Their Purple Moment

Stan and Ollie decide to hold back a few bucks from their weekly paychecks so they can save up and have a night on the town (without their wives!)... When they finally embark on their secret evening of fun, they alight on two girls outside a restaurant who have been stood up. Convinced that they are flush; they offer to bankroll them and after a rather nice dinner discover that their secret evening has been anything but.... and that they have nothing to pay the bills with but coupons! It gets off to quite a good start, but the ending let's it down quite badly. Anita Garvin & Kay Deslys are good as the gals and the music has a few recognisable bars from "Baby Face' and "Ain't She Sweet"

The Laurel and Hardy team was now reasonably well established at this time in 1928,but for some reason THEIR PURPLE MOMENT takes one or two steps back;Stan is billed as 'Mr.Pincher'and not Mr.Laurel,and a proposed final scene involving an escape from the night club involving a midget troupe was removed before the film's release,and replaced with a rushed,rather(for L & H)hackneyed final pie throwing sequence.Still,there are some very funny moments,especially with a waiter who keeps on falling into a tray of mashed potatoes;these gags were reworked into the following year's THAT'S MY WIFE(1929).Edgar Kennedy was apparently in these deleted scenes.

Once again I seem to be in the minority: I think that Their Purple Moment sees Laurel and Hardy in fine form. It starts with Stan (playing Mr. Pincher) being waylaid by his battle-axe wife at the front door, the woman demanding the poor guy's wages. However, Mr. Pincher has been holding back a few dollars from each pay packet in preparation for a special night out with his pal Ollie.

Pretending to be going ten-pin bowling, the two men sneak off for a wild time at a boozy joint where they hook up with a couple of young women. The foursome tuck into big steaks and pints of beer while enjoying a dancing midget cabaret act, but when it comes to settling the bill, Mr. Pincher realises that his wife has found his hidden cash and replaced it with grocery coupons.

Laurel's facial expressions after he discovers that he has no money are hilarious, alternating between confusion to utter dismay; Hardy's face is also a treat when he sees that they are skint. Together, the pair try to leave the establishment without paying, but must avoid their wive (who have tracked them down) while also dodging angry staff.

In addition to the funny expressions, the dancing midgets, and the angry sped-up wives striding down the street, viewers are also treated to Laurel doing one of his fancy tricks (catapulting a spoon into a glass), and a messy finalé in the kitchen that sees lots of grub being hurled (others seem to find the ending something of a let down, but I love a good food fight!).

Admittedly, the originally planned ending involving Stan and Ollie pretending to be midgets to escape the club might have been even better, but this is still worth at least 7/10 in my book.

HAVING MADE SOME real progress after their almost accidental teaming as members of what was called THE HAL ROACH ALL-STARS, most of the now familiar L & H situational comedic routines had been established. THEIR PURPLE MOMENT does a lot in defining their eternal struggle with "the Wives."

IN A DRAMATIC SORT of departure from what they had been doing, Stan is called "Mr. Pincher" (for 'penny pincher' we presume); but Ollie retains his own name. This is a kind of throwback to pictures such as PUTTING PANTS ON PHILLIP and DO DETECTIVES THINK?, in which their own names appeared only in the credits.

THERE ARE DEGFINITE symptoms of a maturation of not the LAUREL & HARDY characters; but rather of the HAL ROACH style. The comedies became more and more slow-paced, methodically developed and much more "believable." The Title Cards, most ably written by Roach regular, H.M. Walker, were as witty and clever as ever. But there was none of the going for the laugh outside of the existing story on he scene; as was the practice over at Mack Sennett's KEYSTONE Studios.

THE TYPICAL INTERPLAY that the boys are brought into are typically L & H type of double-edged gag and tit for tat back and forth "Bow & Fiddle", back and forth developing and milking of each gag to its greatest potential. Reliance on Stan's dim-wittedness and Ollie's slow burn were not only appreciated by this point, but rather they were now anticipated.

THE ACTION IN the first three quarters of the picture builds and serves as exposition of both the storyline; as well as the boys themselves. Although they are always the same twosome, there is very little continuity of situations from one short to another.*

IF THERE WOULD be any area of criticism that we could be the ending; which atypically leaves things just a little flat.

BUT SCHULTZ THINKS that this is a minor shortcoming. And Schultz's compadre, this writer, whole heartedly agrees.

NOTE: * In all of their shorts, only the sound comedy two-reelers TIT FOR TAT and THEM THAR HILLS makes mention of the earlier of the two movies and references having met both Charlie Hall and Mae Bush as previous protagonists.

This is another of Laurel & Hardy's early shorts that I watched on Hulu as linked from IMDb. This seems to be the first time they have wives that boss them around so they have to sneak around in order to have some fun like later on in films like Be Big or Sons of the Desert. In this one, Stan & Ollie go to a restaurant after a couple of men run out on their dates so the boys volunteer to help pay for the women (Kay Deslys, Anita Garvin) left behind. But both men find out their wives took their money without them knowing. And the gossiping woman, seeing them all there, goes back to tell the spouses what's what. I'll stop there and just say that not much funny happens until the food fight that ends the picture. It replaced an earlier sequence that involved Stan & Ollie dressing as women that was filmed but I'm guessing that's now lost. There's a still from that scene in Randy Skrevedt's book "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies". On that point, Their Purple Moment is at least worth a look.