Leave 'em Laughing

For the lovers of Laurel and Hardy out there, this is about as typical as you can find--with lots of bits in this silent film that were reprised in later Stan and Ollie shorts. While some may find this a bit repetitive, there is a nice familiarity about the film--plus in most cases, this was their first film to feature these bits.

The film begins with Stan in misery with a toothache and their irritated landlord losing his patience. Once again, as in THEY GO BOOM, Charlie Hall is the short-tempered landlord and once again the argument results in some funny rough and tumble bits. Then the film switches to the dentist's office and is reminiscent of the dentist portion of PARDON US--but with a twist. Both Stan and Ollie get a massive over-dose of laughing gas and leave the office highly intoxicated. This leads to a funny but overly long segment with traffic cop Edgar Kennedy. It seems to go on forever but end very well.

Again, nothing especially different about this film compared to others, but it is all done so well and is so much fun, I really didn't mind at all. This is one of the more difficult silent shorts of the team to find, but if you do, be sure to give it a watch.

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.

While not classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better, 'Leave Em Laughing' is a lot of fun. Before, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in most of the previous outings had too little to do. 'Leave Em Laughing' is one of their first very good efforts, 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.

'Leave Em Laughing' does take a little too long to get going, coming to life when at the dentist.

Also found that the ending went on longer than it should have done.

Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious. It is wonderful seeing Hardy having more to do and he is on Laurel's level and actually even funnier. The chemistry is certainly much more here than in previous outings of theirs, namely because there's more of them together and it was starting to feel like a partnership. Support is nice.

A good deal of the humour, particularly when at the dentist and the effects of the laughing gas, is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny (hilarious at its best), with everything going at a lively pace and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going. 'Leave Em Laughing' looks quite good still.

In summary, a lot of fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This was another Laurel & Hardy short I watched on Hulu as linked from IMDb. In this one, Stanley has a toothache that's bothering bed mate Ollie so he tries various ways to get rid of it to no results. So they go to the dentist but this one is not the best in health care since the patients keep running away! I'll stop there and just say that this was quite funny almost to the end but when the laughing gas effect comes in and they run into cop Edgar Kennedy, the scene is maybe milked a little too long but it at least leads to a hilarious ending. Oh, and Charlie Hall also has a good bit as the landlord. So on that note, Leave 'Em Laughing mostly lives up to its title.

Sub-standard Laurel & Hardy comedy, short on ideas whie stretching out what little it does come up with.

Laurel and Hardy go full anarchic in "Leave 'Em Laughing", as Stan's toothache prompts a visit to the dentist, where things run completely amok. Stan and Ollie were probably still trying to figure out their comedy style at this time, but the short is still a riot. It's the sort of thing that lots of people would probably love to try, especially once the guys get on the road.

I noticed that one of the signs said Culver City. That's where "Jeopardy!" gets filmed nowadays. It was also where Disney's "Fantasia" got animated. I bet that L&H never envisioned either of those when they filmed this.

Anyway, funny short.

PS: Edgar Kennedy, who plays the cop, also played the lemonade vendor in the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup".