Silent Films: pre-team 1921-1927 Laurel and Hardy Silents 1927 Laurel and Hardy Silents 1928 Laurel and Hardy Silents 1929 Laurel and Hardy sound films (alphabetical order): A-Haunting We Will Go Air Raid Wardens Another Fine Mess Any Old Port! Atoll K (aka Utopia) Babes In Toyland Beau Hunks Be Big! Below Zero Berth Marks The Big Noise Block-Heads Blotto The Bohemian Girl Bonnie Scotland Brats The Bullfighters Busy Bodies Chickens Come Home - The Chimp A Chump At Oxford Come Clean County Hospital The Dancing Masters The Devil's Brother aka Fra Diavolo Dirty Work The Fixer Uppers The Flying Deuces Fra Diavolo aka The Devil's Brother Going Bye-Bye! Great Guns Helpmates Hog Wild The Hoose-Gow Jitterbugs Laughing Gravy The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case The Live Ghost Me And My Pal Men O'War The Midnight Patrol The Music Box Night Owls Nothing But Trouble Oliver The Eighth One Good Turn Our Relations Our Wife Pack Up Your Troubles Pardon Us Perfect Day Saps At Sea Scram! Sons of the Desert Swiss Miss Their First Mistake Them Thar Hills They Go Boom! Thicker Than Water Tit For Tat Towed In A Hole Twice Two Unaccustomed As We Are Utopia (aka Atoll K) Way Out West Specials: Cameos Cartoons For Love Or Mummy Laurel and Hardy Memories "Stan"

Brats Year: 1930 Directed by: James Parrott Duration: 20m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Remember the old adage: 'You can lead a horse to water… … but a pencil must be lead.'" Classic line, that one. Brats is an oddly disturbing, yet undeniably brilliant work, and easily among the ten most ambitious they ever did. One of just two Laurel & Hardy films with no support cast (the other being Early to Bed, 1928) it sees huge, oversized sets erected to create the illusion of Stan and Ollie as their own children. Described by author Simon Louvish as "more Dada than Daddy", there's no denying that Brats is an eerie and unsettling viewing experience at times. While it was intended to have big Stan/little Ollie physically interacting, and vice versa, limitations in special effects meant that all four can just be witnessed in the same frame for nine seconds using split screen. There's also a poorly animated mouse, which makes the whole thing even more surreal. With the obvious parallels that the fathers are just as childish as their sons, we get lots of class renditions of indoor sports, including draughts, building blocks and boxing. The pool scene, meanwhile, must be the definitive comedy version of such an event. It's extraordinary how much is packed into this short: while a lesser film (even a lesser Laurel & Hardy film) would just play off the premise alone, this one packs its twenty minutes full with more gags per second than even some of their feature length pieces managed.