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Laurel & Hardy - Scram (bit) - ... I wanna Dance!...
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2 ноя 2023Scram! is a 1932 pre-Code Laurel and Hardy film produced by Hal Roach, directed by Ray McCarey, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Legacy:
With their comedy, Laurel & Hardy tapped into something immortal. Their legacy will no doubt live on for as long as people will want to laugh. They emerged as cinema was taking over the world and set many precedents; it may mostly have been two men in ill-fitting suits fighting over incomplete tasks, but that only serves to highlight how childish true comedy is, and how primitive the act of enjoying it.
Still today, audiences can sense that the two men were enjoying themselves immensely. Once they’d met their lifetime comedy partners, Stan & Ollie insisted on having fun up until the very end. They didn’t look down on audiences; on the contrary, they allowed audiences to look down upon them, never taking themselves more seriously than was necessary. Laurel & Hardy made fools out of themselves for others and, despite their fame and wealth, didn’t lose sight of what was most important; beneath it all, being human.
Laurel & Hardy also utilized a whole inventory of pantomimic mannerisms, devices and props which distinguished their work: the derbies, the cry, the hairstyles, the long- suffering camera looks, the eye-blink, the back-breaking pratfalls, the white magic, the tie-twiddle . . . Yet all these things are mechanical. At the heart of their appeal, underlying all their behavior, is one simple concept. Love. These films were made with love, and they reflected love. Stan and Ollie are nice people. Lovable people.
They comport themselves with dignity. Their innocence is fundamental to their appeal. We see them as overgrown children, ignorant of evil. They blithely offer goodwill in a harsh world that would instantly crush them if ever they were even noticed!
Stan Laurel disliked analyzing comedy or explaining why audiences laughed. It's like taking a watch apart, or grabbing at smoke. Oliver Hardy, however, did say, "Those two fellows we created, they were nice, very nice people. They never get anywhere because they are both so dumb, but they don't know they're dumb. One of the reasons people like us, I guess, is because they feel superior to us." This notion is echoed by the opening title card for their 1929 short subject entitled THE HOOSE-GOW: "Neither Mr. Laurel nor Mr. Hardy had any thoughts of doing wrong. As a matter of fact, they had no thoughts of any kind."
At the outset of BIG BUSINESS, also of 1929, the introductory title sets the eternally optimistic tone for all Laurel & Hardy comedies: "The story of a man who turned the other cheek - and got punched in the nose."
The pair’s fondness for each other was more than evident when seen in the things they had to say about one another.
Stan said, of Ollie:
“Hardy inspires me. He is like the character he portrays because of certain individual traits. To me, he is refreshing, so darned human! His humour lies in the funny way he thinks. I can look at him and know just what he is thinking. His moods are very funny to me, the moods of a born comedian.”
And Ollie, of Stan:
“Laurel is the most unselfish man that ever lived and the funniest man in the world, as a comedian, as a writer and as a human being. He is so distinctive that he stands absolutely alone. He doesn’t depend upon funny clothes to make him funny, he is funny in himself. And I have sense enough to stand back and let him be funny.”
This dichotomy feels believable because it’s real; much like the arguments, this heart-warming inseparability was merely a reflection of the two men’s reality. Just like their on-screen counterparts, the real Laurel & Hardy would remain best friends until the very end. Even after Hardy’s death in 1957, their legacy was so cemented for Laurel that he refused to perform again without his partner of 30 years.
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