The Distinct Comedy of Laurel and Hardy

The Music Box reinterprets the Sisyphean struggle for modern life: the eternal labor is no longer a divine punishment for a king’s hubris, but an everyday ordeal imposed on two innocent people who are not familiar with the world they live in. 

Background 

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy began their film careers separately, Laurel in 1917 and Hardy in 1914. The first time they appeared together, but not as a team, was in The Lucky Dog (1921). In 1926, Hal Roach brought them under contract; they appeared individually in several films, although on occasions they played together as in 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926).

The Duo

The decisive transformation came the following year, when Leo McCarey recognized their potential as a comic duo. Duck Soup (not to be confused with another Duck Soup McCarey made with The Marx brothers) features both  though not formally as a team. The movie, however, made McCarey to conceive the idea of pairing them, and in The Second Hundred Years (1927), he explored the idea. In the same year, he made The Battle of the Century with them, co-directed by Clyde Bruckman. The movie has the most famous cake fight in silent comedy. 

McCarey Influence

Although McCarey officially directed only a handful of Laurel and Hardy films, his influence on their work extended beyond the movies for which he received credit. Working at Hal Roach as a writer, assistant director, and creative coach, he helped shape the pair’s rhythms, character development, and the structure of their movies. By 1929, the team’s comic personas had taken shape, and shorts like Liberty and Wrong Again show the mature Laurel and Hardy dynamic he helped define. This is the period when Oliver's inflated dignity and scheming, and Stan’s childlike innocence, become integral parts of their personas. The period also marks the organic development of gags, growing out of their characters and replacing isolated gags lacking continuity (a tradition that began with Mack Sennett). McCarey applied the principle of continuity to the gag's structure, gradually building the imagery until it reached the climax. Technically, he discovered that beginning with medium and long shots, then cutting to a tight shot, would enhance the comic impact.

By 1932 McCarey had left Hal Roach, yet The Music Box demonstrated his lasting impact. The movie is the remake of the now lost Hats Off! (1927). He supervised the making of the movie which includes getting a washing machine up the stairs, where he used the idea of slow burn. He suggested instead of rushing through the task at hand, try to make it agonizing by prolonging it. 

Distinct Comedy

Asymmetry

Several features set Laurel and Hardy’s comedy apart from other major comedians of the period. Central to their appeal is a fundamental asymmetry in their relationship. Hardy, believing in the old rhetoric of the bigger is better, thinks his physical stature should provide a superior position for him, as the role of the “thinker.” Although his elaborate plans invariably collapse, he remains convinced of his leadership abilities. Laurel, conversely, is the humble one. He does not have an ego, and attempts  to follow Hardy’s instructions. His genuine efforts are hampered by a single fact: he does not seem to believe in conventional logic.

Unlike Hardy, who becomes excited by the discovery of any promising idea, Laurel remains cool, as someone who has seen it all, anticipating that the project will break down at some point; although often with his contribution. 

No Romance

Another pivotal element of their comedy is the lack of romance. Other comedians often in the end win their desired girls; in their movies, there is no "girl to win." The reason some critics suggested their comedy is asexual. They are seldom married; even in the rare cases where they are, their wives function as disciplinarian mothers, observing their children’s every move. In Blotto (1930), Stan’s wife appears with a shotgun to punish them. In Flying Elephants (1931), Stan says he cannot get married because his mother has not told him everything. 

Anarchy 

The duo’s narrative often lacks the rationale found in the works of Chaplin or Lloyd, primarily because they operate with the logic of children. Their frequent sharing of a single bed evokes a primal need for security, they feel safer. In Pardon Us (1931), they go to jail trying to sell homemade beer to a police officer during the Prohibition. When Stan has to have his tooth pulled out by the prison dentist, Hardy, to support his friend, sneaks in and sits on the other dentist chair. Their First Mistake (1932), is another movie where both are in the same bed, Oliver complains to Stan about his wife, “She thinks I think more of you than her.” 

Extraterrestrial 

Charles Barr, the distinguished British critic, argued in his definitive book on Laurel and Hardy that if we had to choose a single artifact to explain the human race to an extraterrestrial, a Laurel and Hardy short film like The Music Box or Big Business would be the most effective choice. Of course, Barr spends the entire book explaining his reasons. The short version for me is that we like to think of ourselves as rational beings, striving to make wise decisions and avoid obvious errors. An alien observer, however, might disagree. Lacking human kindness, they might not interpret our repeated trials and failures as laudable, a persistence in achieving our set goals. Instead, they could see them as evidence of folly; they might have heard some on Earth call insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.