Topic: Busy Bodies (1933) - Laurel and Hardy

[metaldams]

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http://www.laurelandhardycentral.com/busybody.html

      BUSY BODIES is simply the pure joy of watching grown men commit comic destruction.  There's very little plot in this one.  The plot is Stan and Ollie go to work, and mayhem ensues.  That's it.  There's something almost creepy about the way Ollie is talking about what a beautiful day it is with Stan on the way to work and how he loves what he does for a living.  Stan, who utters barely a word in this short (according to the liner notes in the DVD book, only 24 words), simply smiles in approval and cleverly plays a record through the hood of a car for musical enjoyment...no streaming services back then, kids.  Their attitude feels so forced, as if you know things aren't as wonderful as they say. You know the only way to resolve this is with some comic mayhem, and the boys deliver in spades.

      Men carrying wooden boards make great targets for Stan and Ollie heads....repeatedly.  Ollie getting his hands caught in that window makes for a wonderful sight gag, dig the way Ollie gets twisted around as a result.  What's also fantastic is when Ollie asks Stan to open the window, instead of opening the window Ollie is stuck in, Stan opens the window on the wall - as if fresh air is what's on Ollie's mind.

      The stuff with Charlie Hall is fantastic.  Stan and Ollie's comic relationship with him will peak in a couple of shorts a few years from now, but man, they're still good here, Hall stupidly letting his guard down with Stan and paying the price.  Ollie getting his chin caught in the brush and Stan cutting poor Ollie's tie is another highlight, but the real main event is the whole business of Ollie falling into that conveyor belt, through that duct and eventually having him and Stan crash into that house.  One of the greatest comic sight gags of all time from any comedian, it's a perfect comic avalanche that is a pure joy to watch.

      In the middle of that mess, as mentioned by one of the laurelandhardycentral.com reviewers, Stan simply lends Ollie his hat, which Ollie thanks Stan for, which would be in stark contrast to the fear The Three Stooges would have towards Moe in this situation, who would murder his fellow Stooge.  I dig both styles, there is a real life balance between anger and in dignity, and the point of good comedy is not to find it.  Going on either opposite end of that spectrum works, and The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy are both great at finding those extreme ends.

      Overall, BUSY BODIES is a masterpiece and one of the must see comedy shorts.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I've seen this too many times to have a rational opinion of it except to say I'd love to be one of the lucky few who sees this in a real cinema with a full house.  I'd bet the audience screams.

[Umbrella Sam]

One thing I find interesting about watching Laurel and Hardy’s films is seeing how the influence of their silent shorts never really went away, even as they perfected a formula that required a decent amount of dialogue. Nowhere is that more evident than in BUSY BODIES. For one thing, Stan only speaks 24 words and since the only major supporting player is Charlie Hall, who doesn’t even have that large of a role, the short plays as essentially a silent comedy that benefits from being able to hear Hardy’s voice when screaming or freaking out.

I also really like the setting. Laurel and Hardy had done some stuff with construction sites before and worked in the business in THE FINISHING TOUCH, but as far to my knowledge, this is the only short where we actually see them working at a construction site. They don’t just take gags from previous shorts involving construction, either. There definitely are gags in here that we haven’t seen previously, most notably Hardy’s problems with the window.

Yeah, I really like Charlie Hall’s performance in this too. I especially love how later in the film, even when Laurel and Hardy are nowhere near him, he still manages to have bad luck from their antics, having fallen in paint at the very end. Besides his brief appearances, though, this is entirely Laurel and Hardy’s show, and this is another great example of how they can carry a majority of a short on their own, despite its very minimal plot.

Among the highlights for me are Stan opening the wrong window, the running gag with the boards, Stan and Ollie’s car getting cut in half, Stan accidentally cutting Ollie’s tie off, Ollie getting stuck. I’d go on, but I’d basically be listing every single gag in the short. BUSY BODIES is a perfect Laurel and Hardy short. Every gag works and there are no slow points. It just continues to get better and better as it goes along, which is saying a lot considering that its standards are high from the very beginning.

