Series: Max Davidson Director: Clyde Bruckman Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: George Stevens Editor: Richard C. Currier Stars: Max Davidson, Oliver Hardy, Martha Sleeper Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 12 November 1927 Length: 2 reels Production No.: D-3 Filming dates: August 9-14, 1927 Rating: -/10

Love 'Em And Feed 'Em

Available on DVD:

Through a series of intertitles and screen stills, it is established that two men, 'Happy Hopey' (OLIVER HARDY) and 'Cherokee Cohen' (MAX DAVIDSON) are panning for gold in a small river when they are approached by a prospector. They sell him the mine for $10,000 before heading off to a swank hotel. As they enter Hopey crouches to observe several young ladies who are seated in a row and showing a considerable amount of leg. Hopey offers to introduce his friend into the realms of society, so Cohen then flirts with the telephone operator (VIOLA RICHARD) before inadvertently getting her fired. Feeling guilty, Hopey offers the girl money and tells her to "doll yourself all up like a zebra". Next, Cohen invites a stenographer (MARTHA SLEEPER) to sit beside him on a couch. As she takes notes his foot manages to repeatedly catch an elastic strap on the bottom of her dress which yanks it closer to him as he moves his leg. She reprimands him for this and initially the pair laugh it off as accidental. Eventually he realises the predicament and reaches down to unhook his leg from the strap, brushing his hand against her leg for which she physically removes him. Hopey enters the situation to save the day but as the young lady gets up she (apparently) falls and is promptly fired by the boss.  Cohen offers to buy her dinner as a consolation.

During the dinner-for-four (featuring both guys and the two girls who were recently fired by the hotel manager) the meals consist of artichokes and lobster. As another couple enter the restaurant Hopey invites them to join their little group despite the manager's objections over Hopey's behaviour. This offends Hopey who launches a cream puff at the manager when his back is turned. A second is thrown but misses its intended target and hits a random customer in the face, who in turn launches one back and hits Cherokee in his face. This leads to the obligatory pie fight we see all too often (although in this instance we don't actually see anything due to the absent footage). People flee the restaurant as Hopey settles the bill before being ordered to leave as well. The ending has Hopey and Cherokee getting one last act of revenge on the restaurant manager as they hit him with a pie. The presentation of the film is held together with multiple intertitle cards throughout which offers a summary of the missing scenes. There is very little left in the way of actual footage.

Favourite bit With such little footage to choose from this is quite a difficult one! I suppose I would have to say it is the very beginning of the footage which is 'live' with Hardy and Davidson entering the hotel. Ollie is looking around at the guests in the lobby (mainly the women) and offering to introduce Max Davidson's character into society. Hardy's actual screen time is extremely limited so it is all the more valuable to choose this rare scene.

Trivia • Copyrighted October 17, 1927. • A new ending was shot around September 1, 1927. • Hal Roach directed all but the last two days. • Originally made as a two-reeler, there is very little left of the film due to the deterioration of the negative. What survives is two scenes, which amounts to approximately 136 seconds of footage (without title cards). • There are some sources which wrongly list the film as being 1-reel in length. • The footage was preserved by the Library of Congress and a scan of that footage was loaned to the Munich film archive for use in the Max Davidson DVD. • When Hardy enters the hotel he observes a total of nine pairs of female legs. • Martha Sleeper uses her right hand to write with. • Unfortunately all of Viola Richard's scenes are missing due to the poor condition of the surviving film. She exists only is stills form. • Viola Richard wears the same dress in Laurel & Hardy's Do Detectives Think? See here.

	Max Davidson 'Cherokee' Cohen
	Oliver Hardy 'Happy' Hopey
	Martha Sleeper Martha, stenographer
	Viola Richard Viola, telephone operator
	Charley Rogers Hotel guest [*image is from a still]
	Bob Gray Hotel manager
	Jim Farley [?]

LOBBY CARD (click any image to enlarge)

STILLS (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Rob Stone (information) Richard Finegan, Jorge Finkielman (lobby card) Chris Seguin (help) The identification of Bob Gray is my own. This page was last updated on: 18 July 2024