Series: All Stars w/Laurel and Hardy Director: Edgar Kennedy Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: Floyd Jackman Editor: Richard C. Currier Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 21 April 1928 Length: 2 reels Production No.: S-9 Filming dates: January 17-27, 1928 Rating: 5/10

You're Darn Tootin'

Available on DVD:

A large audience has gathered to enjoy a live brass band event being held in the park. The conductor (Otto Lederer) is giving his last performance and takes the stage, signalling his musicians to be seated with the tap of his baton.  Of course, there are two members of the band who do the complete opposite - Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.  Each time they stand up, the rest of the band sit down.  The conductor puts up with this for as long as he can stand it before telling the boys off and then tripping over his podium. Things return to normal (whatever that is) and the band begins to play.  Halfway through, the cheerful conductor slowly turns to a tearful one as Stan and Ollie are seen swapping their music cards and generally causing a nuisance of themselves.  Stan is told off for not keeping up and the conductor takes his second trip to the floor after tripping on his podium again.  Soon it is time for Stan - and then Ollie's solo contributions, and they both provide them with a nervous confidence.  The chaos on stage continues as Stan first falls off his chair and then has to try and reassemble his three-piece instrument which is falling all over the place.  Stan also loses his music sheet, so pinches Ollie's when Ollie isn't looking.  Ollie tries to retrieve the paper, which has blown onto the conductor's podium but each time he tries to grab it, his hand is stamped upon by the oblivious conductor.

Ollie finally retrieves the paper by holding the conductor's leg with hand and grabbing the music sheet with the other!  He sits back down and realising he has picked up Stan's music sheet (it is for the clarinet) Ollie begins a paper-throwing fight with Stan, culminating in the destruction of all the music stands on the stage. Back at their lodgings, Stan and Ollie sit down for dinner, with their landlady serving them a stern hand-written note, informing them they are 14 weeks past due with their rent.  Stan reads it and passes it to Ollie, who tries to smile it off before emptying the entire content of the salt shaker into his soup.  Naturally, he switches his bowl with Stan's out of protest.  Ollie peels a slice of bread and mixes it in with his soup and decorates it with the entire contents of the pepper pot as well. The other tenants from the boarding house gather for their meal at the same table.  The landlady enters and asks where her son, Sturgeon has been.  He tells her he was at a band stand.  Stan and Ollie's ears immediately prick up, especially after the boy informs the landlady the band was fired! The Boys are promptly ordered to leave the house, taking their instruments with them. So, the Boys are on the street, trying to earn some money as musicians and not being very good at it.  As they stand on the corner, Ollie tries to lead but Stan's timing is out of sync.  A couple of passers-by briefly stop by.

A gentleman disposes of his cigarette into Ollie's hat, followed shortly after by a woman who treads on it after it hits the ground.  Frustrated, Ollie draws the attention of a policeman when he starts shoving Stan.  The cop asks to see their music license but Ollie protests "we have no dog".  They are told to be on their way. After losing the policeman, the Boys start off again around the corner where they meet a drunken bystander.  He offers to help them co-ordinate their music so that they play in time.  Unfortunately, they still cannot play in tune, and this is evident to their former bandleader who is conducting his second farewell performance from a second storey tenement above them on the street.  After enduring their noise for long enough, the conductor throws down a water cooler on their heads from the window.  Unfortunately, the water lands on the policeman. Stan and Ollie have moved on, walking down the middle of the street when all of a sudden Stan disappears down a manhole.  Ollie pulls him out and then falls down it himself.  As Ollie gets out of the hole, Stan then drops his clarinet down it, landing on a worker's head.  After doing a second time, the manhole worker smashes Ollie on the foot with his mallet.  Ollie tells Stan to watch his step and then proceeds to falling head-first down a different manhole!  This hole is occupied by Chet Brandenburg with a blowtorch.  No further comment is necessary here.

