Maître Hardy et son valet Stan

While not being familiar with this 1928 short silent film "Early to Bed" from director Emmett J. Flynn, I needed no persuasion to watch it here in 2025, making it my very first time to do so. Why? Well, solely because this was a Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy movie.

H. M. Walker put together a nice script and storyline, which definitely showcased an archetypical comedy with the comedy duo. It was an enjoyable story and I had some good laughs, especially at the fountain scene.

Needless to say that the acting performances in "Early to Bed" were good. And you only have Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy starring in this 1928 movie.

If you enjoy the comedy of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, then you will definitely like "Early to Bed".

My rating of director Emmett J. Flynn's 1928 "Early to Bed" lands on a five out of ten stars.

This movie its humor is very childish, even for a Laurel & Hardy movie. Never have I seen Oliver Hardy act like a bigger baby before. Sure, it still gives the movie some good laughs but the humor is too simple and predictable to consider this an above average Laurel & Hardy silent comedy short.

Of course none of the Laurel & Hardy movies really have humor of a very high order when it comes to originality, predictability and subtlety but in normal cases this doesn't matter at all, since it's so extremely fine executed and timed. They however really went too far with this movie however. It's even more simple and predictable than we are accustomed to. Not sure what they tried to accomplish here. Perhaps they were targeting for a younger audience?

It's very sad to see acting Oliver Hardy as childish as he does in this movie. It gets to a level that it's almost too embarrassing to watch.

But still, the movie its slapstick is good. Although certainly predictable, it's still funny to watch all. Some of the sequences are really memorable but the rest of the movie and its story drags down the level of entertainment.

6/10

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This was a strange Laurel and Hardy silent short subject. For one thing except for a dog there are no other cast members. No Jimmy Finlayson for reaction shots to their clowning.

Early To Bed also has Ollie almost turning into a bully. God knows his character gets thoroughly exasperated with Stan, but I never saw him bully Stan. As for Laurel. I've never seen him change so radically as he did except in A Chump At Oxford. When the worm turns it really turns.

One day these two with their dog are polishing a park bench with the seat of their pants when Ollie gets a letter saying he now has a fortune. Stan is concerned that there's no place for him, but Ollie offers him the position of butler and Stan takes it.

It's abundantly clear soon enough that all Ollie wants is a doormat or a punching bag. But Stan soon tires of being a doormat and when he does watch out.

This is a different Stan and Ollie, but I'm not sure I liked them this way.

This is an early Laurel & Hardy vehicle of curiosity value because it is quite clear that the boys are in the very early stages of their joint career, and their basic characters and relationship have yet to be cemented. It's Ollie Hardy who is the annoying child of the two in this silent short - although, unlike Laurel in later films, Ollie goes out of his way to be deliberately annoying to Stan, whom he has employed as a butler after he inherits a fortune from his uncle.

Although it's strange to see their roles essentially reversed, the film does have some funny moments. Roach clearly had enough faith in the boys' ability to work together with solid results to cast them here with no supporting actors (other than a dog called Buster) and this at least pays off, even if they haven't yet got the relationship right. For this reason, if nothing else, the film serves as an interesting footnote in the development of Laurel & Hardy as we know and love them.

As a curiosity, EARLY TO BED is one of the oddest films of Laurel and Hardy. It is not one of the funniest of the boys' films - with good reason. Hardy has to be chief victim of the two because he is so pretentious, and he has to be victim by the actions of his close friend Laurel (who does not know his actions are going to hurt Hardy). But Stan rarely, if ever, purposely attacks Hardy - unless he is bullied by Hardy beyond endurance. In some of their shorts he does rebel and lash back at Hardy. But it usually is very brief in duration.

The general view of Oliver Hardy is that he is just as dumb as Stan Laurel but pretentious. That's true, but if either of them happen to have any social position (except in A CHUMP AT OXFORD, where Stan turns out to be a brainy Oxford student and nobleman) it is Hardy. He is a successful businessman turned reform candidate for Mayor in one short, and an apparently wealthy stock speculator turned bridegroom in a second film. In a third film he masquerades as a wealthy hunter and home owner with Stan as the upstairs maid. This is tied to his physical presence and southern courtly behavior. But in all these shorts (except the one where Ollie is an impostor) Stan is a business associate or friend of Ollie's. It is only in EARLY TO BED that we see the actual effect of Ollie getting rich and how it changes his relationship with Stan.

For when he gets rich Ollie gets mean. He enjoys the good life (including a wardrobe that is far more like that of a man about town than the typical derby and wrinkled suit that Ollie wears). He is something of an art collector. And he can only see his pal Stan as a servant. Stan accepts the offer to be Ollie's servant, but probably figured that Ollie would treat him as a pal and close associate. Instead Ollie plays practical jokes, like ringing the doorbell, hiding, while Stan goes outside to see who rang, and then locking Stan out.

Stan puts up with this and more painful and annoying jokes, until he finally gets tired and tells Ollie he's quitting. Ollie refuses to let him (he considers Stan his possession too), and Stan accidentally knocks over one of Ollie's art treasures. It horrifies Ollie, and Stan starts purposely destroying items in Ollie's house. He also chases Hardy, who hides (as has pointed out) in an ornate fountain that has cherubs with Hardy's head sprouting water. Ollie tries to keep up a stream of water, but can't after awhile. Stan than hits him on the head to see if the head is jammed or not. And Hardy releases more water from his mouth!

It is, as most of the comments here say, a rather odd film. It has some moments of humor, but the central business of the story is so contrary to what we expect from Stan and Ollie that it leaves a bitter taste in our mouths. As most say on this thread, see the film for completeness, but you don't have to see it again afterward.