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I'll not question the authoritative voice of Stan Laurel who says he considers this the first official Laurel and Hardy film. They were both separate players signed to Hal Roach contracts when Roach decided to team them. The idea was genius, but the separate contracts would cause some problems for the team and for Roach about a dozen years later.

But for now Putting The Pants On Philip has a bit of an unusual situation for the guys. Hardy is an older middle aged man and Laurel his nephew come over from Scotland. Being a true Scot Stan wears proudly the tartan kilts of his clan and he has a libido in this that Harpo Marx would envy. Keep him away chasing girls says his mother to her brother Ollie.

But a Scot in kilts is catnip to those flapper girls of the 20s and Ollie sees his duty, he has to get the nephew into pants so he won't be so conspicuous.

Most of the humor revolves around the mystery of whether the Scot wears undergarments with his kilt. In Laurel's case he does and he doesn't.

The last bit was something I think Stan might have heard about involving that famous story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his cape. Ollie climaxes the film with an unexpected surprise there. One of the great sight gags that so typified Stan and Ollie's work.

The first "official" Laurel and Hardy movie is not like the ones with which we're more familiar. In this case, Laurel is a man from Scotland and Hardy is his uncle greeting him in the US. To be certain, Stan wears a kilt and tam, while Hardy wears a porkpie hat (like Buster Keaton wore). A couple of the scenes in "Putting Pants on Philip" were probably risqué for the time (a couple of them predict Marilyn Monroe's most famous stunt).

Basically, Stan and Ollie were just beginning as a team, so they hadn't yet figured out a style. Nevertheless, the end gag is funny enough. Mostly worth seeing as a historical note.

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.

'Putting Pants on Phillip' 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. 'Putting Pants on Phillip' 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 formulaic.

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.

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. 'Putting Pants on Phillip' looks quite good still.

To conclude, decent and far from pants. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Made before Laurel and Hardy became a solid team with the characteristics we know and love, Putting Pants on Phillip is a one-trick pony, but the Boys play it for all, maybe more, than it's worth. Shirt chasing Laurel must be taken out of his own skirt, or properly his kilt, to fit into American society. Of course, Laurel resists, and Hardy is adamant, and along the way we get our share of lantern grins, camera looks, cries, and maybe the first time Oliver Hardy meets the six foot puddle. There's a great reaction shot after Laurel inadvertently loses his drawers before walking over an air grate; a quick cut shows the women in the crowd fainting at the sight of the pants-less Laurel. After his inseam measurement is taken, a half disrobed and completely disheveled Laurel appears, as broken as any Griffith heroine.

This is one of L&H's shorts most frequently cited as the first "real" L&H teaming and perhaps one of their best silent features. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Ollie) is a millionaire who has come to the docks to greet his nephew Philip, whom he's never seen. At first Ollie is laughing it up with everyone when this strange little man unboards and draws a great deal of attention to himself by the way he's behaving during his medical exam, but is quite humiliated when it turns out that this is the fellow he's supposed to be greeting. He has been told that Philip is a good boy, but he has one weakness--women. Mumblethunder and Philip set off to go home, but their journey there is continually interrupted by Philip breaking into a little dance every time he sees a woman, then chasing after the woman. Huge crowds gather each time this happens, not so much because he's chasing skirts, but because Philip himself is also wearing a skirt (a kilt). Finally Mumblethunder manages to drag Philip into a tailor's shop to be measured for a proper pair of pants, but Philip escapes from there as well to chase more skirts. There are lots of laughs all around. It's also nice to see a short like this because the boys aren't exactly the characters we know and love. Ollie is pretty much his usual character, but it's such a joy to see Stan acting so differently from his usual man-child character. It shows he wasn't a one-trick pony and excelled in other types of roles when he got the chance. With a run time of 19 minutes its short and sweet, providing classic one liners which still have me in stitches.