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Duck Soup (1927)
The origins of Laurel and Hardy
They had appeared together in the same films before. They both had a long career in silent comedies when they met. They were not initially considered as the perfect comic teaming that we see them as today. So when they were paired together for a story suggested by Stan's father, it seemed like just another film for Stan and Babe. Most of this film has the feel of early slapstick of the Mack Sennett tradition - big gestures, running and leaping and jumping. But there are also the beginnings of a more quiet, understated comedy. When The Boys have to entertain the couple who are inquiring about the house, we can see Laurel and Hardy become, by necessity, sneaky. Devious. The pace slows down, and we are allowed to laugh about the situation, not because of obvious over-the-top gagging. The film was long considered lost until 1974, when a print surfaced in Europe. Many books that credited the Laurel and Hardy genesis to later films are not in error - very little was known of this film until its rediscovery. Duck Soup is not the perfect Laurel and Hardy film - there is too much slapstick and not enough sly wit in it for my tastes. The casual viewer would be much better served by the remake, the three-reel talkie Another Fine Mess, which has much more sly wit and fantastic dialogue. However, Duck Soup is definitely an important entry in the Laurel and Hardy film pantheon, and is well worth a view if you're a fan.
Sugar Daddies (1927)
Finlayson on the run in an early silent Laurel and Hardy
James Finlayson gets equal billing with Stan and Ollie for this one, and ends up doing a lot of work for it! Finlayson plays rich man Cyrus Brittle who awakes after a night out to discover he's been wed to a woman who wants his money. Actually, it's her brother who ends up doing most of the chasing. Mr. Hardy plays the butler, and Mr. Laurel is very Chaplinesque at times as Brittle's attorney. The first half of the film is a comedy of manners, with many amusing title cards. Perhaps this section would have benefited from sound technology, but nonetheless it's still packed with laughs. There is an abrupt change in the middle ("One week later" - perhaps the reel change point?) and suddenly Finlayson's discovered hiding at a swank hotel and it's up to Stan and Ollie to sneak him out. Stan spends most of the movie riding piggyback on Finlayson, camoflaged as Ollie's wife. And it really does look like Finlayson carried Stan around - you can tell that's not a stunt man, at least not all the time. Incredible stuff, and quite funny. George Stevens, the young cinematographer, contributes some pre-steadicam handheld tracking shots which are somewhat shaky but visually different... although I did notice that most of these shots follow the villains, not the protagonists. I was worried that I might not find Laurel, Hardy, and Finlayson as funny without their wonderful vocal humor, but this film proves they're all equally adept at physical comedy. I laughed quite heartily throughout.
Destination Magoo (1954)
Magoo goes to the moon... or so he thinks.
Magoo berates Waldo for reading Science Fiction magazines, but when Waldo tells him of an old college friend of Magoo's who's building a rocket to the moon, Magoo goes off to see his old college pal who bears the nickname "Stinky". Once there, Magoo accidentally ends up in the rocket bound for the moon, or so he thinks - the rocket actually lands in Coney Island, but Magoo's convinced it's an alien world. The Coney Island sequence may go on a little long, but otherwise this is a good Magoo cartoon if you like these sort of things, and the Sci-Fi elements are a bonus.
Bwana Magoo (1959)
Average near-sighted mixup
Magoo goes lion-hunting with his nephew Waldo, but gets the lion and Waldo mixed up and ends up claiming Waldo as his prize. Typical Magoo, the best part of the film is his incessant muttering as voiced by Jim Backus. Parents may be slightly worried that Magoo unknowingly unloads so many shotgun shells at a family member, but hey, it's all in the name of comedy.
When Magoo Flew (1954)
Myopic midair mayhem!
Magoo goes off to the movies, but makes a wrong turn and ends up on a plane, in the midst of a cops and robbers plot he inadvertently foils. This one is above the average Mr. Magoo cartoon, because it has several secondary characters with good lines. My favorite is when the detective says to the stewardess, "I'm looking for a man", and she shoots back with a deadpan, "Me too." The cops and robbers plot is all done in stylized, almost noir fashion. Even the bumbling Magoo bits are funnier than usual, as when he appears in the window of the cockpit. And that end line about "Have you got any cartoons with that short nearsighted fellow?" exhibit a self-referential tongue in cheek that sets this one above your average Magoo.