Laughing Gravy (1931)

Truly Dreadful Film

Great Film overall

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is the L&H short I come back to more than most others.It has a compact cast,great sound effects of the snow swirling around on the roof, bricks hitting Olly on the head and Charlie Hall at his best.The alternate ending that is available on later DVD versions is a nice bonus but it's already a classic with the original ending.The things that happen to poor Charlie include his bed collapsing,bursting in to the room and ending up wrapped up in some kitchen shelving,being knocked out by a brick whilst opening the window and being covered in the dog's bath water.Unlike 'Tit for tat' where he got revenge for each L&H act, in this film he is mostly the victim and it's too much for him in the end.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. It should be mentioned this film was originally only 20 minutes, but extra footage was found giving it an extra eight minutes. Stan and Ollie are sharing a room together, along with their dog "Laughing Dog" (how he got that name, I don't know), and the Landlord (Charlie Hall) has rules about animals in the house. So after Stan's hiccuping, and the bed breaking, Gravy starts barking, and the Landlord puts him outside in the cold snow, and Ollie goes to get him back, falling into a water barrel being a highlight of his attempt. Back in the room, the bed breaks again, and Gravy is put up the chimney, and when the Landlord's gone, Stan and Ollie have to climb onto the roof to get the dog back. Luckily the Landlord is knocked out by falling bricks, while Stan and Ollie have to wash, starting with Gravy, and they can't even do that without something (funny) happening, and when the Landlord comes round, he wants them out. In the rediscovered part of the film, Stan and Ollie are about to leave with Gravy, when Stan receives a letter to say he will inherit his uncles' fortune, as long as he isn't near Ollie. Ollie is curious of this "private" letter, but of course he understands after why Stan refused to let him read it. In the end, Stan decides to tear up the letter and forget the fortune, not for Ollie, but because of Laughing Gravy. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Good!

Laughing Gravy (1931) *** (out of 4) 2-reel version Laurel and Hardy try to hide their pet dog from the landlord. I wouldn't say this short is overly funny but there's enough fun moments to keep it entertaining. All the stuff with the landlord is good but the stuff with the dog doesn't work as well. Hardy falling in a barrel of water is certainly the highlight.Laughing Gravy (1931) ** 1/2 (out of 4) extended 3-reel version Foreign markets got this extended version with an extra reel, which really hurts the film. Nothing in this added reel is funny so it's no wonder why it was cut out in most places.

Stan and Ollie share a flat in a boarding house, along with their little pet dog Laughing Gravy. The landlord finds animals to be a nuisance, however, and denies the poor thing entrance, despite a biting snow-storm outside. Our heroes are determined not to let their pet freeze to pieces, of course; and there's your plot, involving the boys' attempts to get the dog inside without the landlord getting wise about it. Being largely a remake of their last silent effort, ANGORA LOVE which had reached theatres only a couple of years before, LAUGHING GRAVY is arguably a superior work. The boys are given more opportunity here to contextualize the material to their personalities; the affection shown to their pet is almost touching at times, more so than their somewhat odd encounter with the goat of the earlier film.Surely the material here is quite simple, if observed superficially, and the outstanding force of imagination which coins the very best work of the boys was, perhaps, being saved for later efforts such as HELPMATES and THE MUSIC BOX. Even so, it's quite striking how Laurel and Hardy, when in their prime, were able to conjure the simplest of material into something distinctly individual. One sequence here which always makes me howl with laughter (the first time so much so, I remember, that I literally fell off my chair...), has the boys trying to give their pet a much-needed bath. Again, though the humor is very much physical, its effect relies heavily on the personalities of our heroes, and a viewer's degree of familiarity with them. Though the landlord is to eventually declare their behavior to be "too much" of a burden, at least to the rest of us, the story of GRAVY should be a "laughing winner." (This review was somewhat devised in June, 2012)