#Top ten laurel and hardy movies movie#
#Top ten laurel and hardy movies tv#

(See also Our Relations, in which they co-star with themselves as вЂњAlfвЂќ and вЂњBert.вЂќ) Here they use the opportunity to run wild, quarreling, refusing to go to sleep, and generally making a mess of things. The familiar approach made them stars, but they occasionally looked for ways to break out of it by playing their own doubles. Hardy played his blustering, bossy companion, who fancied himself smarter than his pal but didnвЂ™t do much to prove it - which didnвЂ™t stop him from shooting priceless вЂњCan you believe what I have to put up with?вЂќ glances at the camera years before Jim Halpert was born. Laurel played the dunce, a sweet, easily befuddled, generally good-natured fellow who cried easily and scratched his head in dismay a lot. The duo became beloved by sticking to their distinct, instantly recognizable personas. This weird, inventive short finds the boys trying to play checkers while tending to their misbehaving sons, also played by Laurel and Hardy, an effect achieved through a combination of special effects and oversize sets.

ThatвЂ™s not to suggest that the team always stuck to formula. ItвЂ™s one of the best examples of a formula that the team would turn to again and again: introducing chaos to a situation and watching as things spin out of control. The day goes from bad to worse when they anger a reluctant customer (frequent Laurel and Hardy foil Jimmy Finlayson), leading to an escalating battle that leaves the customerвЂ™s home in shambles and Stan and OllieвЂ™s business in ruins. The most famous of the teamвЂ™s silent films finds them traveling to the suburbs of Los Angeles trying, and failing, to sell Christmas trees. Also worth a look from this same nascent period: Battle of the Century, a lost-then-found short featuring the pie fight to end all pie fights. Both sport alarmingly short crew cuts and at one point Stan actually has a good idea, but the chemistry is clearly in place as they play a pair of cellmates who break out of jail only to end up right back where they started. It took a few films to work out the kinks, but The Second Hundred Years finds the familiar Stan and Ollie characters starting to take shape. TheyвЂ™d both been in the film business for a while, and even appeared in one short together years before becoming a team in 1927. Hardy, a Georgia native known to his friends as вЂњBabe,вЂќ had worked in vaudeville and came to Hollywood after making some films in Florida. The English Laurel had been part of the same acting troupe that produced Charlie Chaplin, even serving as ChaplinвЂ™s understudy for a bit. Neither Stan Laurel nor Oliver Hardy was new to the entertainment business when producer Hal Roach teamed them up in 1927. Below, weвЂ™ve compiled a few greatest hits to get you started. But however you watch Laurel and Hardy, youвЂ™ll find a wealth of comedy thatвЂ™s as funny today as it ever was. (And, please stay away from any colorized versions.) The best legitimate source remains the expansive (and expensive) ten-disc DVD set Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection, which collects almost all of the sound-era shorts and features that the duo shot for Hal Roach Studios between 19. Currently, you can stream some on Prime Video and many are on YouTube in copyright-skirting uploads of wildly variable quality.

#Top ten laurel and hardy movies tv#

Laurel and HardyвЂ™s films havenвЂ™t been TV staples in decades and the best of them didnвЂ™t arrive on DVD until 2011, as the format was waning in popularity. And even today, Laurel and Hardy remain instantly recognizable: the big guy with the tiny mustache and the little guy with the vacuous expression, both wearing bowler hats that could fit a little bit better.Д«ut anyone leaving Stan & Ollie wanting to go back to the source material will have to do a little work. But even here, Laurel and Hardy need no introduction.

#Top ten laurel and hardy movies movie#

The movie opportunities have dried up and TV has yet to make them inescapable via reruns of their old movies that played in constant rotation for the next couple of decades.

The film mostly focuses on the duo during a low point of their fame as they tour 1950s England with a stage show. Then they keep it going, until the clerk, who never has to ask their names, says, вЂњYou just wait вЂtil I tell my mom itвЂ™s you! We never get anybody famous staying here.вЂќ Dusting off an old routine, Stan bumbles his way through the lobby carrying way too many pieces of luggage while Ollie grows increasingly impatient. Reilly) decide to delight the clerk with a bit of business. Photo: Ullstein Bild/Ullstein Bild via Getty ImagesД¬hecking into a Newcastle hotel early in the new biopic Stan & Ollie, Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C.