by Allan Fish
(USA 1929 20m) DVD1/2
O tannenbaum!
p Hal Roach d James W.Horne, Leo McCarey w H.M.Walker, Leo McCarey ph Art Lloyd ed Richard Currier
Stan Laurel (himself), Oliver Hardy (himself), James Finlayson (3rd house owner), Tiny Sandford (policeman), Lyle Tayo (woman),
Stan and Ollie are probably the most beloved comedy duo in world cinema history, their films still regularly showing on BBC2 during holiday periods and video releases of their films still selling out amongst their fans. However, only their talkies are seen on television these days, which has resulted in many people forgetting that they were also previously a hugely successful silent comedy duo and in these films their humour was different. If I had to make a conscious decision to pick my favourite Laurel and Hardy silent it would be quite tough to choose, yet I feel that the silent film that showed them at their best was undoubtedly Big Business. Two Tars, in which they play sailors on leave, came very close (see separate listing), but Big Business edges it perhaps because its unconscious subtext still resonates today.
Stan and Ollie have has a brainwave and have come up with another get rich quick plan; they aim to sell Christmas trees to Californians. After a refusal from one woman, they attempt to win over a man with a “positively no peddlers or solicitors” sign by his door. Ollie says “it’s personality that counts…” before being hit over the head twice with a hammer. Forced to go elsewhere, they soon come across another customer who gets progressively more annoyed by their knocking and they retaliate in a progressively childish manner until they have destroyed the man’s house and garden and he has destroyed their trees and car.
The sheer callousness of the tactlessness is amazing. “Would your husband like to buy one?” they ask an old maid at one point and, when she advises them she’s unmarried, Stan adds “if you had a husband, would he like one?” When James Finlayson first refuses them, Stan has another brainwave and asks “could I take your order for next year?“, which surely has to be the winner of 1929’s “asking for trouble” award for irritable stupidity beyond the call of duty. Our heroes never get flustered, their escalating destructive responses performed calmly and deliberately. Even when hacking down the man’s tree, tearing up his bushes or sending furniture through his window, everything is done with a cool head. There is something endearing about them, in spite of the fact that they would be enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown. Watch as they start up their car only to turn the corner to the next house they see, all of about twenty yards. For a film which is all about spontaneous reaction and customer rage, the timing is perfect, but it’s the looks on their faces that are the cherry on the bakewell. Ollie forever sporting a look of horror at his partner’s tact before then going off to do something even more cringe-worthy himself. Every time something is done to him, whether having his tie cut or his watch smashed to bits, he looks at Stan and thinks “right, I’ll show him!” and proceeds to do something equally juvenile. Stan likewise has a high old time, especially taking the axe to that piano, though even more memorable is when the policeman finally comes along to see first hand what’s going on and Stan sheepishly tries to put the shredded piano back together. But real star of the show is the master of the double take, James Finlayson. Just watch as he sees his phone tossed into the garden, he’s so flustered you’d think he was about to combust, though his finest moment must be towards the end when, having destroyed the duo’s car, he sits amongst the tree remains like an infant in a crèche and mangles them still more. It’s a magic moment and, if you feel it couldn’t really happen, just think about how irritated you get with people who call you up at all hours to offer you things and how frustrated you get. Then think of how road rage occurs. Every camel has a last straw, and thank God for it, or we’d be denied one of the greatest of all short comedies.
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Finlayson is definitely an unsung (or undersung) hero of silent comedy who like L&H breezed triumphantly into the sound era. Big Business is one final slam-dunk by Hal Roach on Mack Sennett at the end of the period to show who the king of silent comedy producers really was.
Another typicallly excellent comment from Samuel Wilson here!
As Allan knows, I love this one with a passion, as much as I do THE MUSIC BOX. It’s one one the greatest of all retribution pieces. The cop’s resistence to intervening until he spent considerable time “taking notes” was a gas. L & H rank among the true glories of teh cinema, needless to say. That UL Laurel and Hardy Region 2 DVD ollection of all their work is a must-own.
