Series: All Stars w/Laurel and Hardy Director: Clyde Bruckman Producer: Hal Roach Titles: Reed Heustis Photography: George Stevens Editor: Richard C. Currier Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall, Edgar Kennedy, Dorothy Coburn Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 28 January 1928 Length: 2 reels Production No.: S-6 Filming dates: November 3-11, 1927; retakes November 17, 1927 Rating: 5/10

Leave 'Em Laughing

Available on DVD:

Stan cannot sleep on account of his toothache. Ollie, who is now awake too, decides to help out by going into the bathroom to fetch a hot water bottle; treads on a tack (twice) and bangs his head on the cupboard door. It's a hell of a way to wake up in the middle of the night! Ollie returns to the bed and hands the water bottle to Stan so that he can to rest the side of his aching face on it. The inevitable happens as the cap pops out and the water from the bottle begins to leak into the bed. Stan sits by the window and hooks the chord from the shutter around his tooth in an attempt to have it yank the tooth from his mouth. It fails. After Ollie gets out of bed in an attempt to forcibly remove Stan's tooth, leading him around the room like a dog on a leash he ties one end of the blind chord onto the doorknob, with Stan's mouth attached to the other end, then slams the door shut. Another fail! All the disturbance arouses the angry landlord (CHARLIE HALL) who pays them a visit. Kicks and punches are thrown by all three men as Stan and Ollie are ordered to leave first thing in the morning. When the Boys do finally get back into their bed, it collapses. Stan and Ollie are at the dentists waiting to be called when they overhear two patients discussing how one of the dentists broke the jaw of another patient recently. A gurney is walked into the operating room by two assistants, and back out again with an unconscious patient all under the nose of nervous Stan. Shortly after this a patient is chased out of the surgery room by the dentist before Stan is told he is next.

Ollie carries Stan into the next room and places him in the dentist's chair but Stan resists. After being given the gas & air Stan tries to make his getaway. Ollie asks the dentist to leave the room so that Ollie can give Stan some encouragement. Ollie then sits in the chair and explains how easy it is and to relax. In comes the real dentist (OTTO FRIES) who assumes Ollie is the patient and goes to work on him. Moments later Ollie is missing one tooth whilst Stan looks on. When Ollie sees what has taken place he throws Stan into the chair and tries to adminster the sleeping gas but doesn't realise that it is actually laughing gas they have inhaled. They leave the building to go to their car but are consumed with laughter throughout. With Ollie at the wheel they drive their car out into the road (after a bit of dodgems with two parked cars that have sandwiched them in) and immediately get into a crash with another motorist. Ollie then drives out into the middle of the road and gets halted by traffic cop EDGAR KENNEDY. Still laughing, Stan and Ollie mock the officer before reversing into another vehicle (driven by JACK HILL). This sequence of events is repeated until the cop regains order and waves the Boys through to drive off but they are too consumed with laughter to adhere to the instructions. After forcibly escorting Stan and Ollie back to their car when they get out, the cop then loses his trousers after his belt comes lose and another traffic jam ensues. Eventually Cop Kennedy takes control of the situation and gets into their vehicle and drives it away, and into a sink hole as all three of them go under.

Favourite bit Stan's casual punch to Charlie Hall's chin followed by Charlie's acceptance and him walking off and saluting his attacker.

Trivia • Copyrighted January 9, 1928. • Released as part of the All Stars series. • A print of the film exists on "The Lost Films Of Laurel And Hardy: Volume 5" where several of the scenes are tinted. • A poster-sized still from this film hangs in the apartment of Chandler and Joey in the TV sitcom, "Friends". • This was Edgar Kennedy's first appearance for Hal Roach. It was also Al Hallett's last appearance for Hal Roach. • According to the opening intertitle card, the film begins at three o' clock in the morning. • Ollie is wearing white shorts underneath his nightgown. • There is a plaque on the wall near the bed which reads, "Keep Smiling". • When Ollie goes into the bathroom he treads on a tack (with his left foot). You must wonder how a tack found its way into a bathroom in the first place? • After Ollie treads on the tack, he removes it from his foot and then throws it straight back onto the floor. That's just asking for trouble, isn't it? • There are some clever uses of tinting during the film. For instance, when the film begins it is dark and there is a blue filter on the screen, but when Ollie turns on the light, the colour changes to being a yellow tinting. When he turns the light off again, the screen returns to blue. • There is a fly on Ollie's pillow after he turns off the light and realises the bed is getting wet. • After the second attempt to remove Stan's tooth using the door as leverage, Stan picks up the doorknob, still attached to the chord. It looks like a conker on a string. • Landlord Charlie Hall has every right to reprimand his tenants for making a lot of noise in the middle of the night (we know it is the middle of the night because the story begins at 3 a.m.) However, just because he is the landlord, does not give him the right to enter the boys' room without knocking first. For the disturbance caused, Charlie over-reacts by telling them to leave in the morning, when a stern warning would have been sufficient. Stan's reaction (kicking Charlie when his back is turned) is totally unacceptable, cowardly and in the eyes of the law - assault. This would have been sufficient cause to evict them. • Stan punches Charlie Hall on the chin, knocking him out on his feet. Stan later punches Ollie in the same way and it has no affect. • There is a strange transitional shot during the film when Stan and Ollie are lying on the floor laughing at the dentist's before the shot cuts to them leaving the building. Not a typical edit. • The building Stan and Ollie leave to go to their car is the Harry H. Culver and Company building. A plaque is on the wall outside. • When first meeting Edgar Kennedy in the middle of the stopped traffic in the street, the two cars on the right have licence plates of 1-254-577 and 1-254-578. Later on, after Kennedy starts driving the car, they stop in the middle of the street and a car with a licence plate 1-254-578 is on the right again. Funny how the same car happened to be in the street and in the same spot minutes after driving off originally. • The final scene of the film was shot on the backlot. It was the only time we see it during the film. My opinion • What begins with a simple gag, somehow manages to stretch into a twenty-minute comedy that just about manages to keep the interest of the viewer. Again, it's one of those films that looked like a lot of fun to make but fails to deliver on screen, especially the final five minutes. A couple of decent scenes but in general it's a standard comedy.

	Stan Laurel Stan
	Oliver Hardy Ollie
	Charlie Hall Landlord
	Edgar Kennedy Policeman
	Dorothy Coburn Dental desk clerk
	Al Hallet Dental patient
	Edgar Dearing Dental patient
	Sam Lufkin Dental patient
	Tiny Sandford Dental patient
	Otto Fries Burly dentist
	Jack Lloyd Dentist
	Viola Richard Dental nurse
	Bob Minford First auto victim
	Jack Hill Angry motorist
	UNIDENTIFIED Orderly #1
	UNIDENTIFIED Orderly #2

DVD CREDITS #1 (click image to enlarge)	DVD CREDITS #2 (click image to enlarge)	INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

POSTER (click any image to enlarge)

LOBBY CARD (click any image to enlarge)

STILLS (click any image to enlarge)

GLASS SLIDE (click any image to enlarge)

SHOT ON THE BACK LOT (click any image to enlarge)

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

INTERIOR SHOTS (click any image to enlarge)

SHOOTING SCRIPT (click any image to enlarge)

MISCELLANEOUS (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Laurel And Hardy - The Magic Behind The Movies by Randy Skretvedt (book) http://leinwand-lyrik.de/LHP/Presse_Fotos.html Richard Finegan (4 stills) Jorge Finkielman (special thanks) Gene Sorkin (observations in trivia section) John Benson (additional material) This page was last updated on: 29 August 2024