SILVER

Long lost, now found! New 2K DCP restoration!
DUCK SOUP (1927)
Although released before the on-screen partnership was officially acknowledged, and without the couple's familiar fraying-bourgeois air, the ultimate Stan-and-Ollie relationship is already firmly defined. Stan Laurel is dithery and timid, but ultimately the more resourceful; Oliver Hardy is dominating-going-on-bullying, confident and generally badly mistaken. They learn with alarm that the Forest Rangers are rounding up vagrants to fight forest fires, and swiftly take refuge in a mansion whose owners are leaving on holiday. In their absence, Hardy endeavors to rent out the house, while Laurel helpfully disguises himself as Agnes the housemaid. Things do not end well. Although they dominate the film, the nominal star was Madeline Hurlock (1897–1989), who was recruited as a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty and went on to team up with comics like Harry Langdon and Billy Bevan. Here, as Lady Tarbotham, she maintains her poise against all odds. Though he enjoyed the incomparable directorial guidance of Fred Guiol and Leo McCarey, Laurel may well already have been exerting his influence on the concept of their films, since the story is adapted from a sketch by his father, Arthur J. Jefferson. The film was re-made with sound as ANOTHER FINE MESS in 1930. Leo McCarey re-used the title for his 1933 Marx Brothers film.¬ (Note courtesy of David Robinson, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto.) DIR Fred Guiol, Leo McCarey (uncredited); SCR Arthur J. Jefferson, from his sketch "Home from the Honeymoon"; PROD Hal Roach. U.S., 1927, b&w, 20 min. NOT RATED

90th Anniversary
LIBERTY (1929)
Prison escapees Laurel and Hardy, in their haste to ditch their convict uniforms and don street wear, get their pants mixed up. But there's no time to switch back before the cops are in hot pursuit, chasing them across a series of comic set pieces, culminating in a high-rise construction site and a daring comic ballet along steel girders. DIR/SCR Leo McCarey; PROD Hal Roach. U.S., 1929, b&w, 20 min. NOT RATED

90th Anniversary
WRONG AGAIN (1929)
Stable hands Laurel and Hardy get wind of a $5,000 reward for the return of the stolen "Blue Boy," which they take to mean the thoroughbred of that name in their care. In fact, the reward is for the famous painting. When they show up at the art collector's mansion with Blue Boy in tow, things take a surreal, hilarious turn. DIR/SCR Leo McCarey; SCR Lewis R. Foster, H. M. Walker; PROD Hal Roach. U.S., 1929, b&w, 20 min. NOT RATED

TWO TARS (1928)
Sailors-on-shore-leave Laurel and Hardy meet cute with two feisty dames and go motoring; at the girls' urging, the boys turn a traffic jam into a game of bumper cars and ultimately a dangerous high-speed chase. DIR James Parrott; SCR Leo McCarey; PROD Hal Roach. U.S., 1928, b&w, 21 min. NOT RATED

Total program approx. 81 min.

No AFI Member passes accepted