Review of Mud and Sand

This was unlike any silent film I've ever seen - it was absolutely silent! I mean there wasn't even any music for it's entire forty minutes or so. I don't know if that was just a quirk of the print I viewed; it came packaged as part of a two disc Laurel and Hardy Collection from Diamond Entertainment. Not knowing how long I'd be able to take the silent treatment, I just settled in comfortably and it managed to be entertaining enough if you're a Stan Laurel fan. For me, the interest was in seeing how this funny comic got his start in pictures. Apparently I have the forty minute English version of the story as opposed to the shorter American release. Once under way it didn't click with me that this should be a bullfight story until I made the connection with the Valentino film that this one parodies. Although the scene didn't make much sense, the funniest bit had Stan's character Rhubarb Vaselino throwing his first three bull victims right out of the arena! Stan of course is off screen, otherwise the film makers would have had to make this impossible feat somehow look credible. Overall the film offers a few glimpses of Stan's adept timing which would be honed to comic perfection in a few years upon teaming with Oliver Hardy. Not too shabby after knocking around and throwing the bull for a few years.