Une partie de plaisir

So says Mrs. Hardy when itemizing the food items to bring for a picnic on this 'perfect day.' Spotting details like this is one of the charms of watching really old films. Who knew potato chips would be a common food staple already in 1929?

Plot In a Nutshell: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, their wives and a reluctant "uncle Edgar" plan a picnic on a lovely Sunday afternoon. If you know Laurel & Hardy, you know that's not going to happen...

Why I rated it an '8': this was another very good short from L&H. Not among their very best I wouldn't say, but close enough. There are mishaps with the picnic sandwiches, mishaps with uncle Edgar's gout-ridden foot, mishaps with the family dog....and that's before they even get in their temperamental Model T car. Now the possibilities are endless. Flat tires, sputtering engines...add in incompetent Stan and you get the idea. There is even a small 'mutual destruction' sequence with a neighbor that only ends when a local minister's sudden appearance nips it in the bud. Overall a pretty amusing 20 minutes.

Favorite scene: the family dog vigorously attacking uncle Edgar's bandaged foot. I don't know how they got the dog to be so aggressive, but it was freakin' hilarious!

8/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: That's easy. Yes!

Another enjoyable Laurel & Hardy outing, as most of them indeed were, and this must have been one of their earliest talkies too. It's a 20 minute short which involves the boys and their spouses taking an injured relative out for a much-needed picnic, only to encounter endless trouble when they make it outside to their car. Sure, the gags are quite predictable here but it's the sheer number of them which make this work, as one running situation moves into another with endless slapstick, injury and bizarre scenarios. It's not huge on the FX but the addition of a cute dog and the classic final shot make it all worthwhile.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. It is a PERFECT DAY for the Laurels & the Hardys to go on a picnic, taking gouty old Uncle Ed with them. In typical fashion, the Boys proceed to demolish first the sandwiches & then the car, with Uncle's foot coming in for several good whacks along the way.

Pure slapstick from start to finish. Those who like painful physical humor will get lots of laughs here. Stan & Ollie seem much more violent towards each other than usual. Edgar Kennedy plays the much-battered Uncle Ed.

This Laurel & Hardy short feature has quite a variety of slapstick material. Most of it is rough physical humor - such as sore feet getting trodden upon and bricks being thrown through windows - but there are plenty of different, funny gags with a couple of subtle ones thrown in. Stan and Ollie are planning on taking their wives and their uncle (Edgar Kennedy) for a nice peaceful picnic, a "Perfect Day". They encounter difficulties even before getting out the door, and once they get into the car, the real chaos starts. Stanley has a very funny bit trying to change a tire, and there is a nicely done subtle joke when, in the midst of a heated 'tit-for-tat' battle with a neighbor, everyone suddenly jumps up and runs inside - what did they see? "Perfect Day" is a good comedy and worth a look.

Oliver, Stan and their extended family decide to go for a drive and have a picnic given that it is such perfect weather for it. However a series of events starting with an injured foot, a faulty car and many misunderstandings mean that it is harder to bid their neighbours farewell than they'd hoped.

Although slapstick must seem very simply humour (it is, after all, people falling over) it actually must be very difficult to do. In this case it all centres round a picnic trip although the car goes no further than it's parking space for the majority of the film. To come up with a 20 minutes sketch around this is hard work, but yet Laurel & hardy manage to pull it off. The jokes are all quite obvious and none are out of nowhere or very funny, but it all works quite well.

The funniest bit to me was the punchline – both Laurel & Hardy keep straight faces and do it like real professionals and make the final shot funnier than it actually is. Both the leads are good but the material requires a lot more setting up which means you can often see the gag about a mile away and it takes away form it a little. The support cast are all pretty ordinary but perform their tasks adequately as really we are watching the lead two. Kennedy's contribution is easily the best as he does battle with a foot bandage and an angry dog.

Overall this is an enjoyable short despite the fact that the humour is very staged and doesn't flow as easily as much of their stuff. The punchline is good but some of the material just seems to be lacking that spark. That said, it is still worth a watch.