Laurel And Hardy - Big Business / From Soup To Nuts / Do Detectives Think? [1929]

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Customer reviews

review by: joeskade date: 2003-05-27 rating:
Evolution of a legend
The fact that all three films on this tape are silents may be offputting to some, but rest assured that one film at least deserves to stand with their best sound shorts. 'Big Business' is simply hilarious as Stan and Ollie as christmas tree salesmen indulge in a tit-for-tat binge of destruction with James Finlayson.
The other two films are entertaining, though the best ideas were used again to better effect in later films ( compare the graveyard scene in 'Do Detectives Think' with that in the later silent 'Habeous Corpus'). The films do show Stan and Ollie developing their characters (though Ollie's appears to have emerged almost fully formed) and we also can watch the evolution of Stan's haircut.
Worth buying for 'Big Business' alone.


review by: date: 2001-12-18 rating:
Some of L&H's finest silents
I was given this one for Christmas, I don't usually go in for silents but after sitting down and watching this, I realised I have been wrong.

The first on this tape is 'Big Business'(1929), in which The Boys try to sell Christmas Trees to Mr. Finlayson, who gets annoyed after serveral rings of his doorbell(who wouldn't?). They destroy his house, while he gets to work on their Model T. Appart from 'Two Tars', this has to be the finest silent comedy ever filmed.
Next up is 'From Soup To Nuts'(1928), where Stan and Ollie, as waiters, wreak havok at Anita Garvin and Tiny Sandford's dinner party. The main problem this print has is the decompostion of the film, the subtitles have had to be completely replaced on the first reel.
Finally the last pre-teaming silent short - 'Do Detectives Think?'(1927). Stan is Ferdinand Finkleberry, the world's second worst dective, and Ollie is Sherlock Pinkham - the worst. The duo somehow manage to save Judge Foozle(Finlayson) from the 'Tipton Slasher', an escaped murderer. This film was the first to see The Boys wearing their trademark derbies and suits, although Laurel's hat is a slightly different design and Ollie's moustache is a trifle large.

I gave this video **** because of the poor quality seen in 'From Soup To Nuts'.

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Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Classics . Comedy
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Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . VHS
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