The music box
1932 USA Black/White 30 Minutes
Review
Oh he kicked you did he
After deciding to reorganize their finances, Laurel and Hardy go into the delivery business. Their first assignment is hauling a player piano up a monumental flight of stairs to 1127 Walnut Avenue. While trying to maneuver the crated piano up those stairs they encounter a maid (Lilyan Irene) with a baby buggy, an insulting policeman (Sam Lufkin) and a distinguished but belligerent gentleman (Professor
Theodore von Schwarzenhoffen (Billy Gilbert).
But the biggest problem is the force of gravity, which repeatedly pulls the piano back down to the bottom of the stairs. On the way up, the two manage to get soaked, electrocuted and, of course, to wreck the whole house.
Cast
Directed by James Parrott
- Stan Laurel .... Stan
- Oliver Hardy .... Oliver
- Gladys Gale .... Mrs. von Schwarzenhoffen
- Billy Gilbert .... Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen
- William Gillespie .... Piano salesman
- Charlie Hall .... Postman
- Lilyan Irene .... Nursemaid
- Sam Lufkin .... Policeman
Links and more
L&H Fan site Way Out West tent
Laurel and Hardy magazine
L&H Fan site
The official website
Trivia
Release date: April 16, 1932
The film won an Oscar for Best live action short subject
There was a real piano in the crate. They needed it to be there for the weight. Source / More (Book)
A colored version is available on DVD
The film is a remake of the missing Laurel and Hardy short Hats off which was based on the Chaplin comedy His musical career (1914).
The encyclopedia about music box:
mechanical musical instrument that is sounded when tuned metal prongs, or teeth, mounted in a line on a flat comb are made to vibrate by contact with a revolving cylinder or disk that is driven by a clockwork mechanism. Source / More (Web)
Bio
Laurel and Hardy
Stan Laurel:
If any of you cry at my funeral, I'll never speak to you again! Remarkable:
Asteroids 2865 and 2866 are named after Laurel and Hardy.
Stan Laurel
Born:
June 16, 1890
Born as:
Arthur Stanley Jefferson
Died:
February 23, 1965
Oliver Hardy
Born:
January 18, 1892
Born as:
Norvell Hardy
Died:
August 7, 1957
Stan Laurel performed in circuses and vaudeville before settling in the U.S. (1910), where he began appearing in silent movies.
Oliver Hardy owned a movie house and acted in silent comedy films from 1913.
They first appeared in the same Hal Roach film in Forty-five minutes from Hollywood (1926) and attained enormous popularity by the end of the silent era. They made a great number of shorts before their first long feature, Pardon Us (1931) (made largely out of economic necessity). In 1933 their The music box won an Academy award.
Selected Movies:
- Big business (1929)
- The music box (1932)
- Helpmates (1932)
- Tit for tat (1935)
- Them thar hills (1934)
- Towed in a hole (1932)
- Sons of the desert (1933)
Academy award:
1961 Stan Laurel -> Honorary Award
Books:
John McCabe -> Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy (1965/1985)
Randy Skretvedt -> Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies (1987/1994)
Rob Stone ->Laurel or Hardy: The solo films of Stan Laurel and Oliver "Babe" Hardy (1996)
Scott MacGillivray -> Laurel and Hardy: From the Forties Forward (1998)
S. Louvish -> Stan and Ollie (2002)
