March of the Wooden Soldiers: The film s story takes place in Toyland which is inhabited by Mother Goose and other well known fairy tale characters. Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee (played by Laurel and Hardy) live in a shoe which is owned by the villainous Silas Barnaby who is looking to marry Bo Peep. Our heroes try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on the shoe and to keep Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stannie Dum instead of Bo Peep. Enraged, Barnaby unleashes the bogeymen from their caverns to destroy Toyland. Stan and Ollie run and hide in the toy shop where they discover a box of darts to battle the Bogeymen. They empty the darts into a cannon but decide instead to unleash the toy soldiers on their enemy. Utopia: Heading for a newly inherited island, the boys are shipwrecked and marooned on an atoll which has just emerged from the sea. Along with their cook, a stowaway and a girl who is fleeing her fiancé, they set up their own government on the atoll. All goes well until the singer s fiancee arrives to reveal that the new island is rich with uranium deposits. People from all over the world flock to the island, but soon the situation turns chaotic when a revolt seeks to overthrow and execute the island s original inhabitants. Before the execution, however, another storm strikes and submerges the island. Laurel and Hardy are rescued and finally arrive at the island Laurel inherited, only to have their land and supplies impounded for failure to pay back taxes! Flying Deuces: Stan and Ollie are holidaying in Paris. Ollie intends to remain in France to marry Georgette (Jean Parker), the innkeeper s daughter, but is heartbroken when he finds that she s fallen in love with and has married dashing Foreign Legion officer Francois (Reginald Gardiner). Ollie decides instead to jump into the Seine, along with Stan, but they are talked out of it by François who suggests they join the Legion. When they try to leave after Ollie has recovered from being jilted they are charged with desertion and sentenced to a firing squad. They manage to escape in a stolen airplane but crash after a wild ride. Only Stan survives - but an earlier musing on reincarnation produces a bizarre postscript. Hustling for Health: Our down at heel hero Stan is befriended by a stranger at a train depot and brought back to the family home where his wife is having a suffragette meeting. None too pleased they cause mayhem dragging the neighbours into the argument as Stan throws rubbish into their award winning garden. Stan falls foul of them again when he steals their food to give to his new friends and is finally left outside in the yard mooning over the neighbours daughter in a downpour. One Too Many: This zippy and fun short from 1916 - the time when Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle were the big names in comedy - features the young Oliver Hardy as a ne er-do-well who has to quickly impress his wealthy uncle by producing a wife and baby for his visit. Of course this does not go smoothly and soon there are rather more wives and babies than he can cope with; plus the mandatory chases and misunderstandings that are the hallmark of early movie slapstick. The Lucky Dog: The Lucky Dog is the first film to include both Laurel & Hardy although they play independently of each other and not as the famous duo they would later become. Stan plays the hapless hero, who after being thrown out onto the street for not paying his rent, is befriended by a stray dog.
The most lavish feature built around Laurel and Hardy, 1934's March of the Wooden Soldiers is also the most bizarre. Opening unpromisingly with one of several mawkish numbers derived from Victor Herbert's musical Babes in Toyland, the antics of toyshop labourers Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee are worked into a scenario midway between Lewis Carroll and The Brothers Grimm. Nursery-rhyme characters come and go in a surreal fantasy, with the evil Mr Barnaby threatening to evict Widow Peep from her shoe unless he receives her daughter Bo in marriage. The movie culminates in a full-scale invasion of Toyland by the yeti-ish Bogeymen and their defeat by the 100 six-foot wooden soldiers that Stan and Ollie have built by mistake. Henry Brandon gives a characterful performance, while 1930s child star Charlotte Henry is an appealing heroine. Directors Gus Meins and Charles R Rogers milk the slapstick to an increasingly unnerving degree. Reputedly Hardy's favourite among the double act's features, March of the Wooden Soldiers emerges now as their most audacious screen appearance. On the DVD: March of the Wooden Soldiers on disc reproduces the original black and white print in 4:3 ratio with pristine clarity; the mono soundtrack has similarly worn well. The potted biographies of Laurel and Hardy are too brief to be worthwhile, but the inclusion of the 1915 short Hustling for Health--among the earliest of Stan Laurel's film appearances--is a valuable bonus. --Richard Whitehouse
Alice In Wonderland (1933)
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid The Sundance Kid is the fastest gun in the West his sidekick Butch is a dreamer always planning that bigger better bank raid. But things are getting tougher and soon the accident-prone anti-heroes decide it's time to head south and disappear into legend... Winner of 4 Oscars including Best Screenplay for William Goldman and Best Song ('Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head') and Best Score for Burt Bacharach. The Hustler Paul Newma
Bogus Bandits Ollie and Stan play Olio and Stanlio a pair of incompetent bandits who are hired as servants to Fra Diavolo (The Devil's Brother) a real bandit played by Dennis King who in his other guise is known as the Marquis de San Marco an aristocrat who uses his position to discover the whereabouts of the treasures worn by the ladies in high society... March Of The Wooden Soldiers Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver hardy) are well-meaning but bra
Angela is the haunting story of the secret spritual lives of a ten year old girl and her six year old sister Ellie. Angela leads Ellie through various regimens of 'purification' in an attempt to rid themselves of their evil which she believes is the cause of their mothers mental illness. Their family moves home in an attempt to cope with their mother's manic depression....