10 out of 10

[metaldams]

One thing I find interesting about watching Laurel and Hardy’s films is seeing how the influence of their silent shorts never really went away, even as they perfected a formula that required a decent amount of dialogue. Nowhere is that more evident than in BUSY BODIES. For one thing, Stan only speaks 24 words and since the only major supporting player is Charlie Hall, who doesn’t even have that large of a role, the short plays as essentially a silent comedy that benefits from being able to hear Hardy’s voice when screaming or freaking out.

I also really like the setting. Laurel and Hardy had done some stuff with construction sites before and worked in the business in THE FINISHING TOUCH, but as far to my knowledge, this is the only short where we actually see them working at a construction site. They don’t just take gags from previous shorts involving construction, either. There definitely are gags in here that we haven’t seen previously, most notably Hardy’s problems with the window.

Yeah, I really like Charlie Hall’s performance in this too. I especially love how later in the film, even when Laurel and Hardy are nowhere near him, he still manages to have bad luck from their antics, having fallen in paint at the very end. Besides his brief appearances, though, this is entirely Laurel and Hardy’s show, and this is another great example of how they can carry a majority of a short on their own, despite its very minimal plot.

Among the highlights for me are Stan opening the wrong window, the running gag with the boards, Stan and Ollie’s car getting cut in half, Stan accidentally cutting Ollie’s tie off, Ollie getting stuck. I’d go on, but I’d basically be listing every single gag in the short. BUSY BODIES is a perfect Laurel and Hardy short. Every gag works and there are no slow points. It just continues to get better and better as it goes along, which is saying a lot considering that its standards are high from the very beginning.

10 out of 10

THE FINISHING TOUCH is a great short, as is any short where Laurel and Hardy do manual labor.  That is usually their best stuff.

[Umbrella Sam]

THE FINISHING TOUCH is a great short, as is any short where Laurel and Hardy do manual labor.  That is usually their best stuff.

Agreed, THE FINISHING TOUCH is one of their best silent films, as is LIBERTY which, even though they didn’t do manual labor, still involves a construction site. I wonder if this kind of idea would have been possible as a feature?

[Dr. Mabuse]

The ideal introduction to Stan and Ollie. In fact, it was the first L&H film I ever saw.  A masterpiece on the level of "Two Tars," "Big Business," "Helpmates" and "The Music Box." Two-reel perfection.

10/10

[metaldams]

The ideal introduction to Stan and Ollie. In fact, it was the first L&H film I ever saw.  A masterpiece on the level of "Two Tars," "Big Business," "Helpmates" and "The Music Box." Sheer perfection.

10/10

("Busy Bodies" was released in October 1933.)

Noted and fixed.  Thanks.  Ignore the “edit” above, I initially modified my comments into your post instead of quoted them into a separate post like I meant.

[Paul Pain]

I finally made time to watch this one, and boy was I treated to a fantastic 17 minutes.  This may be now the best L&H talkie I have gotten to see.  Sight gag after sight gag just flies, and boy was the violence high in this one!  It's Laurel and Hardy at their best: misusing tools to harm Ollie and cause large scale destruction.

It's quite apparent in this one just how much of a comic genius Stan was.  He couldn't have delivered a better performance than this. Ollie was also at top-notch, but Stan really drives this one more than usual.

Talk about a fantastic series of cruelties here though: the Charlie Hall scenes, the contortionist window extraction, flying sinks, the sawdust chute, the bandsaw, and, most of all, the shaving scene.

Shaving scenes are one of those things that make you grimace and laugh.  For example, when Shemp tests the blade by running it down his town.  Here, using the plane as a razor, with those sound effects, had me literally falling out of my chair in riotous laughter.  I can't speak highly enough of this.

10/10

[HomokHarcos]

This is great, and really a throwback to their silent comedies, most notably The Finishing Touch. It shows that you don't need dialogue to make a great talkie. Buster Keaton, knew this in fact and still thought that speech should be kept to a minimum, with the sound only replacing the intertitles. Sight gag after sight gag, like Ollie getting his hand stuck in a window. I love this style of slapstick comedy. By this point most live-action comedy didn't have this style. It's like watching an old cartoon, in fact this kind of reminds me of Goofy. If there any Three Stooges fans that aren't too familiar with Laurel and Hardy and would like to get into their work, Busy Bodies would be the perfect starting point. I wonder how they did the scene where Ollie gets his finger stuck in the window.

[NoahYoung]

I agree that this is a great short, but when you have watched it for almost 50 years (like I have), you start to get nitpicky, however small the nit may be.

