Stubs - Big Business

Big Business (1929) Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Tiny Sandford, Lyle Tayo. Directed by James W. Horne, Leo McCarey. Screenplay by H.M. Walker (titles). Produced by Hal Roach. Run time: 19 minutes. USA Black and White. Silent. Comedy. Christmas, Short.

Laurel and Hardy’s place as one of the great comedic teams in Hollywood history is already well-established. And while The Music Box (1932) may be their best-known short, which is their best short is somewhat up for debate. One possible entry is Big Business, one of their last silent shorts before making their successful move to sound films with Unaccustomed As We Are (1929). Big Business would be the first of the duo’s films added to the National Film Registry in 1992.

Shot between December 19 and December 26, 1928, the film was made for Hal Roach and the studio was eager to get the film finished before it closed on December 29^th for the installation of sound-recording equipment.

In Big Business, Laurel and Hardy play door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen.

In this film, Laurel and Hardy play door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen in Southern California. If that sounds like a hard sell, their first customer, played by Lyle Tayo, doesn’t want to buy a tree, despite the pair trying their best to convince her otherwise.

They drive from one half of a duplex to the other.

Undeterred, the pair loads the tree back in the truck and then drives around the corner to knock on the other door of the duplex. Despite a sign telling salesmen to stay away, Oliver rings the bell. A hand with a hammer reaches out and hits him over the head. Oliver decides to get even but gets hit over the head again before giving up.

The homeowner (James Finlayson) is not interested.

The pair is more determined on their third stop. The homeowner (James Finlayson) is not interested but when he closes the door, part of the tree gets caught in the door. When they ring the bell again, they manage to get the tree free but Stan’s overcoat gets caught instead. The homeowner is not happy to be called back to the door a third time but this time Stan gets his coat free but the tree once again gets caught. A fourth time is required to get both free but this time the homeowner throws the tree off his porch.

Stan tries to make a sale for next year.

The pair picks up the tree, but Stan isn’t quite finished and goes back to see if the homeowner wants to put in an order for next year instead. Thinking the homeowner has relented, Stan has Oliver bring the tree back. But the homeowner isn’t interested in the tree and instead cuts it into pieces with clippers. He adds insult to injury when he takes the clippers to Laurel’s clothes, cutting his shirt.

The homeowner cuts the tree in half and keeps cutting.

Things escalate from here with Stan chipping off some of the finish around the door. The homeowner breaks Laurel’s watch. Laurel retaliates by pulling the doorbell out of the wall and cutting the cable. The homeowner picks up the phone to call the police, but Stan cuts the cord to the receiver and Laurel pulls the cord out of the wall.

As a final insult to the homeowner, Stan and Laurel hook up his hose so that it shoots the homeowner with water when he comes outside.

The homeowner goes after their truck as things continue to escalate.

Thinking they’re safe, Laurel and Hardy retreat to their truck and put up the windshield. But the homeowner pulls one of the headlights off the car and throws it through the windshield. At this point, there is no stopping things. Laurel and Hardy attack the house and the homeowner their truck while the neighbors gather. In addition, a policeman (Tiny Sandford) takes notice of the commotion but doesn’t intercede.

Laurel and Hardy start to dismantle the homeowner's house.

At some point, Laurel and Hardy have broken most of the windows in the house and pulled up all the trees in the yard. Laurel is throwing vases through the broken-out front window and Oliver is hitting them with the shovel as if they were baseballs.

The homeowner escalates his attack on the car, and pretty much strips it down to the bare bones chassis before blowing it up.

A policeman (Tiny Sandford) finally intercedes.

Finally, the policeman intercedes and listens to both sides, ultimately deciding, after listening to Stan’s tearful retelling of events, that the homeowner started everything. The two sides end up shaking hands and decide to let bygones be bygones. The policeman returns to his car, but Oliver gives away that the pair had been faking their sadness. He takes up chasing the two on foot as they make a run for it.

There is some dispute over the actual production of the film. Hal Roach purchased the home located at at 10281 Dunleer Drive, Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles of William H. Terhune, a film editor at the Roach lot from 1926 through 1938 so that it could be destroyed for the film. However, Roach liked to tell the story that there was a mistake made and that the cast and crew ended up destroying the house next door to that one. While Laurel said that Roach’s story was a fabrication, Roach continued to tell the story as late as his 1992 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson when Roach was 100 years old.

John McCabe, the team’s official biographer, called the device reciprocal destruction, something that had been a part of other Laurel and Hardy films, including Hats Off (where the primary objects being destroyed, or thrown, were hats), The Battle of the Century (pies), You’re Darn Tootin’ (trousers), The Finishing Touch (rocks), Two Tars (automobiles) and Should Married Men Go Home? (mud). But no film takes it as far as this one. Here, the destruction hits its zenith with a house and, especially, a car being laid to waste.

Following this film, Laurel and Hardy would move on to sound films, appearing in only one more silent film, Double Whoopee (1929), with an appearance by Jean Harlow. They would continue to make primarily short films until 1935 when they would start to make feature-length films.

James Finlayson was no stranger to Laurel and Hardy films.

James Finlayson was no stranger to Laurel and Hardy, having worked in films with each of them prior to Laurel and Hardy being teamed together. He would appear in 19 films with Stan Laurel, 5 films with Oliver Hardy, and 33 films with Laurel and Hardy. In the Laurel and Hardy films, Finlayson is most often cast as a villain or an adversary, as he is here. Finlayson also appeared in other Hal Roach films alongside the likes of Charley Chase, Glenn Tryon, Snub Pollard, and Ben Turpin. He would also appear in several Our Gang comedies that the studio produced.

Tiny Sandford was usually typecast as the comic heavy, usually playing policemen, doormen, prizefighters, or bullies. His film career is bookended by appearances in Charlie Chaplin films, from The Floorwalker (1916) to The Great Dictator (1940). In between, he would appear in The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), and Modern Times (1936). He would also appear in several Laurel and Hardy films including the aforementioned Double Whoopee, The Chimp (1932), and Our Relations (1936).

Lyle Tayo, who plays the first homeowner accosted by Laurel and Hardy, would appear in 59 films, mostly at Hal Roach, often uncredited. She appeared mostly in Our Gang shorts but did appear in Harold Lloyd’s Amongst Those Present (1921), and with Charley Chase in Crazy Like a Fox (1926). Her appearances in Laurel and Hardy films include The Battle of the Century (1927), Big Business, and One Good Turn (1931).

The real reason to see this film is Laurel and Hardy. They were the masters of slapstick humor and it is on great display here. The retaliation efforts get more and more outrageous and funnier and funnier as they do. They seem so on their game here. The film showcases their talents that would only be enhanced with the coming of sound when we could hear and not have to read their witty interactions with each other.

Before you go out and buy your tree this season, take a few minutes to watch Big Business.