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This is the first comment of a series of films where I'm attempting to connect two legendary comedy teams: Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello. For this initial one-The Battle of the Century-we're at a time when Hal Roach's duo of a thin Englishman and a heavyset Georgia man were just starting their creative chemistry to an adoring public while a young and thin man (at the time) in his twenties from Patterson, New Jersey, was just attempting to break out in Hollywood any way he can which includes stunt work and occasional extra parts. It's here that Lou Costello makes an appearance in the audience of a boxing match between Stan and Noah Young with Ollie being Stan's manager. Half the time watching I was a little distracted looking for Costello but I still managed to laugh at Stan's antics in the boxing ring. I especially loved his dance at the beginning. I half wondered if Lou thought of this sequence when he did his own comic fights in later A & C vehicles. It certainly was amusing enough for the first reel which for years afterward was considered lost until 1979 when Richard Feiner managed to find it. It's the second part with the legendary pie fight that this film's reputation rests. Good thing when compilation producer Robert Youngston was looking for clips to include in his first project on classic silent comedy-The Golden Age of Comedy-he found what was a decomposing second reel and managed to preserve the last 5 or so minutes of it. Among the classic supporting actors long associated with L & H that appeared in this sequence was Charlie Hall and, in perhaps the most iconic moment at the end, Anita Garvin. The Nostalgia Archive video tape that I watched this one on actually had two versions on it. The first presented the first reel intact before going to the pie sequence. The second had the first reel again before going to a surviving script that details another sequence with Eugene Palette in which he sells Ollie an insurance on Stan. From there, Ollie then tries to get Stan to slip on a banana peel to collect the money before a cop gets mixed up in it. With the script, some stills, and then the Youngston-edited sequence, we get an as complete as possible version of this long truncated short. In summary, The Battle of the Century is well worth viewing for L & H fans as well as Lou Costello completists. Update-9/24/11: I just watched this again at an outdoor screening at the Baton Rouge Gallery with musical accompaniment by The Incense Merchants, whose contemporary stylings add to the fun immensely, but with the stills and script pages representing the missing scenes deleted. At least one female member of the audience behind me laughed as loud as I did. She must have been as much of an L & H fan as me!

Only about 50%+ remains of The Battle Of The Century, which is a huge tragedy as the footage we do have indicates this is one of the best silent shorts of the screens greatest comedy team. The opening boxing bout is extremely funny, with a sly take on the famous "long count". Cue much missing footage which gives form to the basic plot - Ollie, as Stan's manager, realises the only way to earn money from his Chumpion is to deliberately injure him and collect on the insurance! The legendary pie fight, which, on viewing, can be discerned as missing several shots at least - more likely a minute or two has gone - only makes me pine for the full version. If, oh wonderful miracle, a rediscovery occurs, you can almost certainly add three stars to the above rating.

They were great, weren't they?

In its original form, this was probably one of the best of all of the Laurel & Hardy short comedies. It's too bad that it no longer exists in complete form, but what remains is still very entertaining. It has an even better variety of gag material than usual, with excellent timing and a good supporting cast to help out. The prize fight sequence is a hilarious take-off on the controversial Dempsey-Tunney fight that at the time was still fresh in everybody's mind. The pie fight sequence is still as good as or better than the many attempts to imitate it. It combines escalating chaos with plenty of creative gags. The now-missing portions of the film seem to have tied everything else together very nicely. The Nostalgia Archive reconstruction at least gives you some idea of what it would have been like in its original form, by using the continuity scripts. And even in the fragmented form that remains, it's very funny.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

'The Battle of the Century' is nowhere near classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better. At this point, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in most of the previous outings had too little to do. 'The Battle of the Century' is still worth watching and is an improvement on some of their previous short films, to me it's easily one of their best at this point of their careers and one of the first to feel like a Laurel and Hardy short rather than a short featuring them.

Personally would have liked more sly wit that made their later entries better, though the slapstick does entertain and is timed well if a bit too far on the simplicity.

The story is a bit busy at times and both slight and sadly incomplete-feeling and fragmented.

Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious. Hardy is at least not wasted, and he does give one of his funniest and most interesting appearances of his pairings with Laurel up to this point and has much more to do in comparison to their previous outings. The chemistry is certainly much more here than in previous outings of theirs, namely because there's more of them together, if still evolving. Support is nice. 'The Battle of the Century' is well worth seeing for the funniest and one of the best pie fight scenes ever.

A good deal of the humour is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny, with everything going at a lively pace, and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going, as well as a surprising bizarre one that doesn't feel too much. 'The Battle of the Century' looks quite good still.

To conclude, decent with a great scene. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I first wrote a review for this Laurel & Hardy film over a decade ago...back when only a truncated version of the short was known to exist. Because it was missing so much (other than the famous pie fight), I said it was really impossible to adequately review and score "The Battle of the Century". However, since then something wonderful has happened which has fortunately happened with many other silents....nearly all the rest of the movie was found! I think much of this is because with social media and the internet, many old films in pieces are being reassembled and discovered. A great example are the Vitaphone shorts. Until recently, most were missing their sound/musical tracks but an internet group has managed to reunite the sound tracks with many of the films. Now I am not saying that this Laurel & Hardy short is 100% complete like these other shorts....but much more of it exists now than a decade or so ago.

