Laurel-And-Hardy-Online (or the cornier alternate title An Online Mess You've Gotten Me Into!) was first created in December 2000 as a loving tribute to two comedians that had delighted me throughout my childhood. When the site reached its first ten year anniversary I decided to overhaul it, givng it a fresh new look, completely new reviews, and a more studied take on their films. My new plan was to review their films in entirely chronological order - something I'd never done before - and see the progression of their craft and lives throughout them. While the release dates of the films are given in the following pages, it is the year of production that is focussed on, to build up a picture of a 'life in film'. On this note then the production dates cover not just the filming, but the entire conception from the first script writing session to the last post-production edit. Where a film's production took place over concurrent years, the decision has been made to include its entry on the year that it was first originated. Although directors are credited for each film, the collaborative nature of the movies means that no writers have been listed, but have instead been referenced in the reviews themselves when of interest or importance. Compiling all of the information for the new site has been done by myself, but I've been grateful for the use of research books on the subject that have given dates and facts from which to base this writing, works of which are credited in an appendix at the end. As with the previous version of this site, all of the films are given a personal rating from one to five 'bowler hat stars', the idea that three is an average movie, five a classic and one a nadir of cinema. I emphasise the term 'personal rating' as some of the commonly-regarded 'classics' receive a rating lower than you may be used to seeing, while other more neglected pictures score higher. The site's reviews start with the first film of Laurel and Hardy together in 1921. However, before we get there, let's take a brief look at the lives of our two heroes leading up to that date...  Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Lancashire, June 16th, 1890. Born into a showbusiness background where his father was a music hall performer and his mother an actress, Stan soon began writing and performing in his own local stage shows. It was during his stage life that Stan was spotted by a comedy producer, Fred Karno. Karno hired Stan into his company, the principle comedian of which was Charlie Chaplin. Stan acted as understudy for Chaplin for many years, and the group went to the United States in 1910, and again in 1912. During the 1912 tour Chaplin was hired by Mack Sennett to begin his exceptionally successful film career. With Chaplin out of the company, the group floundered, even despite Stan's best efforts to do a Chaplin tribute act. With the group disbanded, Stan put together his own stage trios to perform on American stages, first with The Keystone Trio, then the Stan Jefferson Trio. While performing in Pennsylvania in 1917, Stan met an Australian performer known as Mae Charlotte Dahlberg. Their relationship led to a partnership, with the two billed as 'Stan and Mae Laurel', leading to later confusions in the press that Mae was Stan's first wife. The reality was that Mae had a husband in Australia and could not get a divorce, leading to Stan living with Mae as a 'common law wife'. It was while both were performing in Los Angeles during 1917 that they were spotted by a theatre owner, Adolph Ramish, who provided the money for Stan's first film, Nuts In May. As a result of the short, Stan was signed to a year's contract with Universal, where he made a series of films as the character 'Hickory Hiram' with Mae as his partner. Stan's career in films to this point was only semi-successful, with him returning to the stage in between contracts. Over the next few years Stan would work for the producers Joe Rock, Larry Semon and Hal Roach, before returning to Rock's company for further shorts. Rock was never keen on Mae's involvement in the films, describing her to author John McCabe as a 'stone around Stan's neck for years.' He insisted that Mae stay away from filming in order to allow Stan to shine, and, when Stan and Mae's volatile relationship deteriorated further, Rock arranged for Mae to be cleared for re-entry to Australia. During this productive period Stan was contracted to appear in another short for a producer known as 'Broncho' Billy Anderson. That film was The Lucky Dog.  Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia, 18th January 1892. Hardy's father, Oliver Hardy Sr., had been both the son-in-the-law of a rich plantation owner and a well-respected local politician. However, after being voted out of office and losing his first wife, Hardy Sr. travelled to nearby Madison to take over the ownership of a hotel. Hardy's mother, a widow known as Emily Norvell Tant, was the source of Oliver's real name and married Hardy Sr. in 1890. Hardy Sr. had three children - Hardy's half-siblings - from his first marriage, while Emily brought four step-siblings into the mix. It was while running the hotel in November 1892, less than a year after Hardy's birth, that Hardy Sr. died of what was believed to be a heart attack. Having five children to raise Emily took over the running of the hotel before eventually taking her offspring and hotel business to Milledgeville, which is where Hardy grew up. Records from the south are scarce and so much of Hardy's background is shrouded in gaps and doubts - a story that he ran away from home with a minstrel group aged just eight years old is possibly apocryphal. What is known is that in 1910 Milledgeville saw the opening of 'The Electric Theater', the town's first cinema, where Hardy became the projectionist. Seeing those early primitive films gave Hardy the inspiration to try and break into the industry himself. In November 1913 at age 21 Hardy was married to Madelyn Saloshin, a woman some six or seven years his senior. Though records relating to Madelyn, even to her exact age, are scant, what is known is that exactly eight years later the two were divorced, and a week later Hardy had remarried, this time to the actress Myrtle Reeves. However, it was while still married to Madelyn in 1914 that Hardy first appeared before the cameras in a movie known as Outwitting Dad. Hardy made a successful career in the industry, making over sixty films in 1916 alone, and never stopped working. It was after several years in the industry that he chanced upon a meeting with a certain Stan Laurel...
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