Le gagnant du grand prix

In case you don't know it, Stan Laurel had a film career before being teamed with Oliver Hardy. Stan starred in or co-starred in many shorts during the late teens and 1920s. The quality of the lot varied considerably. However, despite a few really good films here and there, the bulk of the films are, at best, average and not even close to the quality of the premier comedians of the day. Considering I am one of the biggest Laurel and Hardy fans (having reviewed just about all their films--even the foreign language ones I could get hold of), my seeing Laurel as a less than stellar solo act should carry some merit, as I really WANTED to enjoy these movies more.

Owch. I just finished watching this sad short film and can't believe that another reviewer gave it a 10. Now perhaps I am being tough in giving the film a 4 (though I think this was still generous), but 10 is way out of line--making this film seem like the equal to the best of Buster Keaton or Chaplin or Harold Lloyd--which is ridiculous! This film is NOT great or must-see cinema--mostly because it forgot one very important aspect of a comedy...it must be funny. While there are some cute bits here and there, it's sad that the funniest aspect of the film is supposed to be Stan's over-sized jockey hat he wears during the film. Even the final big race didn't do enough to salvage this film, though I must admit the very last scene on the boat was cute.

Overall, unless you are a rabid fan of anything with a horse or you think everything Stan Laurel ever did was comedy gold, this is imminently skipable.

Very good short. stylish. it's the story of a challenge, a big named horse (Zed) versus an understimate european one (Paprika). the first part is about the training! the owner of Paprika (Jimmy Fin of course!) force his -too tall- jockey to recover his good form. naturally the jockey is a wild Stan with an enormous hat who is dragged all around like an horse. It's good to see how fun is the way he dress up to disguise his personal trainers and finally eat something. the second part is all about the race: the little Paprika against the bigger Zeb with George Rowe stick on. It's an hard fight with a good final and if the second part reminds me of the true story of Seabiscuit in some way, the final is adaptable to a Disney comic with Uncle Scrooge chasing the poor Donald Duck!