The film begins with Stanley boxing a guy who might just kill him. After losing the fight (naturally), Ollie has Stanley heavily insured--and you presume he's going to arrange some accident to happen to his 'pal'. In the meantime, a minor street altercation results in a HUGE pie fight--probably the biggest one in film history.

Overall, what's there is quite funny...and worth seeing. Will it ever be 100% complete? We might just soon see.

The two parts of the movie have absolutely nothing to do with each other but that's no complaint, since the two part each are absolutely hilarious and well constructed. The timing is perfect.

It is especially the second part of the movie, the huge pie fight, which most people will remember. Basically everyone in town gets involved in the pie fight; the mayor, a costumer at the barbershop, a sewer worker, a person at the dentist. It's silly, it makes no sense that everybody in town gets hit perfectly in the face with a pie but it works oh so hilarious! I don't know why but pie and food fights in movies are always hilarious. Just think about movies like "The Great Race" and "Blazing Saddles".

But really, the first part of the movie is also more than great, in which Stan is in a boxing match against Thunder-Clap Callahan played by Noah Young. That guy is great! He is so intense and has great scary eyes. I think he would had done great in horror movies but I don't know whether or not he ever appeared in one? Don't think so, because to my knowledge he only ever worked for the Hal Roach studio's.

A must see 2 part silent comical short with Laurel & Hardy in top-form.

9/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This Laurel & Hardy silent only exists in an incomplete version which naturally makes it impossible to judge as a whole. As it exists today, it's pretty much like two separate films joined by some explanatory intertitles (featuring a still of a young and rather slim-line Eugene Palette selling the boys some insurance). The first section of the film is a boxing match between a paunchy Stan and a typically ferocious opponent. The boxing ring seemed to be a favourite location for the boys – I'm sure there's at least three movies which feature Stan involved in a hopeless mismatch in the ring. The second section of the film is the famous pie fight, but unfortunately not enough of it exists to give anything other than an incomplete impression of what the boys intended. The film's interesting as a peep through the keyhole of what remains of what has been lost (if you know what I mean) but it's not particularly satisfying in its own right.

I viewed a restored version of "The Battle of The Century", put out on video by Nostalgia Archives. Prior to this I had only seen a sequence of a few minutes from the Robert Youngson compilation, "When Comedy Was King". This is a truly funny film, for it shows Laurel and Hardy at their best. The pie in the face was kind of old hat even for 1928. But Hal Roach using Laurel and Hardy created the funniest pie fight of all time. All the different scenarios that were used to deliver the pies as well as a generous helping of laughs has an almost ballet rhythm to it. There was of course to help the madness along, both Charley Hall and Anita Garvin a couple of Hal Roach Regulars. As I said, this film was considered "lost" however the first reel was found and the film is complete except for a couple of minutes of film that are still missing from the start of the second reel. However this was compensated for by a combination of still photos that are intercut with the continuity script. I was very pleased with the film and I am sure any person interested in the silent comedy shorts would also enjoy this fine film that has been carefully reconstructed.

Unfortunately, the film is incomplete. Much of the first reel, with Stan Laurel as a prizefighter, has been lost.

What remains is one of film's most inventive pie fights. As the story goes, the writers, director and cast were discussing how to end the short when somebody suggested throwing a few pies.

Laurel jumped on this idea. "If we're going to throw pies, let's throw *lots* of pies!" So it began....

The gags are highly creative. A dentist's patient gets hit while he's helpless with his mouth open. An attractive flapper takes a pie on her vulnerable behind while climbing into a car. When she turns to protest, she gets another in the face. The traditional dowager catches a pie as she peers through her lorgnette at the melee. The final gag has stately Anita Garvin doing a pratfall onto a dropped pie. Uncertain what she's fallen into, she darts around the corner, pausing only to shake one leg along the way.

The best place to find the pie fight is on Robert Youngson's "The Golden Age of Comedy."

Though parts of the movie are missing, "Battle of the Century" contains more than enough footage to establish that Laurel and Hardy are comfortable meshing together. The Hal Roach/ H. M. Walker script opens with Laurel in the boxing ring managed by Hardy. Though Stanley has his opponent down on the ground through a lucky hit, his refusal to stay in a neutral corner during the count allowed his foe to regain consciousness and quickly turn the match around. Later on, the two find themselves in the middle of an outrageous pie fight on a city street where literally thousands of pies are hurled in people's faces.

It had been reported a record 3,000 pies were tossed in that "Battle of the Century" sequence. One commentator explained the success of the film rested on the timing of the pie throws. "The camera lingers on the faces of people before they get pied. The guy in the dentist chair, the snooty lady looking through her lorgnettes. We're laughing before they get pied, because we know what's coming to them and they don't." Also, as everyone gets covered with pie goop, all social distinctions are erased. The rich, the cops, ministers, professors, all descend to the level of Laurel and Hardy, who began the entire mess. And pies, like cotton puff balls, are harmless objects to throw and be hit with.

