Laurel & Hardy DVD – Oliver Hardy , Stan Laurel

Collection of shorts starring the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. The films are: ‘March of the Wooden Soldiers’ (1934), ‘Utopia’ (1951), ‘Flying Deuces’ (1939), ‘Hustling for Health’ (1919), ‘One Too Many’ (1916) and ‘The Lucky Dog’ (1921).

Laurel & Hardy 4 DVD set includes: March of the Wooden Soldiers The films story takes place in Toyland which is inhabited by Mother Goose and other well known fairy tale characters. Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee (played by Laurel and Hardy) live in a shoe which is owned by the villainous Silas Barnaby who is looking to marry Bo Peep. Our heroes try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on the shoe and to keep Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stannie Dum instead of Bo Peep. Enraged, Barnaby unleashes the bogeymen from their caverns to destroy Toyland. Stan and Ollie run and hide in the toy shop where they discover a box of darts to battle the Bogeymen. They empty the darts into a cannon but decide instead to unleash the toy soldiers on their enemy. Utopia Heading for a newly inherited island, the boys are shipwrecked and marooned on an atoll which has just emerged from the sea. Along with their cook, a stowaway and a girl who is fleeing her fianc̩, they set up their own government on the atoll. All goes well until the singer s fiancee arrives to reveal that the new island is rich with uranium deposits. People from all over the world flock to the island, but soon the situation turns chaotic when a revolt seeks to overthrow and execute the island s original inhabitants. Before the execution, however, another storm strikes and submerges the island. Laurel and Hardy are rescued and finally arrive at the island Laurel inherited, only to have their land and supplies impounded for failure to pay back taxes! Flying Deuces Stan and Ollie are holidaying in Paris. Ollie intends to remain in France to marry Georgette (Jean Parker), the innkeeper s daughter, but is heartbroken when he finds that she s fallen in love with and has married dashing Foreign Legion officer Francois (Reginald Gardiner). Ollie decides instead to jump into the Seine, along with Stan, but they are talked out of it by Fran̤ois who suggests they join the Legion. When they try to leave after Ollie has recovered from being jilted they are charged with desertion and sentenced to a firing squad. They manage to escape in a stolen airplane but crash after a wild ride. Only Stan survives Рbut an earlier musing on reincarnation produces a bizarre postscript. Hustling for Health Our down at heel hero Stan is befriended by a stranger at a train depot and brought back to the family home where his wife is having a suffragette meeting. None too pleased they cause mayhem dragging the neighbours into the argument as Stan throws rubbish into their award winning garden. Stan falls foul of them again when he steals their food to give to his new friends and is finally left outside in the yard mooning over the neighbours daughter in a downpour. One Too Many This zippy and fun short from 1916 Рthe time when Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle were the big names in comedy Рfeatures the young Oliver Hardy as a ne er-do-well who has to quickly impress his wealthy uncle by producing a wife and baby for his visit. Of course this does not go smoothly and soon there are rather more wives and babies than he can cope with; plus the mandatory chases and misunderstandings that are the hallmark of early movie slapstick. The Lucky Dog The Lucky Dog is the first film to include both Laurel & Hardy although they play independently of each other and not as the famous duo they would later become. Stan plays the hapless hero, who after being thrown out onto the street for not paying his rent, is befriended by a stray dog. Oliver plays a crook who tries to rob him and his new paramour.