Utopia:Heading for a newly inherited island, the boys are shipwrecked and marooned on an atoll which has just emerged from the sea. Along with their cook, a stowaway and a girl who is fleeing her fiance, they set up their own government on the atoll. All goes well until the singer’s fiance arrives to reveal that the new island is rich in uranium deposits. People from all over the world flock to the island, but soon the situation turns chaotic when a revolt seeks to overthrow and execute the island’s original inhabitants. Flying DeucesStan and Ollie are holidaying in Paris. Ollie intends to remain in France to marry Georgette (Jean Parker), the innkeeper’s daughter, but is heartbroken when he finds that she’s fallen in love and married dashing Foreign Legion officer Francois (Reginald Gardiner). Ollie decides instead to jump into Seine, along with Stan, but they are talked out of it by Francois who suggests they join the Legion. When they try to leave after Ollie has recovered from being jilted they are charged with desertion and sentenced to the firing squad. March Of The Wooden Soldiers:The film’s story takes place in Toyland which is inhabited by Mother Goose and other well known fairy tale characters. Stannie Dun and Ollie Dee (played by Laurel and Hardy) live in a shoe which is owned by villainous Silas Barnaby who is looking to marry Bo Peep.Our heroes try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on the shoe and keep Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stannie Dum instead of Bo Peep. Engaged, Barnaby unleashes the bogeymen from their caverns to destroy Toyland.
A selection of the comedy duo's films.... Lucky Dog (1921) Be Big (1931) March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) Flying Deuces (1939) Utopia (1950) their appearance on This Is Your Life (1952) and Laurel and Hardy at the Movies.
Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver hardy) are well-meaning but brainless toymakers in Toyland. They misinterpret an order from Santa Claus for 600 one foot high toy soldiers and come up instead with 100 6 foot high soldiers. But their toy army comes in handy when the evil Barnaby (Henry Brandon) and his furry Bogeymen invade Toyland and the boys end up as heroes when they save the Widow Peep's daughter Bo (Charlotte Henry) from his clutches. This priceless nine inch r
Laurel and Hardy star as Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee in this classic comedy musical set in the fairytale world of Toyland. When the unscrupulous Silas Barnaby threatens to evict Mother Widow Peep from her home, the boys come to her rescue... or at least they would have if they'd not been fired from the toy factory for getting Santa Claus's order wrong by making 100 six foot soldiers instead of 600 one foot soldiers! But when Barnaby and his evil Bogeymen terrorise Toyland, an army of wooden soldiers is just what the town needs to rid themselves of his wickedness once and for all.
March of the Wooden Soldiers Evil old Silas Barnaby threatens to evict Widow Peep who lives in a shoe unless she lets him marry her daughter Bo-Beep who is in love with the dashing young Tom-Tom. Silas seeks revenge by banishing Tom-Tom to Bogeyland but with the help of Stan Ollie and a mouse Tom-Tom and Bo-Peep are saved and the monsters of Bogeyland chased out of Toyland. Flying Deuces Stan and Ollie are holidaying in Paris. Ollie intends to remain in France to marry Georgette (Jean Parker) the innkeeper's daughter but she refuses his proposal. Ollie decides instead to jump into the Seine along with Stan but Fran''ois (Reginald Gardiner) a Foreign Legion officer who is actually Georgette's husband offers an alternative. Utopia The last film Laurel and Hardy made together Stan and Ollie fly to London for the reading of Stan's late uncle's will. After Stan's uncle's cash is used to pay the solicitors death duties and tax the only things left are a yacht--and a South Sea island. Hilarious hijinks ensue... Disc 4 also includes Hustling for Health One Too Many and The Lucky Dog
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