User Reviews

In the pantheon of character actors that supported Laurel and Hardy over the years Charley Hall is second to Jimmy Finleyson as their constant foe (or victim). Hall was a good journeyman comedian, and appeared in many shorts besides those with the boys. Inevitably they irritate him (which may be why Finn is somewhat higher in the rating of their foes - Finn reacts to their comments, sometimes asking for mistreatment, but frequently being somewhat in the right; Charley usually just is bad tempered. In BE BIG Ollie and Stan are trying to get some ice cream for dinner at home that night. Charley is selling ice cream, and repeatedly tells Stan that they don't have Chocolate (apparently Stan's favorite). Finally instead of rattling off all the flavors he has, Charley grits his teeth and decides to list all the flavors he doesn't have! It still doesn't work.

It's very possible that Charley's best performance against L & H was in LAUGHING GRAVY (possibly THEM THAR HILLS is equally good - but that was one of two shorts that are interconnected). LAUGHING GRAVY stands on it's own feet - it was a sound version of the silent short ANGORA LOVE, about the difficulties of the boys sneaking a goat into their rooming house when it won't stop following them. Later this plot would also be used in THE CHIMP, with a chimpanzee as the animal they have to keep hiding from their landlord (Billy Gilbert). But here it is Hall who is the landlord, and has been having problems with these two roomers some time before the short begins. He keeps being awaken by them and keeps threatening to send them out into the snow drifts outside. Stan has a cute little dog, "Laughing Gravy", and does not want to put the dog out into the snow. But there is a no-pets rule. The short expands on how they boys try to keep the dog in the room, but try to keep Charley from finding out. The results are usually at Ollie's expense, although both boys get locked out at one point. Ollie keeps getting soaked, and Charley keeps getting angrier and angrier at Ollie's making one disturbance after another. The culmination is when they are washing the dog, and Stan sees Hall staring at them - and pushes the dog out and starts washing Ollie's head in the soapy water instead!

They are told to leave the boarding house. Here an interesting thing developed. It seems that many of the Laurel & Hardy films had scenes shot that were cut out (and not necessarily by television). Few of these have been found, though occasionally we know what they are (the Spanish version of PARDON US has a sequence involving the boys saving the warden's daughter from Walter Long during a fire - which apparently was in the English version too, but finally cut out of that version). In the case of LAUGHING GRAVY a ten minute sequence involving Stan getting a telegram and Ollie dying to know what it is about was dropped.

They are packing when the telegram is delivered, and Stan reads it, but quickly folds it into his pocket. Ollie keeps asking what is on the telegram, but Stan says it's nothing. Ollie gets so annoyed, he starts singing a song, "You'll be sorry when it's too late...when our friendship has turned to hate!" Stan finally gives in, and gives Ollie the message. Stan has inherited a fortune from an uncle - but he has to give up his friendship with Ollie, who the uncle could not stand. The sequence is not a bad one, but one realizes why it was cut - it did nothing to further the plot line of the short. In fact, it was rather weak in comparison with the rest of the short (and costs the short a "10" out of "10" - it gets a "9" as a result). Still it is nice to occasionally see a lost sequence returned to any film.

The real conclusion is when Hall (holding a hunting rifle) is waiting for the boys and Lauging Gravy to leave the boarding house. But as they are about to leave they hear nailing. They open the door and see a policemen has put up a quarantine sign there - Stan and Ollie can't leave with their dog now! Shocked beyond endurance by this twist, Hall says there is just so much a man can take. We see him walk off the camera's range. Then we hear two shots. The policeman enters to check the body, while Stan, Ollie, and Laughing Gravy head back upstairs. A really good conclusion to the short.

Stan and Ollie share a flat in a boarding house, along with their little pet dog Laughing Gravy. The landlord finds animals to be a nuisance, however, and denies the poor thing entrance, despite a biting snow-storm outside. Our heroes are determined not to let their pet freeze to pieces, of course; and there's your plot, involving the boys' attempts to get the dog inside without the landlord getting wise about it. Being largely a remake of their last silent effort, ANGORA LOVE which had reached theatres only a couple of years before, LAUGHING GRAVY is arguably a superior work. The boys are given more opportunity here to contextualize the material to their personalities; the affection shown to their pet is almost touching at times, more so than their somewhat odd encounter with the goat of the earlier film.

