Series: All Stars w/Laurel and Hardy

Director: Clyde Bruckman
Producer: Hal Roach
Titles: Reed Heustis
Photography: George Stevens
Editor: Richard C. Currier

Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall, Edgar Kennedy, Dorothy Coburn
Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Released: 28 January 1928
Length: 2 reels
Production No.: S-6
Filming dates: November 3-11, 1927; retakes November 17, 1927
Rating: 5/10



Leave 'Em Laughing

Available on DVD:
         

It's 3 a.m. and poor Stan cannot sleep on account of his toothache. The fact that Stan is awake means that Ollie is also soon awake (as they share the bed). Every time Ollie touches Stan's face, Stan grimaces in pain, so Ollie decides to help out by going into the bathroom to fetch a hot water bottle. He doesn't see the tack on the floor - not until it's sticking in his foot. After discarding the tack, Ollie has an altercation with the bathroom cabinet, when the swinging door whacks him on the head twice due to some over-aggressive manhandling of it. It still isn't enough, as the tack once again finds its way back into Ollie's foot. It's a hell of a way to wake up in the middle of the night!
Ollie returns to the bed and hands the water bottle to Stan, for him to rest the side of his aching face on it. The inevitable happens as the cap pops out and the water from the bottle begins to leak into the bed. Again, it's Ollie who takes charge of the situation when he orders Stan out of the bed. Stan goes to sit by the window and hooks the blind chord around his tooth in an attempt to have it yank the tooth from his mouth. It fails, and the blinds fall down. Once again, Ollie gets out of bed and this time offers to pull Stan's tooth for him, but not before he leads him around the room like a dog on a leash, using the chord from his mouth. Ollie ties one end of the chord onto the doorknob, with Stan's mouth attached to the other end, then slams the door shut. Doesn't work.
A second attempt only makes matters worse, as the doorknob detatches itself from the door completely. The boys are paid a visit by the unhappy landlord (Charlie Hall), who demands to know where all the noise is coming from? When it is established that Ollie is causing the disturbance, the landlord tells them they must leave in the morning. Stan doesn't take the news too well and kicks Charlie in the pants as he tries to leave. Charlie thinks it was Ollie and gives the innocent Hardy a swift return kick - twice. Ollie abruptly returns the compliment - twice. Stan looks on, innocently, before socking Charlie in the face with a right hook. Stunned, Charlie staggers out of the door, thanks Stan and walks off.

REVIEW INCOMPLETE....

Trivia
Copyrighted January 9, 1928.
Released as part of the All Stars series.
A print of the film exists on "The Lost Films Of Laurel And Hardy: Volume 5" where several of the scenes are tinted.
A poster-sized still from this film hangs in the apartment of Chandler and Joey in the TV sitcom, "Friends".
According to the opening intertitle card, the film begins at three o' clock in the morning.
Ollie is wearing white shorts underneath his nightgown.
There is a plaque on the wall near the bed which reads, "Keep Smiling".
When Ollie goes into the bathroom he treads on a tack (with his left foot). You must wonder how a tack found its way into a bathroom in the first place?
After Ollie treads on the tack, he removes it from his foot and then throws it straight back onto the floor. That's just asking for trouble, isn't it?
There are some clever uses of tinting during the film. For instance, when the film begins it is dark and there is a blue filter on the screen, but when Ollie turns on the light, the colour changes to being a yellow tinting. When he turns the light off again, the screen returns to blue.
There is a fly on Ollie's pillow after he turns off the light and realises the bed is getting wet.
After the second attempt to remove Stan's tooth using the door as leverage, Stan picks up the doorknob, still attached to the chord. It looks like a conker on a string.
Landlord Charlie Hall has every right to reprimand his tenants for making a lot of noise in the middle of the night (we know it is the middle of the night because the story begins at 3 a.m.) However, just because he is the landlord, does not give him the right to enter the boys' room without knocking first. For the disturbance caused, Charlie over-reacts by telling them to leave in the morning, when a stern warning would have been sufficient. Stan's reaction (kicking Charlie when his back is turned) is totally unacceptable, cowardly and in the eyes of the law - assault. This would have been sufficient cause to evict them.
When first meeting Edgar Kennedy in the middle of the stopped traffic in the street, the two cars on the right have licence plates of 1-254-577 and 1-254-578. Later on, after Kennedy starts driving the car, they stop in the middle of the street and a car with a licence plate 1-254-578 is on the right again. Funny how the same car happened to be in the street and in the same spot minutes after driving off originally.
My opinion
Minor entry in the Laurel & Hardy series.

Stan Laurel
Stan
Oliver Hardy
Ollie
Charlie Hall
Landlord
Edgar Kennedy
Cop
Dorothy Coburn
Dentist's nurse
Edgar Dearing
Dental patient
Otto Fries
Burly dentist
Al Hallett
Dental patient
Jack Hill
Irate motorist
Jack Lloyd
Dentist
Sam Lufkin
Dental patient
Viola Richard
Dentist's nurse
Tiny Sandford
Dental patient

DVD CREDITS #1 (click image to enlarge) DVD CREDITS #2 (click image to enlarge)

POSTER
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STILLS
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GLASS SLIDE
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Acknowledgements:
http://leinwand-lyrik.de/LHP/Presse_Fotos.html
Laurel And Hardy - The Magic Behind The Movies by Randy Skretvedt (book)
Richard Finegan (4 stills)
Jorge Finkielman (special thanks)
Gene Sorkin (observations in trivia section)

This page was last updated on: 28 January 2023