Big Business (1929)

But this is exactly what Laurel and Hardy are doing in this 1929 17-minute short movie. Just like James Finlayson co-starred frequently with them and who is on par acting-wise with the possibly most famous duo in film history. This is obviously in black-and-white and was co-directed by multiple-Academy-Award winning director Leo McCarey. The premise is as simple just like the execution. With the exception of the first scene when they try to sell a tree to a woman, the entire film takes place at the same location, in front of a house. Laurel and Hardy are Christmas tree salesmen and they clash with a man who does not want to buy one and is not afraid of showing them. The situation escalates more and more and quickly the duo is about to wreck the poor guy's home, while he "only" destroys their car. The policeman who comes to help really does nothing apart from giving everybody a couple bad looks and crying with them in the end when they all get along with each other again? Hey it's Christmas after all. Or do they really? This is a decent short film. The only question i asked myself is why was this released in April when there was actually Easter and not the Holidays. Doesn't matter though. I was nicely entertained. Thumbs up.

This is probably one of Laurel & Hardy's more famous silent comedies, in which they become embroiled in a relentless tit-for-tat war of attrition with homeowner James Finlayson who refuses to buy a Christmas tree from them. The boys wear heavy overcoats, as if to persuade the Californian residents that it really is winter weather but to no avail. Their tree and Stan's coat keep getting caught in Finlayson's door and each time Finlayson has to open it he is a little more irate until finally he cuts the tree into three sections. That's the cue for battle to commence. This isn't really one of my favourite Laurel & Hardy films –it's too mean-spirited for my liking, and there's something unpleasant about the destructive rage involved when Stan and Ollie enter Finlayson's house and begin smashing it up.

This is the granddaddy of all Laurel and Hardy fight with the neighbor shorts. A small disagreement escalates to a near-world war and destruction and mayhem result. This formula worked great here and was reprised in such Laurel and Hardy films as TIT FOR TAT, TWO TARS and THE BULLFIGHTERS. All these fights are excellent, but I have to give a higher score to this film because it was the first and most outrageous.Laurel and Hardy are door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen! Naturally, their business is terrible (since it is Stan and Ollie) and some of their prospective customers, namely James Finlayson, are irritated by their bothering them. Well, this mild irritation quickly escalates to breaking the boys car and the boys destroying the man's home. All this is very funny and well-paced and I especially liked the ending--it might just catch you by surprise. This silent short is about as good as you can find from this duo.By the way, this film appears in an abbreviated form at the end of Robert Youngson's compilation film WHEN COMEDY WAS KING (1960).

BIG BUSINESS Aspect ratio: 1.33:1Sound format: Silent(Black and white - Short film)A minor dispute between two Christmas tree salesmen (Laurel and Hardy) and an irate customer (James Finlayson) escalates into massive mutual destruction.The first collaboration between L&H and veteran comedy director James Horne is a masterpiece of its kind, in which two bickering salesmen become involved in a war of attrition with bad-tempered customer Finlayson (an invaluable member of the L&H universe). The escalation of conflict is joyously contrived (Finlayson reduces The Boys' car to spare parts, and they do the same to his house), and the pay-off - in which the entire cast is reduced to tears! - is no less satisfactory. Legend has it that the filmmakers accidentally destroyed the wrong house, after hiring the one next door...