this case, a homeowner (played by regular L&H co-star James Finlayson) who isn't pleased with the guys' Christmas tree salesmanship. It starts off slowly, with minor damage inflicted on the homeowner's property after he takes a pair of cutters to one of Stan and Ollie's trees. The level of damage gradually escalates, the homeowner dismantling L&H's Model T Ford, while the comedic pals trash the man's house - all under the watchful and bemused gaze of a local policeman.

Magnificently absurd and brilliantly performed by the three leads, Big Business gets big laughs as matters spiral out of control: Stan and Ollie's facial expressions are priceless and the physicality of their comedy is superb. 7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

As an avowed Laurel and Hardy fan, I must say that Big Business falls into a special category all its own. I find the simple, deliberate nature of it immensely appealing. There is something downright innocent about the long-lost freshness of those semi-developed streets of Culver City and environs on that sunny December morning in ‘28 and they add a quality of mise-en-scene which was surely never foreseen back then. The snowballing reciprocal destruction starts innocently enough: an errant branch of Christmas tree--that symbol of peace and goodwill to men--gets caught in Jimmy Finlayson's front door once too often…and ends up with extensive property damage on both sides. But each step in the progressively destructive game is almost reasonable…its just when one contrasts point A with point Z that the absurdity, and the comedy, of the situation is so apparent. Produced on the cusp of the talkies, Big Business is also a sort of frantic paean to a lost art. And, in a strange way, unlike so many of their other films, Stan and Ollie are triumphant as they run from officer Tiny Sanford into the fade out. For as Jimmy lights up his exploding cigar, they are the ones lucky enough to have gotten in their last licks. In spite of losing the battle, they have won the war. One can almost smell the fragrance of pine needles intermingling with the stench of burning Model T

Granted, there are feature films such as SOME LIKE IT HOT, DR. STRANGELOVE, ANNIE HALL, TOOTSIE, DUCK SOUP and so on that are classier, more well-written, and other such qualities. But when it boils down to laughs per minute, this short has them all topped. I mean, it is simply the best comedy ever done...anytime, anywhere. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as two Christmas tree salesmen in sunny California. And James Finlayson as their potential customer. When they start to tear his house apart, I don't stop laughing for a second. I seriously believe that this film should be placed in a museum, next to any other great works of art.

Well I belong to a place which is slightly behind on technology. The first Laurel and Hardy film I got to see was in 1988, at a time I was already 16 years old. I remember having seen a quiz on them however, about a year before that in a well reputed magazine of those times in India called "Illustrated Weekly". And that was it.

Today in 2005, I would wish to introduce myself as "Know all" on the matter of the "Boys".

To me they are "GODS". They have the ability of pacifying my existentialist angst at the flick of a button. There 75 year old gags still yank my guts out every time I laugh and fall off the bed.

*XMAS SPOILERS*

One of The Boys' funniest silent films, 'Big Business' contains their trademark Reciprocating Destruction theme. Irascible James Finlayson's temper and Stanley's oblivious ineptitude light the fuse to a battle that starts with a broken tree branch and ends with the total destruction of a Model T and the partial destruction of a Culver City bungalow.

It's a sheer delight to watch The Boys and Fin deliberately, and with malice aforethought, find new ways to inflict indignities upon each others' property. Fin cuts up the Christmas tree they were trying to sell, Stanley takes a pen knife and carves the wood off Fin's door frame. From there, we build to a crescendo of Stanley pulling up shrubs and hurling them through windows and Ollie methodically potholing the yard with a shovel, while Fin dances on the rubble that used to be The Boys' delivery truck. The neighbors gather on the sidewalk, unsure what to make of the melee; even the neighborhood cop is too stunned to step in and break it up.

This is a sport at which Laurel & Hardy excelled, and at which they can be seen again in the all-out wardrobe assault of 'Hats Off' and the freeway free-for-all of 'Two Tars', possibly their greatest Reciprocating Destruction movie.

This is a movie you should definitely buy.