Movies - Pardon Us

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	Movies - Pardon Us

Pardon Us was released on August 15, 1931 and was the first feature-length appearance of the unforgettable pairing of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It was produced at the Hal Roach Studios.

Summary

It is prohibition, and beer barons Laurel and Hardy are sent to prison for concocting their own home brew. They are put in a cell with "Tiger" Long, the roughest, toughest and meanest of all inmates. After a prison break, The Boys escape to a cotton plantation, where they hide out undetected, in blackface. They are discovered when they attempt to repair the warden's car, and are sent back to prison. They inadvertently break up a prison riot and the grateful warden issues them a pardon.

Cast

Stan Laurel . . . . . Stanley

Oliver Hardy . . . . . Oliver

Walter Long . . . . . The Tiger

June Marlowe . . . . . Warden's Daughter

Jimmy Finlayson . . . . . Schoolteacher

Wilfred Lucas . . . . . Warden

Crew

Directed by James Parrott

Photography . . . . . Jack Stevens

Edited by Richard Currier

Recording Engineer . . . . . Elmer Raguse

Diolauge . . . . . H.M. Walker

Opening title card

H.M. Walker wrote the witty title cards in the beginning of every Laurel and Hardy short until he quit in 1932. This one states, "Mr. Hardy is a man of wonderful ideas --- So is Mr. Laurel --- As long as he doesn't try to think."

The Making

After the release of MGM's mega-hit The Big House with Chester Morris and Wallace Beery, producer Hal Roach decided to feature his top comedy team in a two-reeler spoofing the current prison drama. Roach also felt that since his product was currently being released through MGM, there would be no problem borrowing the sets to The Big House from them to keep costs down. Studio head Louis B. Mayer agreed to the proposition on the proviso that Laurel and Hardy would make a film for his studio in the near future. Infuriated, Roach turned down the offer, hiring set designer Frank Durloff to build an exact replica of the prison sets used in The Big House.

The film began production as The Rap in June of 1930. To Roach's dismay, shooting went way over schedule with enough footage already in the can to make two prison pictures. As a result the producer decided to release The Rap as Laurel and Hardy's first starring feature.

Previewed in August of 1930, the film ran 70 minutes, and was subject to lukewarm reviews in which critics stated that the movie needed a bit of tightening. Stan Laurel decided to withdraw the film from general distribution and work on the picture by adding new scenes and deleting unnecessary ones. A musical score was then added, and eventually, after much trial and error, Pardon Us (its release title) was premiered on August 15, 1931, a year after its first preview.

As a comedy feature-length offering, running a little under an hour, it is not considered one of Laurel and Hardy's best. It's major flaw is that it seems like a string of short subjects thrown together to make one episodic feature. The pacing is deliberate with the Boys going through their routines leisurely, taking some time out for Oliver Hardy to sing a rendition of Lazy Moon while Stan accompanies him with an eccentric soft shoe dance.

The cast, many of whom are veterans of the silent era, proves memorable with Walter Long provided a terrific foil to the child-like antics of L&H. His portrayal of "The Tiger" is decidedly tongue in cheek, emphasizing the fact that all comic villains should never play their screen villainy totally straight. Long would be put to good use in some later L&H ventures such as Any Old Port Going Bye-Bye and The Live Ghost.

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