Marinai a terra

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.

When I first watched this at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library about 30 years ago, I remember being a bit disappointed since there was no dialogue or sound effects, this being my first exposure to a silent film in its entirety not to mention that of Laurel & Hardy without their voices. I liked it much better when I bought the VHS tape during the '90s and having now rewatched it on Hulu as linked from IMDb, I now think this is one of their near-best ever! Everything from Stan's first accident when driving to Ollie's when he takes the wheel to a bubble gum machine incident involving L & H regular Charlie Hall to that chaotic traffic jam, it's just one hilarious visual gag after another! Besides Hall, other funny supporting turns come from Thomas Benton Roberts, a prop man at Hal Roach Studios, as a man with the tomatoes, Edgar Dearing as the motorcycle cop attempting to arrest the boys, and especially Ruby Blaine as the blonde half of the girls Stan and Ollie pick up for dates who really gives it to Hall and later sprays oil on another female passerby. Ms. Blaine was reportedly a professional wrestler then appearing in near Pasadena. Thelma Hill plays the other brunette half. If you're interested in the behind-the-scenes info on this particular short, I highly recommend Randy Skretvedt's book "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies" on which he reviews all their films (though since one of them-Hats Off-is completely lost for now, he can only mention what reviews at the time said of that). So on that note, Two Tars is highly recommended.

This is one of the best Laurel and Hardy shorts made, even though it is a silent one. Big Business came out a year later and has the same premise. It has been argued that BB is the funnier of the two. I think Two Tars is funnier because it is much more relevant today as it deals with frustrations found in a traffic jam.

What makes these Laurel and Hardy silents a bit funnier to me then when they were first released is, since I know what their voices sound like, I can imagine them saying the lines when I read the title cards. Their voices matched them perfectly.

It's a shame here in the United States that there are not box sets of their shorts on DVD.

TWO TARS has gotten a deserved reputation as being one of the funniest of the Laurel & Hardy short comedies (and certainly among the best of their silent comedies) due to the last half of the film. Initially Stan and Ollie are on furlough from the navy, and meet two young ladies (Thelma Hill and Ruby Blaine). After some typical Hardy small talk (in which he drops his close relationship to Secretary of the Navy Curtis Wilbur), he and Stan decide to rent a car and take the girls for a drive in the country. Unfortunately their car ends up in a traffic jam.

Keep in mind that this was only 1928, and the expansion of American automobile use (from the days when the car was only the toy of the rich or the object of early racing figures like Barney Oldfield and Edward Vernon Rickenbacker) dated back only to 1914 when Henry Ford's Model T was put on the assembly line. By 1928 nearly 15 million of Ford's car was on the road - and there were other car companies too. And here we have a film (a short film comedy) which is about a traffic jam. Modern problems are always mirrored in the movies.

The series of confrontations L & H have are with equally grumpy motorists like Edgar Kennedy (whose front tires and fenders the boys manage to pull off in timed unison). Cars backs are dumped off, or they are reduced to accordions on wheels. Every possible disaster that could befall a 1928 car is shown. And the police are fairly powerless to do much, except to watch in amazement (at the conclusion) of the parade of mangled cars. And it is, surprisingly, very funny indeed.