Flying Elephants

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

After a string of short films that saw the duo in the right direction, where there was more than before of the partnership (though not yet fully formed) and Hardy had more to do and became funnier and more interesting than in his earlier work, 'Flying Elephants' is very watchable but a bit disappointing. Not a misfire ('25 Minutes from Hollywood' was the misfire really for me of the previous outings) and not quite a step backwards, but not really a sign of things moving forward.

Laurel is great fun with great comic timing and Hardy also scores highly. There are a fair few amusing moments, it moves efficiently and there is a nice enough charm. The rest of the cast are solid, and the whole cast blend with the stone age setting very well.

'Flying Elephants' doesn't look too bad, do quite like the broadly rendered setting. The inter-titles dialogue is anachronistic but appealingly so.

On the other hand, the story is non-existent and there are instances of over-stretching. There is a lack of refinement in the storytelling, where it's a bit disorganised, and the effects are charming enough but also on the creaky side.

Also found for my liking that things do get a bit too silly and over the top, even for the broad setting. While Laurel and Hardy perform very well individually, they spend too much time apart and there is nowhere near enough of them together.

Concluding, nice and amusing but not near one of the best representations of the legendary duo. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This is a bizarre little film in pretty much every way I can think of off the top of my head. Although it technically is a Laurel and Hardy film, it was made early after they became a comedy pair and it was obvious from this film they still hadn't gotten the formula exactly right. Instead of the usual situation in which Stan and Ollie are friends, they are actually rivals in this peculiar film.

The film begins in the Stone Age. The king has made a rule that all men or they will be "banished and banned--or both". So all the bachelors are out trying to get married. And, in caveman fashion, this means meeting a nice lady and bashing her over the head with their giant clubs. The special effects and sets are pretty minimalistic, as the cast and crew went into the California hills and wore animal skin clothes. The only "prop" other than that was a fake Triceratops. While the film is almost entirely action-oriented (partly because it was a silent film), the film had very peculiar subtitles that had the actors speaking in old English?!

Overall, this is a very odd little curio and is not an especially good representation of the team's work. This isn't because the film is silent, as they made some excellent silent shorts, such as BIG BUSINESS or SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME?--it's more because the film is just weird and one long and not especially hilarious joke. Plus, the movie appears, in spots, to be pretty much filmed without a script and the actors just mug for the camera. For devout fans of the team, this is a must, but for all others, it's pretty skip-able and you should seek out some of their better shorts first.

Consider this prospect: Laurel & Hardy & Company are cavemen in furry pelts, running around in a remote canyon somewhere enacting what amounts to a silent version of The Flintstones. It doesn't seem to promise much in the way of great comedy, does it? A capsule summary of Flying Elephants might elicit groans from those who haven't seen it, and, what with comedy being so subjective and personal, there are probably plenty who've seen it and dismissed it as silly, juvenile, low-brow, etc. All I can say is: okay, guilty as charged, but I confess I really enjoy this movie anyway. Whatever else it may be, this two-reeler also happens to be quirky, fast-paced and off-the-wall, with a surreal wackiness that other comedians occasionally attempt but only rarely achieve. The Marx Brothers managed it in Duck Soup and for short stretches elsewhere, and the Fleischer Studio guys and Tex Avery made some cartoons that reached this level, but Flying Elephants is one of a kind. You can't just crank out stuff like this; the charming weirdness would wear thin pretty quickly.

Although Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy each appear prominently, Flying Elephants isn't really a "Laurel & Hardy" comedy as such. At the time this was made they were working together a lot but hadn't yet gelled as the team we recognize. Babe Hardy's performance is quite funny and oddly consistent with his later work; his special rhythms, gestures and expressions are there, despite the wig and the animal pelt he's wearing. But Mr. Laurel is the one who really gets freaky, hopping about in a curly blonde wig like a sissified Harpo Marx. The name of his character, Little Twinkle Star, tells the tale. It's anomalous in his career but nonetheless one of Stan's most energized and memorable turns, and a revelation to anyone who thinks he's a one-note performer. Stan has a fly-fishing sequence that is a comic high point, and it's just the sort of eccentric routine he could make his own.

Much of the plot-- such as it is --concerns courtship and marriage rituals among these cave dwellers. The movie begins with an absurd wedding ceremony which sets the tone for what follows. We learn that a royal decree has compelled the males to take wives, although, come to think of it, you wouldn't expect people in animal pelts to care much about formal nuptials. Much of the dialog (conveyed via title cards, of course) is in a strange, pseudo-Medieval slang. There are gags involving trained goats, animated fantasy beasts, a man in a bear suit, and an animal (a cow, perhaps?) disguised as a dinosaur. Speaking of dinosaurs good old Jimmy Finlayson is on hand, identified as a "wizard" apparently to justify a vulgar but funny pun utilizing the word. A decided bonus for modern viewers is the supporting cast of cute starlets in abbreviated cave flapper outfits, complete with bobbed hair, furry boots, and garters. A gorgeous young actress named Viola Richard plays Finlayson's daughter, Blushing Rose, and her close-ups can melt your heart decades after the fact. Viola seems to have vanished from the screen not long after this film was made, for some baffling reason.

Oh well. There are still prints of Flying Elephants around to amuse, amaze, and tickle those viewers open to this sort of thing.

This is perhaps the Laurel & Hardy movie with the most silliest and random humor in it.

The movie has a silly premise and it is entirely set in the Stone Age. This movie perhaps was a sort of experiment to see how the audience would react to a Laurel & Hardy movie that was not set in the 20th century and featured some almost cartoon like humor. In my opinion it's a rather failed experience. Although the movie does entertain, it really misses the Laurel & Hardy touch. It makes this movie basically just as good (or bad) as any other '20's slapstick movie.

Although the movie is simple and silly, it certainly is no bad movie to watch. It has some real good funny moments in it, especially the scene in which the James Finlayson character gets thrown of the mountain is priceless but overall it still is a pretty simple movie that is too odd and different to please the most hardened Laurel & Hardy fans.

The comedy seems to be very random, just like is the case in animated cartoons. Probably the reason why this is the silliest Laurel & Hardy movie around. It also doesn't make the movie the most consistent Laurel & Hardy comedy short around.

To be honest the title cards were often funnier to read than it was to watch this movie. Not a really a good or common thing for a Laurel & Hardy movie.

Stan Laurel does play a pretty good and very different role. It shows his variety as an actor and he shows that he can be funny, no matter what sort of role he plays. When he enters the screen the movie becomes truly entertaining and fun to watch. It's too bad that he gets introduced rather late into the movie. The movie also features Laurel & Hardy regular James Finlayson, who doesn't play a very big or significant but still fun role. Further more the movie is mostly filled with some pretty looking young cave-women.

A very silly movie. Beware not to expect a regular early Laurel & Hardy silent comedy short.

6/10

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"Flying Elephants" (1928), a Laurel and Hardy short made in the last years of the silents is also one of the comedy's duo most bizarre film. The title itself is logic deifying, as the movie itself.

The story is weak: in the stone age, the king declares that all males must marry within twenty-four hours. Around this slender plot, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy do their best they can but, as they spend most of the picture apart (which is strange, as their first "official" movie together, "Putting Pants on Philip", had been made two years earlier), the result is never really satisfying and the high pint of the picture is when there is a shot of animated elephants with wings on flying into the distance, hence the title. The elephants were animated by Walter Lantz and is possible the most surrealist aspect in all of Laurel and Hardy's movies.

It's not a great short by "the boys" but there are several good gags that will reward Laurel and Hardy film buffs.