The new pairing of an English comic and a Southerner from Georgia went on to make over 100 films together, working consistently on the stage and in film until 1950.

Unless you find it hilarious to see pie after pie after pie after pie after pie after pie after pie thrown at various people. And then a few more pies thrown in for good measure.

Plot In a Nutshell: A failed boxer and his manager (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) get tangled up with an ornery employee of the L. A. Pie Company, resulting in a massive pie fight in the city streets.

Why I rated it a '5': As stated above, unless you count pie-flinging as hilarious comedy, it gets old pretty quick. One guy hits another guy in the face. He goes to retaliate but hits an innocent bystander instead. He or she takes umbrage with this act and chooses to retaliate in turn. And so on and so on. I will give them credit for the sheer size and scope of the now legendary pie fight (reportedly at least 3,000 pies were used and possibly more), but how many 'people throwing pies' scenes can one watch before it all just runs together?

This is not high-brow humor, and it's not even inventive, as Americans had been watching pie-in-the-face routines for years at this point. The difference was that there were so many actors involved in this particular pie fight, but so what? Much has been made about the restoration of this previously-lost film, but having now seen it, I am underwhelmed. Much ado about nothing.

5/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Not likely.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival screened a nearly complete nicely restored copy of The Battle of the Century this weekend (6/4/16). Except for the still-missing part of reel one (the scene with the boys and Eugene Palette in the park), the film is now complete. And the pie fight is all that all of us have hoped for all of these years! Admittedly the newly found material is more of the same, but the same is wonderful! The new print was accomplished by Lobster Films with help from MOMA, the Library of Congress and Blackhawk films. I can find no information about a release so let's start a ground swell for a DVD copy. Please? We're begging you!

In 1927 Hal Roach made 14 short comedies featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. In the earliest films, Laurel & Hardy weren't working as a comedy duo and were simply a part of the cast. By the end of the year, in the last two comedies, they got top billing and were on their way to becoming the Laurel & Hardy we know and love. Both had been in silent comedies for at least 10 years beforehand and both worked in support of Larry Semon, a popular comedian of the late Teens and early 1920s. A couple of those films can be found in Flicker Alley's earlier LAUREL OR HARDY release which explores the movies that they made on their own. This set, over 5 years in the making, comes as a much needed update of the old 1993 Hal Roach Studios offerings which were released on 10 DVDs in 1998 by Image Entertainment.

LAUREL & HARDY: YEAR ONE - THE NEWLY RESTORED 1927 SILENTS presents 13 of the 14 comedies along with two earlier films in which L & H also appeared. The films are presented in chronological order so that you watch them progress from supporting players to headliners. It's a fascinating journey to watch as both men had essentially developed the trademarks and characteristics that we would later associate with L & H such as Stan in crying mode or Ollie staring directly into the camera in frustration. The two earlier shorts are from 1921 (LUCKY DOG) and 1926 (45 MINUTES FROM HOLLYWOOD). Stan has the lead in the former while Ollie has a significant part in the latter. The one lost short is HATS OFF which is a dry run for their Oscar winning sound short THE MUSIC BOX (1932).

The first Hal Roach short in which they appeared was DUCK SOUP where they play vagrants who impersonate a rich homeowner and his servant. They have several scenes together and are close to the later Stan & Ollie characters (they remade it in 1930 as ANOTHER FINE MESS). However in the next 5 shorts, they play a variety of supporting characters. One of them, SLIPPING WIVES, features one time Universal top star Priscilla Dean. In another, DO DETECTIVES THINK?, they dress in their traditional costumes but have different names. In the next two, FLYING ELEPHANTS and SUGAR DADDIES, Stan gets the lion's share of screen time. Finally in THE SECOND 100 YEARS, they are a true team followed by PUTTING PANTS ON PHILLIP and THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY where they are both top billed.

These restorations were truly a labor of love as it not only involved years of researching various archives to find prints then these prints once found, they had to be reassembled. In some cases it took as many as 5 different prints to create one complete short although the average was 3. Most of the films look top notch. Some are even tinted and toned. A couple though are still in rough shape despite every effort made. This is not a criticism simply an observation as we are extremely fortunate to have them at all. It's especially nice to have CALL OF THE CUCKOO, a Max Davidson comedy where Stan & Ollie join other Hal Roach stars in cameo appearances. Davidson, who was Jewish, specialized in playing Old World Jewish characters. Although described as an Ethnic comedy, you won't find anything to offend. In fact, it's quite funny.

As is always the case with Flicker Alley, this set comes with a number of informational extras that include a 34 page booklet, commentary for every short, a documentary on the restoration, visiting filming locations as they are (or aren't) today, and piano scores by several of today's top silent film specialists. BATTLE OF THE CENTURY gets an ensemble accompaniment. This is the first of an ongoing project by Blackhawk Films and Lobster Films to restore all the Laurel & Hardy silents year by year. Historically this might be the most interesting of the batch as it follows both men from solo players to starring duo. Up next will be 1928 and finally 1929 both of which show L & H continuing to develop their on-air chemistry and creating many classic situations which they would rework in the sound era...I can't wait...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.