The Boys move on further and resume their playing to a cross-eyed pedestrian (who else but George Rowe, making his first of only two on-screen appearances with Laurel & Hardy).  He isn't impressed.  Neither is Ollie - with Stan and takes his clarinet and snaps it across his knee.  Stan retaliates by kicking Ollie's horn into the street, but before Ollie can retrieve it, a steamroller turns it from a 3D object into 2D.  And so begins the fight.... In the street all hell breaks loose: shins, stomachs, ties, hats, suits and handkerchiefs - all fall victim to random and prolonged assaults.  After a sustained kicking/punching bout between the Boys, a restaurant patron (Sam Lufkin) tries to interrupt the fight but gets a kick for his troubles.  Others get involved and quickly wish they hadn't. As things get way out of hand, Stan resorts to completely ripping off Ollie's trousers and disposing of them aggressively on the sidewalk.  The previously-seen policeman sees the commotion and walks over.  His trousers are ripped clean off as well! Stan and Ollie leave the chaos quietly sneaking away, having both lost their trousers, but have managed to steal those from a fat man, and into which they both fit asd they cross the street, tipping their hats.

Favourite bit The street fight in the final two minutes where anything goes - including  trousers... is pretty much the only entertainment in an otherwise awfully slow and painfully boring film.

Trivia • Copyrighted April 21, 1928. • Filmed in Expositon Park, Los Angeles, California. • The films is available on DVD, but in two slightly varying versions: the UK DVD by Universal has footage not seen in the American "Lost" DVD, and visa versa. • UK title: The Music Blasters. • Released as part of the All Stars series. • Stan plays the clarinet, whilst Ollie plays the French horn. • Look out for Ham Kinsey, who is standing behind Stan when they are on the stage at the beginning of the film. Charlie Hall is next to Babe Hardy and Wilson Benge is seated next to Stan Laurel. • When Stan offers to shake Ollie's hand on the stage, it appears that Ollie has the tighter grip in the handshake. Stan's hand looks quite loose. • The conductor stamps on Ollie's hand a total of four times. • The opening scenes with the band on the stage lasts approximately 6 minutes. • If you watch it in slow motion, or by freeze-frame, you can clearly see that the manhole worker smashes his mallet onto the floor - and not on Ollie's foot, as suggested. • The ABC restaurant specializes in coffee, sandwiches, steak and chops. • At the very last frame of film, look down on the brickwork of the building on the left and there is a sign which looks like it is advertising for a "Climax pill"! In reality, the sign reads "The Grand Old Chew Climax Plug". • Chet Brandenburg can be seen as a pedestrian in the final shot as Laurel and Hardy walk across the street sharing the pants. However, his part is only seen in the AMERICAN version of the film. My opinion • Not one of their better silent films.

	Stan Laurel Stan
	Oliver Hardy Ollie
	Otto Lederer Bandleader
	Wilson Benge Musician
	Charlie Hall Musician
	Ham Kinsey Musician/Street combatant
	Agnes Steele Sister McPherson, landlady
	Christian J. Frank Policeman
	Rolfe Sedan Drunk
	Chet Brandenburg Manhole worker/Street combatant/Pedestrian
	George Rowe Pedestrian
	Sam Lufkin Man in restaurant
	Dick Gilbert Street combatant
	Charles Lloyd Street combatant
	Edgar Dearing Street combatant
	Jack Adams Street combatant
	Jack O'Brien Street combatant/First manhole worker
	Monty O'Grady Sturgeon
	Lyle Tayo Passerby
	Bob Minford Street combatant/Musician
	Pete Gordon Street combatant
	Clarence Morehouse Musician/Pedestrian
	William Irving Musician
	Frank Saputo [?]
	UNIDENTIFIED Band member
	UNIDENTIFIED Band members
	UNIDENTIFIED Boarder
	UNIDENTIFIED Boarder
	UNIDENTIFIED Fat man who loses trousers
	UNIDENTIFIED Passerby with cigarette
	UNIDENTIFIED Woman passerby

UK CREDITS (click image to enlarge)	USA CREDITS (click image to enlarge)

INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

POSTERS (click any image to enlarge)

LOBBY CARDS (click any image to enlarge)

STILLS (click any image to enlarge)

ALTERNATE TITLE CARDS (click any image to enlarge)

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

Acknowledgements: Laurel And Hardy: The Magic Behind The Movies by Randy Skretvedt (book) Del Domenico (help with image enhancing) Richard Finegan (stills) Ron Yungul (colorized still - used with permission) Steve Wright (identification of Lyle Tayo) Jesse Brisson (identification of Clarence Morehouse, Bob Minford, Jack O'Brien, Edgar Dearing, Charles Lloyd, Chet Brandenburg, Jack Adams, Pete Gordon) This page was last updated on: 28 March 2024