First -- before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, it's in my top 10 L&H talkie shorts.
I love the denim-overall shorts -- this being one of them. What I would say to anyone just discovering L&H, without giving them specific titles, is "If they are wearing denim-overalls, watch it!"

It's funny that they still wear dress shirts and ties, and their derbies, even when wearing overalls. 

OK, here's the nit:
No plot -- they never really needed a plot -- but for crying out loud, give me an explanation of the end goal. Just what the heck are they trying to accomplish? The only time you know is when Stan tries to shave off Ollie's beard. I guess Ollie is building a window frame, and can't get it open, so he uses an oversized hammer (a mallet?) to try to loosen it up. But why are they picking on Charlie Hall? He doesn't seem to really know them, since no one addresses anyone by name. When Stan gives Charlie the cigar, the first time I saw it, as well as anyone else who I've shown it to, I expected the cigar to explode. But it doesn't. This reminds me of Keaton's THE HIGH SIGN where we expect him to slip on the banana peel but he doesn't. So he gives the audience THE HIGH SIGN. Keaton later supposedly didn't like that short because he felt he was insulting his audience by doing this.

Interesting "fact" I learned from this film: Did you know that a nail hammered into a pipe causes it to leak, but you can also fix the leak by hammering another nail into it! 

I never noticed Stan not speaking until well into the film, as well as not speaking much at all. It was only recently reading online reviews that I realized it. None of my many L&H books mentioned it, either.

[Samurai]

This has become a personal favorite. Much like 'Towed in a Hole', it's an exercise in boundless ineptitude. Between those two shorts, there is but one plot point...attempt to repair a worn out boat. 'Two men go to work' is more a plot from Seinfeld. The more I think about the parallels, the more I realize how simplicity + talent = timeless entertainment.

There is much to choose from, but my favorite bit begins when Stan planes Ollie's heiny, and brush/beard hilarity ensues. Stan leading Ollie to the vise (brush handle/chin first), then to the 'Barber chair' (by the hand...like an 8 year old) always make me loff. Between those two gems, Stan manages to cut off part of the brushbeard...along with Ollie's tie. How that simple act continues to make me loff out loud, I can't explain.

Throughout this whole ordeal, Ollie is surprisingly calm, almost sheepish. He has been down this horrific road countless times, and knows all too well, he cannot do a damn thing to help himself. Any action would only cause more self harm, so of course, that is exacfly what he does. Simply brilliant!

Finally, Stan shaving Ollie gave me some serious Stooges vibes. Odd as it seems, the one act that could/should legitimately harm Ollie, is the only one that doesn't.

[NoahYoung]

It's also one of their handful of talkies that can play well as a silent film. I say this because Blackhawk Films issued a silent version (as they did with just about all the L&H talkies) which I see listed on eBay just about every day.

One of the beautiful things about L&H is that they didn't eschew silent comedy in their talkies. I think Buster Keaton would have been more successful in talkies if he had followed L&H's lead.

[metaldams]

It's also one of their handful of talkies that can play well as a silent film. I say this because Blackhawk Films issued a silent version (as they did with just about all the L&H talkies) which I see listed on eBay just about every day.

One of the beautiful things about L&H is that they didn't eschew silent comedy in their talkies. I think Buster Keaton would have been more successful in talkies if he had followed L&H's lead.

Keaton was probably viewed as too big a star to make shorts at Roach when talkies came in, but artistically, it might have been a good fit.

[Freddie Sanborn]

Buster wasn’t too big to make two-reelers for Educational by 1934. But having more than one prodigious alcoholic under contract (we’re looking at you, Charley), Hal Roach was allergic to adding any more to his roster. He considered signing Lloyd Hamilton in the early ‘30’s, but ultimately declined for that reason.

[Samurai]

Keaton was probably viewed as too big a star to make shorts at Roach when talkies came in, but artistically, it might have been a good fit.

Well, about 40 years after 'Busy Bodies', Keaton finally did play a foil to Laurel & Hardy. Oddly, Buster looked surprisingly young...and slightly feminine. 

(you can see it for yourselves on utube...photo has info/time)

[NoahYoung]

Keaton was probably viewed as too big a star to make shorts at Roach when talkies came in, but artistically, it might have been a good fit.

