ClassyWas
Excellent, smart action film.
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
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.
Steve Pulaski
The Laurel and Hardy comedy short Big Business is predicated off of the reliable comedic screen writing device of persistency, where characters tirelessly chase after a certain goal or continue engaging in a dead-end action hellbent for success (and laughs). The result can often be tiring, but the theme finds its home efficiently in this eighteen minute short by two of comedy's greatest leading men. Big Business concerns Laurel and Hardy as a pair of door-to-door Christmas tree salesman, looking to score big from ill-prepared clientele this holiday season. The two stumble upon a grumpy customer (James Finlayson), becoming persistent in their efforts to make a sale with him and effectively alienating him more and more with every word.The man finally gets enough of it and proceeds to chop one of their Christmas trees with his hedgeclippers, which escalates a feud like no other. The men take turns by destroying whatever item they can get their hands on that belongs to the other person, meaning the home owner destroys Laurel and Hardy's inventory and their vehicle, while Laurel and Hardy take turns destroying the home of the home owner. This back-and-forth camaraderie catches the attention of a police officer (Tiny Sandford), who watches it all go down in awe.One of the funniest scenes of the entire short is seeing Laurel throw the home owner's vases out of a window onto Hardy, who is standing on the front lawn using a shovel to hit and break them. The scene makes for hilarious, rapid-fire comedy that is only all the more impressive being that it's clearly and impromptu skit. Furthermore, the zealous attributes of Laurel and Hardy keep the comedy flowing, with complete and total awareness in terms of pacing and structure, on part of writer H.M. Walker and directors James W. Horne and Leo McCarey. Big Business is one of the funniest Laurel and Hardy shorts I have yet to see.Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, and Tiny Sandford. Directed by: James W. Horne and Leo McCarey.
tavm
Hours after I rewatched The Fixer Uppers, I remembered another Laurel and Hardy short that had something to do with Christmas: This one called Big Business (also the title of a feature starring Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler from 1988). The boys sell Christmas trees in this one and are not very successful at it (maybe because it's sunny in this short's setting). One customer who's particularly annoyed is played by usual nemesis James Finlayson. The gradual destruction caused by these three as well as their reactions to each indignity make this one of the funniest of the L & H silents. There's also notable bit players like Charlie Hall, Lyle Tayo, and as a cop watching all the shenanigans, Tiny Sandford who's also good in his role. So on that note, this is my favorite of the Laurel and Hardy holiday comedies. P.S. If you can read lips, you've probably noticed Stan addressing Ollie by his nickname, Babe, which he was called when he first worked in the film industry when it was briefly based in Jacksonville, Florida, which is where I once lived during the late '80s-early 2003. Update-9/24/11: I just watched this again at an outdoor screening at the Baton Rouge Gallery with live musical accompaniment by The Incense Merchants, whose contemporary stylings add to the proceedings immensely, with an appreciative audience of which one female member laughed as loud as I did. (she must also be an L & H fan like yours truly!)
MartinHafer
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).
