Big Business

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12/11/2015 It's Christmas time in Southern California. There isn't a snowflake in sight, but Laurel and Hardy are going big in business as Christmas tree salesmen. James Finlayson, a character actor from many Laurel and Hardy silents is a particularly tough customer. The sight gags, pratfalls, and comic destruction keeps on building without letting up. Finlayson, the homeowner, wants the annoying salesmen off his stoop. Stan and Ollie, at first through little accidents and then through pure vengeance, are determined to show that they won't be rudely ignored. Comic genius with laughs throughout nearly the whole 20 minutes. See more 04/08/2013 Classic Laurel and Hardy - all that matters is getting one over poor James Finlayson! Love it! See more 01/12/2013 Laurel and Hardy, selling Christmas trees in sunny California, run into a man who is angered by their persistence. Their argument develops into a vicious game of retribution where each part destroys the other's propreties in the most chaotic and inventive way. An absolute gem of the slapstick comedy genre and one of the duo's most memorable comedies. This film also feels influential and like a successful trend setting standard. See more 11/14/2011 i think this is my fave from these guys really really funny See more Mike M @RT59071784 08/05/2011 Laurel and Hardy's Christmas present of 1929 remains among their very best silent shorts, and one of the great let's-trash-the-set works of all time... There follows what would ordinarily be described as an orgy of destruction - except that here, it isn't an orgy so much as a form of no-holds-barred, childish chess, establishing the comedy convention of one party making a destructive move while the other just has to stand there watching, awaiting their turn. It is the meticulousness of the destruction - destruction arrived at with the premeditated precision of grand masters - that makes "Big Business" so funny; I like to view it as an allegory for the destruction that forever follows in capitalism's wake (it ends with everybody weeping, except the laughing salesmen) - but then I'm funny like that. More important is that, for perhaps the first time, the stars look like the Laurel and Hardy that Laurel and Hardy should be. They have the hats, the wardrobe, the timing; they have the combination of roles, scenario and props that allows them to express a particular worldview; and they have the dialogue (albeit in title form) to hold the whole twenty minutes together - all we're waiting for is the arrival of sound, and the stars' final leap (or stumble) into immortality. See more 07/01/2011 Amusingly destructive Laurel & Hardy short. See more Read all reviews

Big Business

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