Les Forçats du pinceau

'The Second 100 Years' is a nice silent comedy from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, but it is only nice, nothing more. The short start in jail where the two share a cell. They are about to escape through a tunnel. Their plan fails so they have to come up with something else. They pretend to be painters to get out of jail. After that, to escape a police officer they steal clothes from two French prison inspectors. Of course the inspectors were on their way to the prison Laurel and Hardy just escaped from.

The first part of this short has some laughs. The funny thing here is that not Laurel and Hardy are that funny, but the written words on screen between scenes. The middle part, when they are painters, is the best. While the police officer is following them they paint everything white on their way, including a certain person that could be offensive to some. Unfortunately it ends with a sequence that plays too long and therefore becomes dull.

I guess this could be a nice comedy short for fans of silent films or simply Laurel and Hardy comedies. I liked it up to a point, but compared to most other films I have seen from the two comedians this was a little disappointing.

There are some good sight gags in this silent Laurel & Hardy comedy, but there's very little plot to speak of. The boys sport shaven heads as they play a pair of convicts attempting to escape from prison and the film follows their various doomed attempts. They dig a tunnel only to strike a water pipe and end up surfacing in the warden's office. Sent to the exercise yard, they're forced to perform exercises. They eventually escape disguised as painters but are followed by a cop and end up painting half the town in their attempts to shake him off. They find themselves back in prison when they hijack the car of a pair of French dignitaries visiting the prison.

Most of Laurel & Hardy's silent films lose some of the boy's inimitable character simply because we can't hear their voices, and this one's no exception. There are a few funny moments – when the pair instantly assume the marching position, hand on the shoulder of the man in front, when the dinner gong sounds as they're pretending to be the French dignitaries, for example, but you can't help feeling it would be more enjoyable if you could just hear them speak. When Ollie can't voice his frustration and Stan can't squeakily express his distress we only really have half the act.

Generally thought to be the first official Laurel and Hardy release(although PUTTING PANTS ON PHILLIP is also put in this bracket),the boys don't wear their Bowler hats and have their heads shaved,but are very much a team in this early effort,more so than PPOP where they play against each other rather than for.There's plenty of amusing incident and situations(especially when they attempt to escape the jail as painters);one slight quibble is that as convicts,the characters they have to play here have a very slightly more unpleasing edge than they would be establishing only a few films later in the partnership.Still funny though,and Jimmy Finlayson's double take and fade away is worth a few more laughs as well here;in early publicity material the boys were sometimes billed as 'Hardy and Laurel' in this film;that soon changed.

Comedian Stan Laurel, actor, writer and part-time director with 50 films under his belt, was hired by Hal Roach's studio in 1926 as a director and gagwriter. An accident in the kitchen that resulted in a severe burn from a hot leg of lamb sent Roach veteran actor Oliver Hardy to the hospital, giving Laurel an opportunity to appear before the camera again. He was asked to fill in for 'Ollie' in the studio's upcoming 'Get 'Em Young,' as well as the 1926's "45 Minutes from Hollywood." Laurel agreed.

Hardy, who had appeared in over 250 films, returned to work and found himself slotted in several shorts with Laurel. Observant studio director/writer Leo McCarey saw a certain chemistry between the two actors when they appeared together. Composing a script contoured to the pair's acting style, McCarey linked the two as a couple of convicts who share a prison cell together in October 1927's "The Second Hundred Years.". The pair make their getaway by stealing paint cans and brushes and impersonating themselves as painters. Stumbling upon a police officer, Laurel and Hardy paint railings, cars, shop windows, women's buttocks, anything to throw the cop off guard.

Hal Roach loved the interaction between the two and asked McCarey to oversee their on-screen presence. Despite directing only three Laurel and Hardy shorts in the next two years, McCarey was instrumental in their guidance by personally writing several of their screenplays and supervising others directing their films.

In "The Second Hundred Years," Roach realized McCarey's instincts were correct, launching one of cinema's most successful and funniest comedic pairing.

Second Hundred Years, The (1927)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Laurel and Hardy play convicts who make an escape but they find themselves in a more dangerous place than prison. There's small laughs scattered throughout this short but in the end the only real highlight is seeing boys with shaved heads.

Call of the Cuckoo (1927)

** (out of 4)

A man (Max Davidson) swaps houses, sight unseen, due to his wacko neighbors. When he moves into the new house it turns out the thing is falling apart in every way possible. The only real highlight is the few scenes with the neighbors who are played by Laurel, Hardy and Charley Chase.