V'là la flotte

This is a good short feature, among the best of Laurel & Hardy's silent movies and one of several of their popular 'retribution comedies'. Stan and Ollie are "Two Tars" on leave, who pick up a couple of women and then get involved in a series of slapstick confrontations. The second reel, set in a traffic jam, is particularly funny. Two of their best supporting players appear in Charlie Hall and Edgar Kennedy. If you like Laurel & Hardy's silent films, make sure to see this one.

Laurel & Hardy are once again sailors in this silent short from the early days of their partnership. The relationship between them is pretty much fully-formed by now, and the tit-for-tat format of their rucks with those who displease them (or whom, more often, they displease) is already established. On shore leave, they rent a car and go off in search of girls. They find a likely pair attempting to retrieve sweets from a sidewalk dispenser, and despite inevitably scattering the sweets all over the street, the boys somehow manage to entice the ladies into their car.

It's not long before they find themselves at loggerheads with other drivers as they find themselves stuck in a traffic jam, and soon cars are being systematically destroyed as tempers fray. The film is pretty good and there's quite a few laughs scattered throughout.

This Laurel and Hardy silent short might seem very familiar to Laurel and Hardy fans even if you've never seen the film before. That's because it uses a formula that worked well in many of their shorts. Basically, Stan and Ollie are trying to act tough (this time spurred on by two cute ladies) and after a small altercation develops, the two take the "tit for tat" notion to amazing heights. In this case, a tiny fender bender results in car destruction on a massive and hilarious scale. A few Laurel and Hardy films that have used similar plot construction are the great BIG BUSINESS, BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, TIT FOR TAT and the final portion of MEN O'WAR (which, incidentally ALSO has them playing sailors on shore leave).

So, if the formula is so familiar, why bother watching TWO TARS? Well, like the other films listed (and others), TWO TARS is just plain funny. Period. While the first 75% of the film is mildly funny, seeing the end results of all the destruction. The many, many sight gags are very reminiscent of the Keystone comedies and must have, for the time, cost a lot of money.

Now there is a problem with viewing this film, however. There are no DVD sets of the existing prints of all the Laurel and Hardy films. There was a videotape set produced many years ago, but it's out of print. As a result, I know of no place where you can now view this rare Laurel and Hardy film except online. Under Google Video, there's an old Blackhawk films print (probably taken from an 8 or 16mm home movie) but there is no incidental music--just silence. But, even given these limitations, it's still well worth finding and watching. Not the best Laurel and Hardy film, it IS among the better ones this fine team produced.

FYI--This short is currently playing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with organ accompaniment. I have no idea how much longer this will be, but it's sure worth seeing--even if much of the art in the museum is too sophisticated for 99% of the public.

Part of the beauty of this perfectly paced classic comedy is not just it's gradual compounding of incident but how resonant it's plotting is today. Who likes traffic jams? Nobody! Stan and Ollie seem almost prescient to have tapped into a vexation that plagues us even now; maybe more than ever on today's superhighways that still cannot accommodate the flow of modern commuting. It is not so much the individual performances that matter here, but the over-all building of pace and piling on of incident. I think of this film every time I'm tangled in bad traffic; so will you, but please resist the temptation to rip the fender off of the car alongside you -- it may be mine.

TWO TARS (1928) is probably the best silent Laurel and Hardy ever made. It is hilarious. From the opening lamp-post gag, to the gumball machine, to the hilarious traffic jam and finally the train ending, this movie really is a rib-tickler. It's one of the greatest comedies ever made! Thelma Hill and Ruby Blaine are the girls, and Edgar Kennedy is the motorist whose car Laurel and Hardy promptly tear to shreds.