The Oliver Hardy Collection

With its Slapstick Symposium series, Kino has done more to promote the legacy of silent movie comedy than any other distributor in the world. For fans of Laurel & Hardy, the eight-film compilation The Oliver Hardy Collection will prove to be a pleasant revelation, since it illustrates how “Ollie” Hardy was well-established (like Stan Laurel) long before he was famously paired with Laurel by slapstick pioneer Hal Roach. These “two-reeler” shorts run about 25 minutes on average, and feature Hardy as a supporting player (usually as a “heavy,” befitting his larger stature) to some of the lesser-known stars of the day, such as Larry Semon, Bobby Ray, Glenn Tryon, and Clyde Cook. The origins of Hardy's bossy “slow-burn” persona can be seen in 1925's “Stick Around,” while 1927's “Crazy to Act” is significant for being Hardy's final film for slapstick producer Mack Sennett. A year earlier, Hardy had appeared in “45 Minutes from Hollywood” for Roach Studios, and it marked Stan and Ollie's first collaboration, playing (respectively) a cross-dressing thief and a clueless hotel detective. Taken as a whole, these eight films (with superb new jazzy piano scores by Eric Le Guen) prove that the mastery of Laurel and Hardy was based on the unique combination of their individual talents, honed and perfected in their journeyman efforts. In addition to revealing the often hazardous hilarity of ‘20s slapstick (for instance, 1921's “The Sawmill” takes place entirely in an actual sawmill built specifically for the film), these films provide a welcome showcase for many of the mostly-forgotten talents (particularly Semon) who were shining stars of the slapstick era. Recommended. [Note: also newly available in the Slapstick Symposium collection are: The Harold Lloyd Collection, Vol. 2 ($29.95) and The Charley Chase Collection, Vol. 2 ($24.95).] (J. Shannon)