Actually, I never considered Keaton going over to Roach. What I meant was not trying to change his style so much in the talkies. But we all know that that wasn't Keaton's decision -- it was the brainstorm of the geniuses at M-G-M.

As mentioned above, Keaton wasn't too big for Educational -- in 1934, however. It was not just a step, but whole floor below Roach, but this was after Keaton's career went south because of M-G-M. Keaton probably drank before the talkies, but he didn't become an out-and-out alcoholic until the talkies rolled-in, and only because of the disastrous pictures and loss of control at M-G-M. (As I write this, no less than 5 of Keaton's M-G-M talkies on VHS sit on my shelf beside me, which I haven't viewed in over 30 years since they were first released. To be honest, not all of them were THAT bad, and most had at least a few good moments, if I recall.)

From what I've read, Keaton was kind of hoodwinked and sorta/kinda betrayed by Nicholas Schenck, but as Michael Corleone would say, it wasn't personal -- it was strictly business.

I'm not sure the average movie-goer in 1929/1930 woud have know that anything had changed regarding Keaton's studio, since some of his prior pre-United Artists pictures opened with Leo the Lion. Had he gone to Roach in 1929, Leo would have also introduced his pictures.

I"m not sure that Keaton was too big for Roach in 1929 actually -- L&H were already huge when the talkies rolled in, and they stuck with Roach until 1940, with only one non-Roach picture (THE FLYING DEUCES) made during that time -- and not until 1939.

Had he gone to Roach in 1929, or 1934, he would have presumably been given the artistic freedom alloted to Laurel and Hardy. The caveat here is that I doubt Roach was ready to start producing features regularly in 1929 -- L&H started making just one a year starting in 1930 (though PARDON US wasn't released until 1931), and it wasn't until late 1935 that L&H abandoned the shorts to concentrate exclusively on features.

It is fairly well documented that Keaton was not a businessman, nor was good with money. Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin were; hence they financed their own pictures and didn't have to cow-tow to the studio heads. Despite this, Lloyd didn't fair too well in the talkies, but Chaplin had the cogliones to release CITY LIGHTS in 1931 as a silent picture.

So with Keaton at Roach, on Roach's dime, and with budgeted artistic freedom, Keaton certainly would have turned out better pictures in the early 30s, albeit shorts. He certainly couldn't have done any worse.

Most Keaton's Education shorts were pretty good (comparatively), and these seem to be closer to what he might have churned out had he gone to Roach, as opposed to what he did churn out at M-G-M. The films are betrayed by a low budget, and pedestrian camerwork and sound recording, magnified today by video transfers from what I presume to be the best survivng film elelements, which I can tell you ain't from the camera negatives!


"For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'."

John Greenleaf Whittier

[NoahYoung]

First -- before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, it's in my top 10 L&H talkie shorts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, here's the nit:
No plot -- they never really needed a plot -- but for crying out loud, give me an explanation of the end goal. Just what the heck are they trying to accomplish?

2+ years hence, I think I was a little bit too harsh with this short, even though I ranked it in the top 10. Recent viewing of this and many others have made me realize that L&H at their simplest means they are at their best. They don't need a "plot" to get laughs. This is perhaps the simplest of all their talkies, and perhaps their silents, too. Actually, it's too bad that they included the fairly elaborate, albeit brief, segment with Ollie being transported through the sawdust vents (or whatever those vents were for.) BTW, it's quite odd that the vent leads to an open hole in the building, some 20 to 30 feet above ground, where things get hurled out at high speeds! I'm surprised more people didn't suffer the fate of Tiny Sandford at the end!

One really funny bit is when Tiny Sandford picks up the diminutive Charlie Hall like he was a rag doll and carries him away to some unknown fate for simply smoking a cigar in a no-smoking zone. Apparently he let him off easy, because we again see Hall at the end of the short running away to avoid a falling L&H on their ladder.  The noise that Hall lets out as he's running away is priceless!

And at the risk of being pedantic, this short does not take place at a construction site. It is rather a sawmill or lumber yard. A contruction site is a place where a house or building or some other large structure like a bridge is being built. Since it looks like the boys are actually making pre-fabricated wood obects like a window, it could also be considered a woodworking shop. I personally think it is a lumber yard with a woodworking shop contained therein.