I KNOW THIS ONE TOO, AND HAVE ALWAYS CONSIDERED IT AMONG THE BEST OF THIS FAMED DUO. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CAR RIVALS THAT OF THE SUBURBAN HOME.
Laurel and Hardy had some of comedies greatest comedic supporting actors, the already mentioned, by Samuel, Jimmy Finlayson, along with Charlie Hall, Mae Busch, Billy Gilbert and the grand master of the slow burn, Edgar Kennedy. Thelma Todd was also in at least four or five of their films.
“Big Business” is certainly one of the greatest shorts ever made.
One of the funniest shorts ever made.
James Finlayson’s exagerrated facial reactions every time the duo commit their latest affrontery is the funniest thing about this short. I can’t help agree with everyone here that it’s one of the all-time greats.
Watch it here: http://www.livevideo.com/video/Quevida55/46CF55C267024D1FA32268A3D9BCDD23/big-business.aspx
Hm. Am I the only one who thinks it’s a little sad that this has recieved so many more responses than “Haxan”? Granted, comedy from this era more or less fails to move me to anything other than mild wakefulness, but it just gets me a little depressed.
Funny, I feel that most of the melodramas and many of the experiments don’t hold up nearly as well as the comedies from the silent era. That said, L&H are not really my favorite comedians (though I’ve only seen the talkies) but by and large, I’d say silent comedy is the most ageless art from that era. I love certain sequences in Haxan – among the most brilliant and provocative in silent cinema – but the film taken as a whole has never quite satisfied me and I’ve seen it a few times. Indeed, the best silent comedies usually make me laugh harder than most non-contemporary talking comedies (in other words, humor that’s up to the minute or of my generation makes me laugh but go back even 20 years and I’m amused at best – whereas Chaplin will still make me laugh out loud).
Long live the revolution! Anarchic comedy at its best. Two stiffs trying make a buck at Xmas, reek their revenge on the bourgeois and the rights of property. All the workers have to lose is their (watch) chains, a car, and assorted Xmas trees. The symbolism is dynamic and cuts straight to the chase – f***k the oppressors!
One of LAUREL and HARDY’s best films and a true masterpiece of anarchy. I can look at thisa one forever and still laugh at it all. IS IT MY FAVORITE? Close, but no cigar. For the features I have to go with SONS OF THE DESERT and, if I have to go for a short, the one (the title escapes me) where Stan and Ollie inherit collateral from the circus they’re working at when it folds due to the depression. There’s just something hysterical about seeing Stan and Ollie shacked up in a 4 dollar room with a 350 pound Silver BacK Gorilla named Ethel whose smoking a cigar and wearing a ballet dress. BIG BUSINESS would finish a hair under the circus short and about equal with THE MUSIC BOX. I would lump Stan and Ollie together with WC FIELDS and THE MARX BROTHERS as the great comedians of the golden era and my absolute favorites. CHAPLIN doesn’t count, I feel he was so much more. But, these guys can split my sides in a heartbeat.
Yes, yes, YES! JOHN GRECO, SAMUEL WILSON and DAVID NOACK*n you are all correct on FINLAYSON. His over-the-top facial expressions and boiling aggrevation are perfectly pitted towards the boys tom-foolery with timed precision. He made many films with Stanny and Olly and as a second banana ranks with the likes of Mack Swain (Chaplin), Baby LeRoy (W.C. Fields) and the pompous and irrepressibly brilliant MARGARET DUMONT (The Marx Brothers) as one of the all time great side performers. Without Finlayson, here in BIG BUSINESS, the gags would fall flat. Both the producers of this film and Stan and Olly knew they had a diamond in the ruff with this GREAT performer. Just thinking about his performance cracks me the fuck up!!!!!
Brilliant stuff.