Short Subjects: Laurel and Hardy's You're Darn Tootin' (1928)

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May 13, 2001

One of the secrets behind Laurel and Hardy's enduring success was that audiences believed in them and in their faith in each other. No other screen friends were ever as symbiotic as skinny Stan Laurel and chubby Oliver Hardy. They needed each other, and they knew it. It was not something that was usually stated outright - it was understood that Laurel and Hardy were friends at the beginning of every film, they would be friends at the end of every film, and they would return again, as friends, in the next film. So, behind the slapstick pratfalls, they exuded a warmth and humanity that few other movie stars could match.

In the silent You're Darn Tootin' (1928), Laurel and Hardy are orchestra musicians participating in a public concert. The first time the conductor points his baton toward Stan Laurel, Stan is not ready, still looking through his music for the right bar. Under pressure from the conductor, he stands up quickly and plays a short riff. A few bars later, it is Stan's turn again, but now his mouthpiece comes loose and he cannot make music with his clarinet. Oliver Hardy, ever helpful, offers a short blast on his French horn as a substitute. More intrusion and hindrance of the performance follows until, during a squabble, The Boys manage to knock down all the music stands, toppling them like dominos.

After a fade to black, The Boys are at their boarding house, ready to enjoy soup. Stan attempts to pour some salt into his, but it the shaker is clogged, so he unscrews the top of the saltshaker, pours a little into his soup, and replaces the top loosely. Ollie, who has not seen this, desires a little salt himself, and winds up pouring the entire contents of the saltshaker into his soup. Knowing instinctively that Stan must be the cause of this, he switches his soup bowl with Stan's. Stan then tries to add some pepper, but finds the same problem with the pepper shaker and employs the same solution - loosening the top. Ollie again takes the loose-capped pepper shaker and pours the entire contents into his soup. Stan then goes for the ketchup bottle, but Ollie, not trusting himself to check the ketchup bottle before he uses it, grabs it from Stan and hides it away.

Before Stan can ruin any more of Ollie's supper, the landlady throws them out for owing 14 weeks back rent. Fired from the orchestra, thrown out of their boarding house, they refuse to be defeated, and immediately begin anew as street musicians. The mini-concert begins but is interrupted by a police officer who inquires if they have a license. They don't even have a dog, answers Ollie. Move along, demands the officer.