Laurel and Hardy On The Job
Sound Blends Beautiful With Slapstick in Busy Bodies (1933)
How to look with fresh eyes upon something
you've watched a hundred times --- is it better to just let go? Sentiment, and
memory they evoke of 8mm collecting, assures my fidelity to Laurel and Hardy, renewed of late by Apple streaming
the lot in HD. Busy Bodies is carpentry and mayhem extreme even by this team's
reckoning, Hardy slung by machinery that would be death of a cartooned figure,
let alone a portly clown passing middle age. What I noted this round with Busy
Bodies was creative use of sound to punctuate slams and falls. It's the wham
what am funny as it accompanies Babe's repeated meet with a passing board.
Talkies were a boon to L&H not only in terms of ideal voicing, but sounds
they'd employ to punctuate slapstick. Did Stan supervise as closely effects we'd
hear as well as see? Roach creators built a library of noise as glue for gags
that might not register at all done silent. You could argue that sound opened
up whole new arenas for sight comedy, and yet visual humor took a slow sled
downward once screens began to talk. Busy Bodies demonstrates what comedy could
be when it addressed both senses.
I love watching these with a thousand people or more. You ain't heard first rate audience response until you have been part of a huge crowd laughing itself into apoplexy.
ReplyDeleteWhat Apple service are you using to stream the Laurel and Hardy shorts?
ReplyDeleteIt was Apple i-Tunes, but they've pulled the L&H shorts since I looked at "Busy Bodies." Maybe they'll bring them back at some point ...
ReplyDeleteDonald Benson cites another instance of L&H creative use of sound:
ReplyDeleteSound also gave us Ollie's epic "OOOOOOOOOOOO"s. Usually in anticipation of some impact (anything from a slip on a banana peel to a header off a roof); sometimes upon realizing Walter Long or a similarly unsympathetic person was closing fast; and occasionally from off camera, followed by a crash. The last were usually accompanied by Stan going about his business, blissfully unaware that he had just projected Ollie into some peril.
I haven't seen "Busy Bodies" in a while, but as I recall, Stan's only line of dialogue -- "Come in" -- appears almost at the very end of the movie. I think their best talkies are those with the least dialogue. Their last few shorts are dialogue-heavy to the point of being sitcoms. Was it easier/faster to write dialogue, or were they getting just a little too old for physical comedy?
ReplyDeleteVery sharp observation by Kevin about how little dialogue Stan has in Busy Bodies. But it's more than one line: Stan also has some dialogue with Charlie Hall, and toward the end he has a line when he returns Ollie's hat. Kevin's right, it's one of Mr. Laurel's quietest performances.
ReplyDelete