Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made 107 films together as a comedy team (72 silent and sound short subjects, 23 features, and 12 cameo appearances in films starring others). Call me crazy ("Hey, crazy!") but I never enjoyed silent era films. I tried, oh I tried, but each time an actor's mouth moved there was nothing but an awkward silence. Then after what seemed too lengthy of a wait, a placard flashed on the TV screen, reflecting what the actor had just said moments before. I found this to be very distracting, plus it slowed down the natural comedic timing. This lapse between action and dialog, for me, was like watching an entire movie subtitled, and I couldn't square the two up.
That being said, I didn't watch any of the short and feature length "TV reruns" unless they were "talkies." As a kid who was fortunate enough to have a tiny black and white TV set in my bedroom, every Saturday morning before my parents or the Sun were up, I was thoroughly mesmerized by the vaudevillian, overtly physical humor of Buster Keaton, Our Gang (The Little Rascals), The Three Stooges, and of course, Laurel & Hardy.
In Dirty Work (1932) the plot, like many of the L&H shorts, is simple - Chimney Sweeps Ollie and Stan set out to clean the chimney of a old and eccentric scientist (Professor Noodle) who has spend the last 20 years working on a "rejuvenation formula" that will make him 30 years younger. It doesn't take long before Stan and Ollie have bricks, black fireplace soot, broken furniture and pure mayhem ruining the old mansion. Indeed, the only thing the angry butler can say to the boys is "Somewhere an electric chair is waiting!" (This also happens to be one of my favorite lines in L&H films.)
No spoilers here as usual, but I will reveal that this film is one of the very few times you can see Oliver Hardy's tattoo (located on his right forearm).
That being said, I didn't watch any of the short and feature length "TV reruns" unless they were "talkies." As a kid who was fortunate enough to have a tiny black and white TV set in my bedroom, every Saturday morning before my parents or the Sun were up, I was thoroughly mesmerized by the vaudevillian, overtly physical humor of Buster Keaton, Our Gang (The Little Rascals), The Three Stooges, and of course, Laurel & Hardy.
In Dirty Work (1932) the plot, like many of the L&H shorts, is simple - Chimney Sweeps Ollie and Stan set out to clean the chimney of a old and eccentric scientist (Professor Noodle) who has spend the last 20 years working on a "rejuvenation formula" that will make him 30 years younger. It doesn't take long before Stan and Ollie have bricks, black fireplace soot, broken furniture and pure mayhem ruining the old mansion. Indeed, the only thing the angry butler can say to the boys is "Somewhere an electric chair is waiting!" (This also happens to be one of my favorite lines in L&H films.)
No spoilers here as usual, but I will reveal that this film is one of the very few times you can see Oliver Hardy's tattoo (located on his right forearm).