Duck Soup

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared in lengthy scenes together for the first time in March 1927's "Duck Soup" (not to be confused with the Marx Brothers' 1933 film of the same name). Even though they appear on a park bench and go about escaping from the forestry rangers conscripting the unemployed to fight nearby fires, Stan and Laurel dress like tramps, with Hardy unshaven and wearing a monocle and a top hat. This was the first movie, however, that McCarey saw the potential of the two as a comedy team. Despite finding themselves in the same locations and situations, the two act more as individuals then they do playing off one another in "Duck Soup"-lingo for "Easy as pie" and "As good as done."

After "Duck Soup," Laurel and Hardy appeared in their next seven movies together, but each playing different characters from the other, even though they did interact.

Besides being very funny, the silent film 'Duck Soup' is a vitally important link in the evolution of Laurel and Hardy as a comedy team. This movie was based on a music-hall sketch written by Stan Laurel's father, Arthur Jefferson, a successful theatre manager in northern England who resented his son's attempts to become a stage comedian. Laurel and Hardy made 'Duck Soup' at a point when they were already established as a team but were still developing the 'Stan' and 'Oliie' characters that would soon become so popular and beloved. By this time, Oliver Hardy had already got his fastidious little moustache, but in 'Duck Soup' he also has a considerable amount of beard stubble which makes him look quite jowly. 'Duck Soup' was remade only three years later as 'Another Fine Mess'.

'Duck Soup' was a lost film for more than 50 years: in the early 1980s, a print turned up in Belgium. The original silent-film intertitles had been cut out and replaced with French titles. Also, one insert shot of a newspaper article had been cut out and a French translation spliced in. The prints which are currently available feature English-language titles which are blatantly translations of the French titles, and this brings a jarring touch: Laurel keeps addressing Hardy as 'sir', which doesn't really fit the relationship between their characters.

The missing shot of the newspaper article has been replaced (in 1982) with a modern mock-up, and this provides an unintentional laugh. While Hardy reads the newspaper article in 1927, we can see the article directly underneath it... which is all about John DeLorean getting arrested for financial misdeeds in 1982! Oo-er!

In 'Duck Soup', Laurel and Hardy are tramps who discover that a local forest fire has made things hot for them: forest rangers are conscripting all the local indigent men for firefighting duty. Fleeing from the rangers, the two pals end up sharing a bicycle at the top of a steep hill, with disastrously funny results.

Still hiding from the rangers, they end up inside the swank house of Colonel Blood, who is currently away ... but Lord and Lady Plumtree have arrived to rent the house in the colonel's absence. Hardy disguises himself as the colonel, pressing Laurel into service to masquerade as the maid! Stan Laurel was a gifted female impersonator: one of the very few male performers who could convincingly portray a woman and be funny at the same time. His drag turn as the maid here is astonishing and funny.

The ending of this movie is quite different from the ending of the remake 'Another Fine Mess'. Laurel and Hardy would occasionally end a film with an impossible gag, and they use one here.

Is Laurel and Hardy's "Duck Soup" any relation to the Marx Brothers' movie "Duck Soup:"? Yes, indeed! Leo McCarey was an assistant director on this movie. Six years later, when he directed the Marxes in what would become their greatest and funniest film, McCarey decided to recycle the title from this earlier film. The talkie revolution had changed Hollywood so utterly that silent movies made only a few years earlier were regarded as obsolete and unfit for re-release ... so McCarey figured he had a free hand to re-use the title, and this silent movie vanished into oblivion for more than half a century. Fortunately, 'Duck Soup' is now available again, and it's very funny. I'll rate this movie 8 points out of 10.

This is not the funniest Laurel & Hardy comedy short but still it's a great movie due to the way the movie is constructed.

This was not the first movie with starring both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in it (they both appeared before in the movies " 45 Minutes from Hollywood" and " A Lucky dog".) but it was the first movie of the two appearing as a comical duo. Therefor this movie already is a bit of a must-see. It's an historical significant movie, that marked one of the very first step of silent-movie history.

No, it certainly ain't an hilarious movie but it rather is a very well constructed movie, with an excellent story and extremely good timing and pace. The editing was truly superb and kept the pace high, as well as the movie itself consistent. It all helps to make "Duck Soup" a very pleasant and amusing movie to watch.

Stan Laurel is already great in his role but Oliver Hardy still obviously had to grown into his role. The beginning is there but he's not quite perfect yet. The subtle little things that made his character so great are still missing in this movie. Luckily the boys already have some great chemistry together in this movie.

Not an hilarious movie but a very well constructed and amusing one, with Laurel & Hardy for the very first time together as a comical duo.

10/10

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They had appeared together in the same films before. They both had a long career in silent comedies when they met. They were not initially considered as the perfect comic teaming that we see them as today. So when they were paired together for a story suggested by Stan's father, it seemed like just another film for Stan and Babe. Most of this film has the feel of early slapstick of the Mack Sennett tradition - big gestures, running and leaping and jumping. But there are also the beginnings of a more quiet, understated comedy. When The Boys have to entertain the couple who are inquiring about the house, we can see Laurel and Hardy become, by necessity, sneaky. Devious. The pace slows down, and we are allowed to laugh about the situation, not because of obvious over-the-top gagging. The film was long considered lost until 1974, when a print surfaced in Europe. Many books that credited the Laurel and Hardy genesis to later films are not in error - very little was known of this film until its rediscovery. Duck Soup is not the perfect Laurel and Hardy film - there is too much slapstick and not enough sly wit in it for my tastes. The casual viewer would be much better served by the remake, the three-reel talkie Another Fine Mess, which has much more sly wit and fantastic dialogue. However, Duck Soup is definitely an important entry in the Laurel and Hardy film pantheon, and is well worth a view if you're a fan.

Duck Soup (1927)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Laurel and Hardy, trying to get away from firemen wanting to recruit them, run and hide in a house but when someone shows up to rent it they must pretend to be the owner and maid. L&H went onto remake this with better results in Another Fine Mess but this short has a few funny moments but not enough to make it work throughout.

45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A country boy goes to Hollywood to pay a bill and gets caught up in what he thinks is a movie being made. What he doesn't know is that he's caught up in a real robbery. There are a few good gags here but the real highlight is Oliver Hardy playing the Hotel Detective. Stan Laurel has a brief role as well. This was the first Hal Roach film where the two were in the same movie, although they don't share any scenes here.