YOU'RE DARN TOOTIN'
Written and filmed January, 1928. Produced by Hal Roach. Supervised by Leo McCarey. Directed by Edgar Kennedy. Two Reels.Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Otto Lederer, Agnes Steele, Christian Frank, Chet Brandenberg.
STORY: Musicians Laurel and Hardy lose their jobs in an orchestra and soon find themselves playing in the streets for handouts. An altercation develops between Stan and Ollie, which eventually involves dozens of passersby. The street is soon filled with folks brawling and kicking one another, which leads to everyone ripping off each other's pants.
JL: A
true L&H silent classic, perhaps the best film they had made to
date. By this time, all the necessary elements in the Laurel and Hardy
universe have fallen into place. Randy Skretvedt points out that this is
their first film to employ their familiar "Us vs. The World" theme: no
matter what the cruel fates have in store for Stan and Ollie, they will
always have each other -- and, frequently, that is all they have.
You're
Darn Tootin' is another film that boasts a much-heralded
finale, the pants-ripping melee. But, in the manner of Battle of the Century, it is The
Boys' antics as orchestra members in the first reel that generate as
much laughter as anything else.
JB:
There seemed to be a recurring pattern in some of the silents, where
the story would eventually lead to a wild mob-scene of leg-kicking,
pie-throwing or pants-ripping. It would carry over into some
of
the early sound shorts (Hoosegow, Berth
Marks, Men O' War)
but it never worked quite as well as it did in the silents, and
eventually it would disappear altogether in their work. I
think
they eventually discovered that what was really funny about Stan and
Ollie was how they reacted to each other, rather than how they could
accidentally incite a riot. These mob scenes are hilarious, but when
sound came along, and the Boys got used to the intrusion of microphones
and adjusted to the different speed of the sound camera, they found the
new technology offered other avenues of comedy to explore.
The part of this
short that I like best
is the eating scene in the boarding house. One of the Mankiewicz
brothers (Herman or Joe) once said that to make a great Marx Brothers
movie, you needed to stand Groucho and Chico against a wall and let
them talk to each other. For me, to make a great Laurel and Hardy
movie, you need to sit them down at a table with two bowls of soup and
a couple of salt and pepper shakers.
