The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930) Directed by James Parrott
Comedy / Short / Crime / Mystery
Film Review
Presumably intended as a spoof of the popular silent horror film The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case is far
from being Laurel and Hardy's best film but it has a few moments of
sublime comedy. Everyone remembers the sequence in which a bat
gets caught up in the bedsheets and goes flying after Stan and Ollie,
who naturally mistake it for a ghostly apparition. Less well
known is that this is the first of their films in which Ollie delivers
the line that was to become his frequently repeated (and often
misquoted) catchphrase, 'Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten
me into.' The film hardly does justice to its premise, which
deserved a full length feature rather than a hurried three-reeler, but
the sight of the world's two funniest men repeatedly falling down the
stairs and being scared out of their wits by an assortment of bed
linen and a butler who looks like Nosferatu's understudy can hardly
fail to get a laugh. Alas, the cop-out ending will have you
grinding your teeth in disappointment...
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Film Synopsis
Once more on their uppers, Stan and Ollie fish for their supper at a
dockside. After various mishaps, Ollie sees a notice in a
newspaper inviting the relatives of the recently deceased Mr Ebeneezer
Laurel to attend the reading of his will at his old mansion. Stan
is unsure whether he is related to the dead man but Ollie, convinced he
is on to something, persuades his friend to go along and see if he can
claim a share of the inheritance. The will reading is no more
than a pretext to lure all of the relatives of Ebeneezer Laurel to his
house so that the police can determine who killed him. Stan and
Ollie arrive at the creepy old house on a stormy night and are invited
to spend the night, in the room in which the old Mr Laurel died...
Cast:Stan Laurel (Stan),
Oliver Hardy (Ollie),
Frank Austin (Butler),
Stanley Blystone (Detective),
Bobby Burns (Nervous Relative at Window),
Rosa Gore (Old Relative),
Dorothy Granger (Young Relative),
Dell Henderson (Housekeeper),
Fred Kelsey (Chief of Detectives),
Lon Poff (Old Relative),
Art Rowlands (Theater-goer Relative),
Tiny Sandford (Policeman)
Country: USA
Language: English
Support: Black and White
Runtime: 30 min
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