Big Business (1929)



Big Business is a 1929 silent Laurel and Hardy comedy short subject directed by James W. Horne and supervised by Leo McCarey from a McCarey (uncredited) and H. M. Walker script. The film, largely about tit-for-tat vandalism between Laurel and Hardy as Christmas tree salesmen and the man who rejects them, was deemed culturally significant and entered into the National Film Registry in 1992.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were known for having a devoted following that very few other comedy teams can claim to have. Both of them are impulsive, immature and unworldly, but Hardy was irritable and blustering and Laurel was sweet-natural but prone to hysteria. Here in this film in particular, they've got a couple of new techniques being featured in action.
 * 2) Leo McCarey often had Laurel and Hardy slow their routines down to a crawl, blissfully unaware of the disasters viewers knew were awaiting them. He also tends to up the ante on some of the jokes of pushing a situation to catastrophic but still logical conclusions. While it's debatable which Laurel and Hardy short was most memorable, there's no disputing that this one's a serious contender for one of their best recipes for disaster. The basic plot is that the duo tries to sell Christmas trees in sunny Los Angeles.
 * 3) Based on a very slight premise -- the aforementioned concept one trying to sell Christmas trees in a sunny area -- the film's story would progress as the destruction mounts, and the film feels like its one broken vase away from chaos. The film accomplishes its goal of poking fun at how absurd the concept this. The slapstick is staged calmly, expertly, simultaneously increasing the stakes while also keeping a rein on the characters.
 * 4) Some of the best humor comes from reaction shots, although here it's the lack of reaction that's so compelling, especially the stunned disbelief on the faces of nearly everyone in the cast at a certain point.
 * 5) Unlike so many of their other films, Stan and Ollie are triumphant as they run from the officer and are able to get the final laugh on said officer.
 * 6) Most of the film's taken up with what the biographer called a “reciprocal destruction” battle, in which each of the combatants deliberately and politely allows the other to take his turn in destroying his opponent’s property. This device had been used in Laurel and Hardy’s earlier comedies, but the device reached its apogee in this film.

The Short
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