L'allegro mondo di Stanlio e Ollio

"Laurel & Hardy's Laughing 20's" is a compilation film from Robert Youngson, the man who brought us MANY compilations of silent comedies. Most of Youngson's compilations feature many comics and this is different because it focuses more on this brilliant team...though, oddly, not exclusively.

The film begins by showing a few clips from films where the two appeared together...before they were an official team. It doesn't show their first on-screen scene in "The Lucky Dog" (1921) and it probably was because the film was thought lost and only available in fragments back in 1965 (it has since been discovered intact). Then, it shifts to the early silents which featured the two as a team. And, then it strangely shows a few NON-Laurel & Hardy films from the same studio, Hal Roach. While I love Charley Chase, Max Davidson and the others, the clips seemed out of place as they don't include the pair named in the title of the film. This isn't unheard of with a Youngson film as some times I suspect he just added whatever clips he had instead of taking care to pick them better.

The film is generally very good because the material is so good. The film, however, suffers from too much narration (it should have let the shorts speak for themselves) as well as annoying music which was intended to be funny. Instead, it just annoyed.

By the way, when the film showed a clip from the Max Davidson comedy "Pass the Gravy" it completely misrepresented the short. It essentially changed the story completely from the original short. I have no idea why they did this.

I watched this as a young boy, and it was my first introduction to the bygone but beautiful genre of silent comedy, particularly the talented duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. While silent movie star Charlie Chaplin earned himself a place in history as a film pioneer with both comedic and dramatic tales, Laurel and Hardy set themselves a solid reputation as one of the earliest and best comic couples in film history.

When you watch a silent film (particularly a comedy), you need to keep in mind that it's an early form of cinema from a less complicated and crowded era. There won't be any dialogue, and there won't be any deep theme or philosophical/political commentary, just a set of scenes performed with skill and passion (particularly gags). I myself learnt to appreciate the simplicity of actors performing a basic but entertaining feature. And Laurel and Hardy were one of the best at simple entertainment, as this feature shows.

The feature is a cross between a documentary and an archive collection, featuring clips from Laurel and Hardy's best 1920s silent films, with clips from a few unrelated silent films that pad out the feature (though maybe they should have used more Laurel/Hardy features instead). With this kind of feature you just have to sit back and watch and enjoy yourself.

The narration in the feature goes on for longer than needed with some unnecessary commentary, but otherwise does an adequate job. The original soundtrack that accompanies the feature is a wonderful ragtime symphony that does justice to the gags Laurel and Hardy perform.

It makes a great introduction to Laurel and Hardy and I recommend it to anyone who's a fan of their work.

Some of Laurel and Hardy's best silent shorts are edited together with some Charley Chase and Max Davidson films to create a very entertaining film.

But why that irksome and sentimental narration - and the hideous sound effects, including vocal effects? They are distracting and often nauseating. These were silent films - just music please!

But the films themselves are pure genius. Max Davidson is a particular revelation - a very fine comedian. I'd like to see all of "Call of the Cuckoo".

Don't miss this show - but maybe turn the sound down and play some of your own music.

It is unthinkable to contemplate this but at one point, Laurel and Hardy were on the verge of fading into obscurity. The critics were never very complimentary to the team whilst they were creating comedy gold (what the hell do critics know about comedy?). Other comedy teams who were around at the same time, often received more attention from the critics. However, it is interesting to note that all of those other teams have disappeared off the radar these days. Laurel and Hardy are universally loved and even those people who don't like them, have still heard of them. I bet Stan and Ollie are having a bit of a chuckle at all this! Robert Youngson was instrumental in introducing Stan and Ollie to what was then a new audience (1965 - the year Laurel passed away). Youngson achieved this by selecting some well chosen excerpts from some of the silent shorts. Wisely, he allows whole gags to be included otherwise it would be disappointing. Another comedian who did fade away but whose work is highlighted, is Charley Chase. He was the top comedian for Hal Roach before Laurel and Hardy replaced him. His excerpts are very good. I realise that some fans don't really care for the music or the sound effects used for this compilation. I can understand why but I can tolerate both.

"Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20s" was released to cinemas across America and the takings were very good indeed.