La battaglia del secolo

I first wrote a review for this Laurel & Hardy film over a decade ago...back when only a truncated version of the short was known to exist. Because it was missing so much (other than the famous pie fight), I said it was really impossible to adequately review and score "The Battle of the Century". However, since then something wonderful has happened which has fortunately happened with many other silents....nearly all the rest of the movie was found! I think much of this is because with social media and the internet, many old films in pieces are being reassembled and discovered. A great example are the Vitaphone shorts. Until recently, most were missing their sound/musical tracks but an internet group has managed to reunite the sound tracks with many of the films. Now I am not saying that this Laurel & Hardy short is 100% complete like these other shorts....but much more of it exists now than a decade or so ago.

The film begins with Stanley boxing a guy who might just kill him. After losing the fight (naturally), Ollie has Stanley heavily insured--and you presume he's going to arrange some accident to happen to his 'pal'. In the meantime, a minor street altercation results in a HUGE pie fight--probably the biggest one in film history.

Overall, what's there is quite funny...and worth seeing. Will it ever be 100% complete? We might just soon see.

I viewed a restored version of "The Battle of The Century", put out on video by Nostalgia Archives. Prior to this I had only seen a sequence of a few minutes from the Robert Youngson compilation, "When Comedy Was King". This is a truly funny film, for it shows Laurel and Hardy at their best. The pie in the face was kind of old hat even for 1928. But Hal Roach using Laurel and Hardy created the funniest pie fight of all time. All the different scenarios that were used to deliver the pies as well as a generous helping of laughs has an almost ballet rhythm to it. There was of course to help the madness along, both Charley Hall and Anita Garvin a couple of Hal Roach Regulars. As I said, this film was considered "lost" however the first reel was found and the film is complete except for a couple of minutes of film that are still missing from the start of the second reel. However this was compensated for by a combination of still photos that are intercut with the continuity script. I was very pleased with the film and I am sure any person interested in the silent comedy shorts would also enjoy this fine film that has been carefully reconstructed.

The two parts of the movie have absolutely nothing to do with each other but that's no complaint, since the two part each are absolutely hilarious and well constructed. The timing is perfect.

It is especially the second part of the movie, the huge pie fight, which most people will remember. Basically everyone in town gets involved in the pie fight; the mayor, a costumer at the barbershop, a sewer worker, a person at the dentist. It's silly, it makes no sense that everybody in town gets hit perfectly in the face with a pie but it works oh so hilarious! I don't know why but pie and food fights in movies are always hilarious. Just think about movies like "The Great Race" and "Blazing Saddles".

But really, the first part of the movie is also more than great, in which Stan is in a boxing match against Thunder-Clap Callahan played by Noah Young. That guy is great! He is so intense and has great scary eyes. I think he would had done great in horror movies but I don't know whether or not he ever appeared in one? Don't think so, because to my knowledge he only ever worked for the Hal Roach studio's.

A must see 2 part silent comical short with Laurel & Hardy in top-form.

9/10

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The San Francisco Silent Film Festival screened a nearly complete nicely restored copy of The Battle of the Century this weekend (6/4/16). Except for the still-missing part of reel one (the scene with the boys and Eugene Palette in the park), the film is now complete. And the pie fight is all that all of us have hoped for all of these years! Admittedly the newly found material is more of the same, but the same is wonderful! The new print was accomplished by Lobster Films with help from MOMA, the Library of Congress and Blackhawk films. I can find no information about a release so let's start a ground swell for a DVD copy. Please? We're begging you!

Though parts of the movie are missing, "Battle of the Century" contains more than enough footage to establish that Laurel and Hardy are comfortable meshing together. The Hal Roach/ H. M. Walker script opens with Laurel in the boxing ring managed by Hardy. Though Stanley has his opponent down on the ground through a lucky hit, his refusal to stay in a neutral corner during the count allowed his foe to regain consciousness and quickly turn the match around. Later on, the two find themselves in the middle of an outrageous pie fight on a city street where literally thousands of pies are hurled in people's faces.

It had been reported a record 3,000 pies were tossed in that "Battle of the Century" sequence. One commentator explained the success of the film rested on the timing of the pie throws. "The camera lingers on the faces of people before they get pied. The guy in the dentist chair, the snooty lady looking through her lorgnettes. We're laughing before they get pied, because we know what's coming to them and they don't." Also, as everyone gets covered with pie goop, all social distinctions are erased. The rich, the cops, ministers, professors, all descend to the level of Laurel and Hardy, who began the entire mess. And pies, like cotton puff balls, are harmless objects to throw and be hit with.

The new pairing of an English comic and a Southerner from Georgia went on to make over 100 films together, working consistently on the stage and in film until 1950.