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"

Going Bye-Bye! Year: 1934 Directed by: Charles Rogers Duration: 20m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Excuse me, please, my ear is full of milk." Synergy. That’s what it’s all about. Stan and Ollie meshing their comedic arsenal perfectly together and increasing their strength exponentially. That may seem like a rather poncy way of putting the genius of Going Bye-Bye! into words, but I can think of just a handful of films that see their individual talents so finely entwined. A lot of Stan’s work is the comedy of sheer irritation. Sometimes seeing him misunderstand the simplest of acts, or take forever to do a minimal task can be amusing, at others it can seem frustrating and time-filling. Yet having Ollie mirror our frustration for us increases the comic punch. In this regard, having Ollie’s naked rage at a third character or an unrelated event is funny, but having him direct it towards Stan – and in a way that Stan can’t understand – is even funnier. Maybe I’m analysing this one too much, but look at the way Ollie reacts after reading out Stan’s dreadful newspaper advertisement. After completing it, Ollie gives us a look of pure exasperation, letting us in on his feelings, completely lost on Stan. Even his sarcastic “it’s very nice” goes over Stan’s head, with only the paper being hurled at him making the point. This idea of planting the gags, revealing their foundation and then allowing the audience to wait for their resolution is something that Laurel and Hardy did all the time, of course, and is really quite subversive for the medium. A later one involves a razor blade in a brush, though there are many such examples scattered throughout their career. It's Hitchcock's "exploding bomb" in dramatic reverse, the suspense being there as a device to generate laughter. Ollie’s pomposity is never greater than here, with daft remarks like “At last you’re using my brain” littering the piece. A great favourite is, of course, the title quote, superbly delivered by a nincompoop desperately trying to hold on to his dignity, little realising that he never had any in the first place. His tie wiggle to a person on the other end of the phone – who of course can’t see him – highlight the delusion of the man, a classic comedy creation. Further proof that Laurel and Hardy simply don’t need anyone else comes with the second half, which features Mae Busch doing her best Mae West act, and Walter Long not being quite as much fun as he was in Pardon Us or this same year's The Live Ghost. They both do reasonable turns, but all Stan and Ollie really need for a perfect short is Stan and Ollie. Can anyone else make just pressing a doorbell so much innocent fun?