Laurel & Hardy: Laughing Gravy

Living in a boarding house, Stan and Ollie try to conceal a pet pup from their enraged landlord on a snowy, cold winter’s night. The short borrows from their silent antecedent, ANGORA LOVE, and presents a wonderful array of undistilled routines. It was shot and previewed as a three-reeler. The last reel, with a rather dark tone and containing perhaps the most heartfelt sentimentality in the entire Laurel & Hardy canon, was cut before release. At the last moment, Roach had been asked by Metro to restrict shorts to two reels. A new, alternate ending was devised, but only for issue in English-speaking territories. A transfer of the original 35mm work print containing these deleted extra ten minutes can now at last be viewed here, immediately following the shortened domestic version’s end title. Directed by James W. Horne. With Charlie Hall, who outdoes himself as the vicious, dog-hating landlord. The irresistible canine in the title role had been rescued from the Los Angeles City Dog Pound and trained for screen work. Understandably, he was soon the beloved pet of everyone on “the lot of fun, ” and appeared in Hal Roach comedies for many years. In real life even “hateful” Mr. Hall was the happy recipient of one of Laughing Gravy’s puppies!