Surely the material here is quite simple, if observed superficially, and the outstanding force of imagination which coins the very best work of the boys was, perhaps, being saved for later efforts such as HELPMATES and THE MUSIC BOX. Even so, it's quite striking how Laurel and Hardy, when in their prime, were able to conjure the simplest of material into something distinctly individual. One sequence here which always makes me howl with laughter (the first time so much so, I remember, that I literally fell off my chair...), has the boys trying to give their pet a much-needed bath. Again, though the humor is very much physical, its effect relies heavily on the personalities of our heroes, and a viewer's degree of familiarity with them. Though the landlord is to eventually declare their behavior to be "too much" of a burden, at least to the rest of us, the story of GRAVY should be a "laughing winner." (This review was somewhat devised in June, 2012)

"Laughing Gravy" is a black-and-white short film from almost 85 years ago and even if that is such a very long time, they already had sound back then. It is certainly a bit strange to see that this one here was released in April as it has such a holiday spirit attached to it. The dog is a nice watch for young audiences while the two protagonists are for the grown-ups. And there is something in here that other Stan&Ollie shorts are frequently missing: elaboration on the friendship of the two. However, of course there is also the usual slapstick humor, the mayhem the two cause which always has Ollie end up in bad situations and finally of course the camera shots on the desperate, angry face of Ollie and the clueless face of Stan. Horne directed this one, Walker wrote it and these two made many films with the legendary comedy duo. All in all, a fine watch. Recommended.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. It should be mentioned this film was originally only 20 minutes, but extra footage was found giving it an extra eight minutes. Stan and Ollie are sharing a room together, along with their dog "Laughing Dog" (how he got that name, I don't know), and the Landlord (Charlie Hall) has rules about animals in the house. So after Stan's hiccuping, and the bed breaking, Gravy starts barking, and the Landlord puts him outside in the cold snow, and Ollie goes to get him back, falling into a water barrel being a highlight of his attempt. Back in the room, the bed breaks again, and Gravy is put up the chimney, and when the Landlord's gone, Stan and Ollie have to climb onto the roof to get the dog back. Luckily the Landlord is knocked out by falling bricks, while Stan and Ollie have to wash, starting with Gravy, and they can't even do that without something (funny) happening, and when the Landlord comes round, he wants them out. In the rediscovered part of the film, Stan and Ollie are about to leave with Gravy, when Stan receives a letter to say he will inherit his uncles' fortune, as long as he isn't near Ollie. Ollie is curious of this "private" letter, but of course he understands after why Stan refused to let him read it. In the end, Stan decides to tear up the letter and forget the fortune, not for Ollie, but because of Laughing Gravy. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Good!

