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 Live Ghost Year: 1934 Directed by: Charles Rogers Duration: 20m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "If anybody ever mentions ghosts to me again… I’ll take his head and I’ll twist it around so that when he’s walking north he’ll be looking south – ya get me?" One of the most memorable Laurel and Hardy shorts, The Live Ghost indulges once more in the macabre that’s so attractive in terms of art. One thing that I haven’t really noted before with many Laurel and Hardy films is that while the interior sets used for their pictures are very well put together, there’s an artificiality about them. Check out the opening Stan and Ollie scene where they’re fishing on the dock (including some very funny moments where Ollie vainly tries to ingratiate himself with Walter Long’s ship captain) – the barrels behind them are just a painted backdrop. It was something I hadn’t noticed before, at least on a conscious level, but in many ways it adds to the charm and the surreal context of most of their films. There’s plenty of laughs in this one, including good roles for my two favourite L and H supporting players: Arthur Housman and Charlie Hall. While I like James Finlayson as much as the next guy, his performances are deliberately pantomimic, whereas Hall and Housman are both, while OTT, tied into something “real”. (Particularly as – as is noted elsewhere on this site – Housman was rumoured to be genuinely under the influence for his roles as a drunkard). Direction by Rogers is quite inventive at times, and – as I’ve again noted elsewhere on this site – the UK television sitcom The Young Ones (1982-1984) infrequently gave references to Laurel and Hardy. This is touched upon here with their recreation of Stan and Ollie’s “ripping the note in half” routine. I think I’ve probably mentioned elsewhere that I was enchanted by Stan and Ollie as a child, and so I have great nostalgic memories of this one. As referenced above, there’s a charm that the obvious manufactured street corner outside the bar possesses. Within that bar we get Stan punching people in the jaw while they’ve got an egg in their mouth, which is simply pure comedy. Yet having thrown all these superlatives at the film, it has to be said... there’s scarcely a laugh in it after the first seven or eight minutes. The first part of the film contains regular chuckles, and even plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. But for some reason the remainder is drawn out and over-egged (pun unintended), with Ollie constantly looking to camera and not generating the same comic g-force he normally would, while an incredibly basic situation is milked for all its worth. As a young kid this would be hilarious, but as an adult, it’s a little too thin even for twenty minutes. Sure, I’m not expecting subplots and esoteric intellectualism, but for the last half of the short the laugh ratio has all but disappeared. I sometimes feel as if I come over as overly negative in a few of these Laurel and Hardy reviews. I don’t mean to, I love the boys, but sometimes I just have to honest and admit to myself that some of them were run off the conveyor belt and didn’t quite hit the target each and every time. Four bowler hat stars for the first eight minutes without question, but it’s not the entire film, so...