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"

The Hoose-Gow Year: 1929 Directed by: James Parrott Duration: 19m Availability: Try sendit.com Viewpoint: "Why don't you do something to HELP me?" The first appearance of that classic phrase in what is a far funnier short than it at first appears. Filmed during August/September 1929, there are moments here where their kinetic physical comedy really begins to form in the sound era. Admittedly, there are also many moments that appear laboured and forced, (most notably that rice fight at the end) but after a couple of viewings to get used to how standard and unremarkable as a whole The Hoose-Gow is, it’s easy to settle down and reflect on what’s good about it. So, what IS good about it? Plenty. There’s the symbiotic relationship between the two leads, with Ollie’s exasperated anger at Stan resolving to conspiratorial laughing as he gets one over on the guard. There’s also a very funny tree-chopping scene (particularly Stan laughing at Ollie getting the axe the wrong way round) and some amusing business with a pepper pot. It’s moments of what appear to be improvised genius that make this one fairly special. However, it’s also the sense of “slim plot, make it up as you go along” that prevents The Hoose-Gow from being anything more than average. Incidentally, for any fellow Limeys reading this review, is it just me or is “Hoose-Gow” a completely lost expression on you? Apparently it’s derived from Spanish (literally “Judge Court”) and is a colloquialism much like “clink” or “slammer”. This takes me back to Beau Hunks again, something which you might have suspected Stan would point out…