First off, I would like to explain the 3 versions of this L&H comedy short. All 3 versions are at YouTube, so, take your choice. The version originally released to theaters is a 2 reel, 20 min. film. Some years later, the lost deleted 1 reel(10 min.) was found and tacked onto the end of the original. However, this comes in 2 varieties: A) a colorized version that retains the ending of the original version B) a B&W version that does not retain the ending of the original. I saw the colorized version. I will say that you will probably find the 3rd reel rather boring. I don't remember any gags. It mostly consists of Stan receiving a letter informing him of his inheritance from his rich uncle. It stipulates that he will only receive this if he severs all contacts with Ollie. Ollie asks what the letter is about, but Stan wont tell him, because of that stipulation. Thus, they spend an inordinate amount of time, with Ollie intent on finding out what the letter is about. Finally, he is able to grab it from Stan. He assumes that Stan will accept the inheritance, and thus have to give up his friendship with Ollie. Stan packs his bag, and begins to walk toward the door, carrying their little dog: Laughing Gravy. But Ollie demands that the dog stay with him, for company. Reluctantly, Stan gives him the dog. What do you think Stan will do? Wait for the punch line for the whole reel........The first 2 reels deal with another conflict: The order by the landlord(Charlie Hall) that the dog must go immediately, as he has a 'no pets' rule. Besides, this dog woke him up with his barking(He lives downstairs). The boys claim they don't have a dog. But, Charlie insists they must, and finds him. He puts him out in the snowstorm. The boys are determined to get the dog back in that night. So, Ollie sneaks down the stairs and goes out the door. He soon finds Laughing Gravy, but rejects Stan's suggestion that he come down the stairs and open the door that locked when Ollie closed it. He's afraid this may wake up the landlord, especially if the dog barks. So, he has Stan tie 2 sheets together to function like a rope, and hoist the dog up in a pocket Stan makes. It works, and Stan closes the window, forgetting that Ollie is still down there! Eventually, he opens the window and lets the sheets down. But, getting Ollie up is going to be much more risky. In fact, the knot holding the sheets together begins to unravel with Ollie's weight. When he's near the top, the sheets pull apart, and (as I predicted), he falls into the nearby barrel, full of ice water. So, finally, Ollie agrees that Stan's simple solution was the better idea, and Stan goes down the stairs and opens the door for the frozen Ollie. .........In the next scene, Stan is in bed and Ollie is getting into the same bed, when the bed collapses, for the 2nd time! This knocks a lot of plaster off the ceiling below, most of which falls on Charlie in his bed, which also collapses.(Must have been some cheap beds!) Charlie storms upstairs and demands to be let in. But, the boys are slow to respond. So, he gets a running start to try to break the door open. Unfortunately, when he is near the door, Stan opens it, and Charlie goes whizzing through the bedroom, through the kitchen door(some cheap door!) tangling with pots and pans..........Next , we have an episode where L&H and dog all eventually get on the roof. Laughing Gravy somehow climbed up the chimney from the fireplace and Stan followed(probably using Santa's technique?). Ollie got up from the window, with Stan's help, and much difficulty. Laughing Gravy, followed by Stan, go down the chimney. Ollie has more difficulty because of his girth. In fact, he knocks some (fake) bricks off the outer chimney, some of which fall on Charlie's head, which he stuck out the window, making him woozy. Ollie gets stuck near the bottom, but Stan pulls him out, with bricks and dust falling on Ollie. They decide they need a bath, with the soot on them, but first a bath for Laughing Gravy. They have a time hitting the metal tub with the water they bring, and Ollie gets soaked. Ollie slips on the cake of soap, and wakes up Charlie with his fall. Charlie runs up the stairs and barges in, just as Ollie is throwing the bath water at Stan, hitting Charlie instead. Charlie demands that they leave in 15 min., and calls the police.......I will not reveal the ending.......... Incidentally, the screenplay clearly is derived from the prior silent film "Angora Love", in which a smelly goat replaces the dog. Both are fun. The subsequent film "The Chimp" also has the commonality that the boys are harboring an illicit animal in their hotel room.

Laurel and Hardy, clowns that they are, end up looking like them, but with chimney soot for makeup, not white greasepaint dabbed with the colors of the rainbow. They will drive nasty landlord Charlie Hall to the brink in this short, first hiding a dig, then getting locked outside, and finally ending up on the roof which can barely withstand the weight of the snow and the dog, let alone two grown men, actually one overgrown. It's a dark, rather sinister situation, with slow moving scenes indicating a melodramatic mood that it seems enjoying making fun of. There is a continuation after the first two reels flash "the end", seemingly more like an outtake than released footage. These three reelers were often dark in theme, its comedy more adult than some of their true classics.

. . . about how "When you start losing your bricks, it's time to shoot yourself." After Ollie knocks a few chimney bricks onto his landlord's noggin toward the end of LAUGHING GRAVY, the latter says "This is more than I can take," then walks off-screen and is next heard to shoot himself--TWICE! We know the feeling. When our chimney dropped one brick too many three months ago, we called our area's only masonry repair man. This mason said he'd fix it the next time he swung by our way. Now it's mid-Winter, and we sure ain't LAUGHING GRAVY when it keeps raining bricks each time we go out our front door!