Review of Big Business (1929) by Sherry L — 09 May 2012

Widely regarded as the very best of of Laurel & Hardy's silent shorts.

James ("Finn) Finlayson, who usually occurs in their movies plays a key part as a very bothered potential buyer.

In this short, Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy play two door-to-door salesmen, selling christmas trees.

After several setbacks, they get the door slammed in their faces by an unusually grouchy man (played by James Finlayson). and they feel like there has been a terrible injustice committed (after all, they just wanted to know if he were interested in buying a christmas tree!). So, Mr. Hardy (who is a man of great proud) refuses to leave the door steps unless the man apologizes. And by this time, you can guess how keen the grouchy man is to apologize to these annoying sellers! This whole matter developed into a tit for tat-case. Mr. Laurel accidentally ruins Mr. Finlayson's doorbell, which makes Mr. Finalyson to go loose on their car. The humor in this is how Laurel &Hardy dutifully and patiently watch while Mr. Finlayson ruins their most precious possession (their car), just waiting for "their turn", and vice versa. And Laurel & Hardy finds the most creative ways to ruin his home (smashing china like baseball pitching, and finally rolling out his piano on the grass and begin anatomizing it!) while the other guy is wrestling with their christmas trees on the ground.

The whole situation ends very typically with a grumpy police man, visiting the place and wonders how it all started, which they all with animated gestures try to explain.

If you ask me, I'd say that this movie is very typical "Ollie and Stan", even though I might like the sound shorts even more. The vengeful approach, this "tit for tat", how they unintentionally annoy people around them, and the whole matter can only be solves by a grouchy cop, you can find this in several others of their shorts. I don't think this is less brilliant than anything that Charlie Chaplin did during the same time (the late 1920s). But then again, I'm a Laurel and Hardy fan-girl ;).

I don't know whether it's true or not, but rumors say that the film crew accidentally took the wrong house and props for this movie. So some poor bastard come home finding his whole house in ruins, not having a clue what's happened.