The Battle of the Century

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.

Only about 50%+ remains of The Battle Of The Century, which is a huge tragedy as the footage we do have indicates this is one of the best silent shorts of the screens greatest comedy team. The opening boxing bout is extremely funny, with a sly take on the famous "long count". Cue much missing footage which gives form to the basic plot - Ollie, as Stan's manager, realises the only way to earn money from his Chumpion is to deliberately injure him and collect on the insurance! The legendary pie fight, which, on viewing, can be discerned as missing several shots at least - more likely a minute or two has gone - only makes me pine for the full version. If, oh wonderful miracle, a rediscovery occurs, you can almost certainly add three stars to the above rating.

They were great, weren't they?

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

'The Battle of the Century' is nowhere near classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better. At this point, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in most of the previous outings had too little to do. 'The Battle of the Century' is still worth watching and is an improvement on some of their previous short films, to me it's easily one of their best at this point of their careers and one of the first to feel like a Laurel and Hardy short rather than a short featuring them.

Personally would have liked more sly wit that made their later entries better, though the slapstick does entertain and is timed well if a bit too far on the simplicity.

The story is a bit busy at times and both slight and sadly incomplete-feeling and fragmented.

Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious. Hardy is at least not wasted, and he does give one of his funniest and most interesting appearances of his pairings with Laurel up to this point and has much more to do in comparison to their previous outings. The chemistry is certainly much more here than in previous outings of theirs, namely because there's more of them together, if still evolving. Support is nice. 'The Battle of the Century' is well worth seeing for the funniest and one of the best pie fight scenes ever.

A good deal of the humour is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny, with everything going at a lively pace, and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going, as well as a surprising bizarre one that doesn't feel too much. 'The Battle of the Century' looks quite good still.

To conclude, decent with a great scene. 7/10 Bethany Cox

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!

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.