Mon neveu l'écossais

Made before Laurel and Hardy became a solid team with the characteristics we know and love, Putting Pants on Phillip is a one-trick pony, but the Boys play it for all, maybe more, than it's worth. Shirt chasing Laurel must be taken out of his own skirt, or properly his kilt, to fit into American society. Of course, Laurel resists, and Hardy is adamant, and along the way we get our share of lantern grins, camera looks, cries, and maybe the first time Oliver Hardy meets the six foot puddle. There's a great reaction shot after Laurel inadvertently loses his drawers before walking over an air grate; a quick cut shows the women in the crowd fainting at the sight of the pants-less Laurel. After his inseam measurement is taken, a half disrobed and completely disheveled Laurel appears, as broken as any Griffith heroine.

This is a very well-crafted short, but I've always been mystified as to why anyone, much less Stan Laurel, would consider this to be the first true Laurel & Hardy film. The first film they appeared in was a comedy starring Laurel with Hardy in support, "The Lucky Dog" from 1921. The second film they made together at the Hal Roach studio, "Duck Soup" (not to be confused with the Marx Brothers film of the same name, nor the Edgar Kennedy short), actually has humor more typical of their mature work.

If you can get past the unusual characterizations in "Philip" (Stan is a kilted, woman-crazy Scot and Hardy is his American uncle, fearful of being embarrassed lest someone find out he's related to this eccentric young man), the film offers some solid laughs. It's beautifully paced and edited; do try to see this in a theater with an audience, where it really comes to life.

The credited director is Clyde Bruckman, known best as a gag writer for Buster Keaton (and later Harold Lloyd, and still later, The Three Stooges). He only made 20 films as a director, but they include Keaton's "The General," Laurel & Hardy's "The Battle of the Century," Harold Lloyd's "Movie Crazy" and W.C. Fields' "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," each of these titles being among the best films their respective stars ever made. Producer Hal Roach was particularly fond of "Putting Pants on Philip," incidentally.

I'll not question the authoritative voice of Stan Laurel who says he considers this the first official Laurel and Hardy film. They were both separate players signed to Hal Roach contracts when Roach decided to team them. The idea was genius, but the separate contracts would cause some problems for the team and for Roach about a dozen years later.

But for now Putting The Pants On Philip has a bit of an unusual situation for the guys. Hardy is an older middle aged man and Laurel his nephew come over from Scotland. Being a true Scot Stan wears proudly the tartan kilts of his clan and he has a libido in this that Harpo Marx would envy. Keep him away chasing girls says his mother to her brother Ollie.

But a Scot in kilts is catnip to those flapper girls of the 20s and Ollie sees his duty, he has to get the nephew into pants so he won't be so conspicuous.

Most of the humor revolves around the mystery of whether the Scot wears undergarments with his kilt. In Laurel's case he does and he doesn't.

The last bit was something I think Stan might have heard about involving that famous story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his cape. Ollie climaxes the film with an unexpected surprise there. One of the great sight gags that so typified Stan and Ollie's work.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had been circling each other at the Roach lot for two or three years by the time this, the first official Laurel & Hardy movie was made. In fact, their first movie together had been in 1919, when Hardy played a bit in Laurel's starring vehicle LUCKY DOG. They don't even act like a team here, being in constant opposition to each other, and Stan's character as a naive Scotchman is nothing at all like the Mr. Laurel we know and love.

Mr. Hardy, on the other hand, is clearly himself. If you look at his earliest surviving shorts from 1914 and 1915, you can see bits and pieces of his slow, pompous character as he begins to put it together.

It's a Laurel & Hardy short, and it's funny, even if it's not Stan and Ollie yet. Even so, Hal Roach and his team knew they were onto something.

Stan Laurel regarded PUTTING PANTS ON PHILIP as the first ‘true' L&H film. THE SECOND HUNDRED YEARS was the first 'official' L&H film, but this was the one where Stan completely resigned himself not only to performing (he had signed on with the Hal Roach Studios as a director and 'gag-man', before certain situations - among them Oliver Hardy's accident with a leg of lamb leading to Stan having to replace him; and the extra money that performing would provide for himself and his new wife, Lois - brought about his historic return to performing, as well as writing, directing, editing and involvement in other areas of production), but also realised the fact that he was part of a team that worked well together. This, therefore, is an historic and very important film in the history of comedy.

It is also a surprisingly funny little silent film; rather different from what Laurel & Hardy would become known for and from what they are more immediately associated with today. The characters of 'Stan & Ollie do not appear - Scottish Stan Laurel plays the nephew of Oliver Hardy, a respectable man about town who is reluctant to be seen with this strange-looking fellow with a kilt and the habit of chasing pretty girls. There are some very funny moments in this well-made, charming little movie, and the performances of these two Kings of Comedy are spot-on - watch Stan's little 'scissor-kick' and smile that says, "Well waddaya know?" when he sees girls, or the hair-ruffling scene at the airport, for instance. Hilarious.

Watch this film if you can, with backing music from The Beau Hunks Orchestra (available on the VVL video releases) which enhances the 1920s feel and is very, very pleasant to listen to. It's a brilliant and underrated little film, which is why I said it was 'surprisingly' funny.