Hal Roach Presents A Silent Film Comedy Christmas

Hello my friends and Merry Christmas. With apologies to Mack Sennett, no producer ever brought us a better selection of live action comedy films than Hal Roach. After all how can any comedy fan not love Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, Charley Chase or the much underappreciated Boyfriends films. Since Christmas is so close, I feel it is only right to celebrate with a selection of two classic comedy shorts produced by Hal Roach and centering around my favorite time of year. Both of these films comes from the silent era and in my mind are Christmas classics. 

First up is one of my favorite silent comedy films (not just shorts, but films), a classic starring Laurel and Hardy, Big Business (1929). One of the most important rules in all Laurel and Hardy-dom is the law of tit for tat. If someone does something bad to you, you must do something worse to them. This film takes that idea to extremes by doing what Laurel and Hardy films do best. This is to start with a simple somewhat mundane idea (like selling Christmas trees) and step by step turn it into over the top slapstick comedy. This type of comedy has never and will never be better than in this fantastic comedy.


Anyone interested in where classic films were shot should watch this video as well.

A 1926 advertisement in The Motion Picture News Magazine.


Up next comes a Christmas themed short staring Hal Roach's second most popular comedy team, Our Gang, Good Cheer (1926). Though sentimentality would later find its way into the Our Gang films, during the silent era, this was rare. However Good Cheer is an exception featuring a surprising amount of sentimentality. Of course being a Christmas film helps make this one of the more successful sentimental Our Gang shorts. This is a purely delightful film from start to finish. One exhibitor's review from The Exhibitors Herald was very positive stating "Another dandy from Our Gang." Another was not as positive calling the film "Only fair." Another exhibitor's review from the same magazine was much harsher in its criticism stating "This is what I would call a very poor comedy and from the reaction, the audience felt the same way." Still another review (not an exhibitor's this time) was extremely positive stating "A great comedy and full of the usual bright titles that make these distinctive. When you consider that this was made in September during the hottest weather Hollywood had this year, it's all the more remarkable!" 

-Michael J. Ruhland

P.S. For anyone interested I have written about another silent Christmas themed comedy short from Hal Roach Studios on this blog and you can read that by clicking here.