This evening, Turner Classic Movies is running four silent Laurel and Hardy shorts. They start at 9 PM on my satellite dish but check your listings for the proper time where you are. They are, in order, Do Detectives Think?, Putting Pants on Philip, You're Darn Tootin' and Two Tars.
Do Detectives Think? was the eighth Hal Roach comedy in which both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared. It was not billed as a Laurel and Hardy film back in 1927. There were no such films at the time. It was just another episode of a series called "Hal Roach's Comedy All-Stars" which basically consisted of short comedies starring some selection of comedians who were then under contract to the Roach studio. In some of these, Stan and Ollie were not really a team. In fact, in some of them, they didn't even have any scenes together.
The second Roach film in which they both appeared, Duck Soup, almost looks like a Laurel and Hardy comedy. Do Detectives Think? truly does. They're a team and they're even wearing derbies. They aren't quite the guys we know and love — both a little too aggressive — and Jimmy Finlayson (who would later support them so well in bonafide L&H films) has about as much screen time as they do. Oh, yeah — and they're also called Ferdinand Finkleberry and Sherlock Pinkham instead of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy. But this was reportedly the film which first got folks on the lot thinking these guys should be a team.
Putting Pants on Philip is sometimes referred to in histories as the first Laurel and Hardy film. I'm not sure why. They aren't a team, they aren't in their soon-familiar characters…and Laurel is in a kilt, playing not Hardy's friend but his silly, lust-crazed nephew. It's a funny, broad comedy about having to get Philip's (Stan's) inseam measured so he can get trousers, and Hal Roach used to cite it as one of his favorites.
You're Darn Tootin' is one of The Boys' "fight" pictures that build to a huge brawl. In this one, it's people on the street kicking each other in the shin and ripping off each others' pants. In Two Tars, it's drivers in a traffic jam all ripping off pieces of each others' cars. I like the scenes before the battles more than I like the battles but all of these films are well worth your attention. So are the others TCM is showing later in the month.