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Once upon a time, when filmography was only available in black and white and the only tools available to the viewer were crystal-clear eyes and functional eardrums (the funny glasses were, alas, still unknown), the cinemas around the world showed short films intent on telling the misadventures of two rather bizarre personalities.
The first, a thin, pale little man, an "impure" version of the "English Man", was known to the public for his childlike naivety, the cause of too much trouble. The other, a massive and bulky figure, tried, with laughable results, to wisely interpret a serious, inflexible, rational man, yet he himself became the promoter of even more catastrophic misfortunes than his worthy partner.
The couple in question is called (or rather, was called) Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, for the less anglophone known as Stanlio & Ollio, of an incontrovertible brilliance.
They produced a comedy so exquisite that it became THE quintessential comedy of the Thirties, alongside esteemed colleagues like Keaton and Chaplin. And, eighty years after the golden era that marked their career, a veil of melancholy and nostalgia often falls, especially when comparing that cinematically raw humor, devoid of tricks and gadgets, simple, straightforward, yet brilliant, with today's humor, sometimes vulgar and trivial, and perhaps too politically aligned, often devoid of spontaneity and impartiality.
Through the "mediocrity" and "triviality" incarnated in the characters of Stanlio & Ollio, Hal Roach, "father" of the famous duo, exaggerated the frustrations and ambitions, often unheard and thwarted, of the average American, of the budding bourgeois trying to make his way in the complex economic-social reality of the United States, impacting not only the chaotic/cosmopolitan/massified environment of the metropolises and the Big Apple but also the rural life, the immense fields of the Mid-West. Laurel & Hardy then made efforts to humorously and tragically-comically express the drama, desperation, and sufferings following the Great Depression, mockingly dismantling that so-vaunted "American Way Of Life", deemed, until 1929, indestructible. A fusion of realism and comedy becoming satire at its finest.
I confess that the comic duo was one of my favorites, and even today, watching their work, general hilarity is inevitable. Difficult, therefore, to choose the "best" from the vast Laurel-Hardy catalogue. "The Music Box" is perhaps the cinematic emblem of these cheerful "bunglers". Winner of the 1932 Oscar for Best Short Film, it represents the pinnacle of comedy made by Stan & Ollie, specifically summarizing in less than half an hour the great comedic technique of the two actors, the same that provides the most entertaining and amusing gags and sketches.
In a nutshell, summarizing the well-constructed plot, the short film narrates the disasters carried out by the duo, in this case as clumsy and inexperienced movers/porters, forced to face a long stairway with a piano on their backs, a birthday gift from Mrs. von Schwarzenhoffen to her husband Theodore (Billy Gilbert), a respected and aristocratic professor. The funny mishaps mostly concern the main characters' inability to impeccably perform their task: not only do they allow the precious musical instrument to slip masterfully down the stairs, but they also manage to sow chaos and destruction in much of the villa where delivery was planned. The piano, finally, suffers near-demolition at the end of the episode, carried out by Prof. Schwarzenhoffen, accidentally arriving home in the middle of the mess, angered by the awkward presence of the funny laborers who had severely annoyed him during the first, strenuous, ascent of the stairs.
The work in question, an undisputed masterpiece of comedy, succeeds in expressing, in a rather limited timeframe, the best of the best of humor. The success of the short film resides in its simplicity and immediacy, offering the audience nothing more than simple "mockery" of the human activity, serious and rigid by definition. The gags are spontaneous and sincere, nothing is meticulously planned at the table, there are no tricks, technical effects, gadgets meant to "fatten" the context: it is the immense skill of the characters, their spontaneous professionalism, that makes the short one of the most esteemed works in humorous cinematography.
A small "critique" of that perfect and unwavering American bourgeois-aristocracy can be seen: by pillorying it, Laurel & Hardy exalt the simple man, without moral and material embellishments, who earns his bread with the sweat of his brow, values his work and ethical precepts, and bravely faces any barrier life places before him.
The Music Box proves to be a real gem of the 1930s American cinematography; for those interested, I also strongly recommend the following titles from the Laurel/Hardy catalogue: Pardon Us; Brats; Scram!; The Midnight Patrol; The Fixer Uppers; Beau Hunks.
On the magnificent Tube, the short film I reviewed is available in its entirety, although in three parts.
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