Run Time: 20 minutes. Studio: Hal Roach Studios. Director: Clyde Bruckman. Supervising Director: Leo McCarey. Titles: H.M. Walker. Producer: Hal Roach. Main Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harvey Clark, Dorothy Coburn, Sam Lufkin, Chester A. Bachman, Ed Brandenburg. Cinematographer: George Stevens. Editor: Richard Currier.
For Laurel and Hardy fans, Putting Pants on Phillip is a fascinating film. Though it stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and they do work as a team, it is quite different from what Laurel and Hardy would become. They play quite different characters here and they aren't even using their own names. This is especially interesting as the two had already played characters much closer to their famous screen personas in such films as Duck Soup (1927) and Do Detectives Think? (1927). In hindsight it would seem to us that after the Hal Roach Studio found those almost there, characterizations in those movies, that the filmmakers would realize that they were hitting upon something great. But often times watching the early part of their career as a team today, it seems like the filmmakers couldn't see the great characters that were right in front of them. Yet if you try to look at these films from the perceptive of when they were made it becomes clear that the filmmakers were simply trying to find the right identity for this new comedy team and were trying everything to see if it would work. Often times these early "out of character" films are dismissed by comedy fans. However Putting Pants on Phillip has more to offer a modern-day audience then simply being curio in movie history, as it is also a really funny film, that never fails to make me laugh.
Like many of the best silent comedies, the storyline is very simplistic. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Oliver Hardy) is waiting to meet his Scottish nephew Phillip (Stan Laurel). Embarrassed by his nephew's kilt and how it keeps blowing upwards, Piedmont decides he has to get Phillip a pair of pants. Yet this might not be as easy as he would think.
This is a truly wonderful silent comedy. It takes a very simple premise and gets a huge amount of great gags from it. There is a rapid succession of gags here and nearly every one of them works perfectly. What also makes the comedy so great here is that it relies heavily on variations on various reoccurring gags, such as Phillip chasing attractive women and crowds gathering around him. Each time on of these gag ideas reappears it simply gets funnier. This is because the film builds on these gags and adds something new that makes each one funnier. Towards the end of the film, each one of these reoccurring gags receives a perfect payoff. The movie also, of course, benefits greatly from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy themselves. Though their characters are not at all the Stan and Ollie characters we know and love, they play these roles perfectly, showing how good of actors these two truly were. Stan Laurel is especially wonderful in the scene in the tailor shop. With a lesser actor such a scene might have come off as distasteful, but with Stan playing the character, it is downright hilarious. While Oliver Hardy's character is not quite as eccentric as Stan's, he does a wonderful job reacting to all that is going on around him. Often times his reactions are just as funny as any of the gags themselves.
I am certainly not alone in my love for this film. Producer Hal Roach considered this one of his favorite movies he produced along with the Harold Lloyd feature, Grandma's Boy (1922) and the Cary Grant slapstick comedy, Topper (1937).
The director of this film was Clyde Bruckman. Clyde Bruckman is a man who deserves to be acknowledged as a great when it comes to movie comedy. He in fact co-directed one of the most beloved feature length silent comedies, Buster Keaton's The General (1925). As well as this he also was a writer on many of Buster's great silent feature films including Our Hospitality (1923), Sherlock Jr. (1924), The Navigator (1924), Seven Chances (1925) and The Cameraman (1928). Besides just Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, Bruckman also worked with many other comedy greats. He directed W.C. Fields in the short film, The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933) and the feature film, Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935). He directed the Harold Lloyd talkie feature, Movie Crazy (1932) and co-directed the Harold Lloyd talkie features Welcome Danger (1929) and Feet First (1930). He wrote many episodes of the 2nd season of Abbott and Costello's TV Show. If you are a Three Stooges fan who pays attention to credits you already know Clyde Bruckman's name for writing many of the classic Three Stooges shorts both during the Curly and Shemp eras. Unfortunately Bruckman would have a tragic end. Like many comedy writers Bruckman would often borrow from his previous work. This included comedy bits and sequences from the Harold Lloyd films he worked on. Harold Lloyd would sue over the uses of this material in his work for The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello and some B movies he worked on at Universal. Because of this he would be dropped from these studios as they did not want another lawsuit. Afterwards no one wished to hire Bruckman because of this. Quickly this great talent became broke and slid into alcoholism. In 1955 he borrowed a pistol from his friend Buster Keaton, saying he was going to do some hunting. Instead he used the pistol to commit suicide in the restroom of a restraunt in Santa Monica California. The newspaper, Ocala Star-Banner stated, "The body of Clyde Bruckman, 60, was found yesterday. Police said he left them a type written note asking them to deliver his body to the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. or a medical school for experimental purposes and stating that 'I have no money to pay for a funeral.' It also asked that his wife Gladys who lives here be notified."
Sam Lufkin, who plays the ship's doctor, has appeared in many films with Laurel and Hardy most famously as the cop in the duo's most famous short film, The Music Box (1932). He appeared in 39 films with the duo both shorts and features. His first film with the duo was Sugar Daddies (1927) and the last was Saps at Sea (1940). As well as working with Laurel and Hardy, he also appeared in 16 Three Stooges shorts and 11 Our Gang shorts. An attractive woman, who Stan chases in this film was played by Dorothy Corburn. She appeared in 12 films with Laurel and Hardy all of them either in 1927 or 1928. After her films with Laurel and Hardy, she would also be a stand in for Ginger Rogers and work as a stunt double on various westerns.
This film was a pretty expensive picture for a comedy short, largely because of the location shooting and the sheer amount of extras involved.
Motion Picture News, 1928
The following is a review from Movie Age Magazine. "Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy supply the humor in this two reeler. Both gags and situations are dependable for laugh producing. The story concerns a young Scotsman who comes to America to visit his uncle. The Scot wears kilties through the streets of the American city which causes a great deal of excitement. The uncle can't keep him in check. Whenever the Scot gets lost, the uncle looks for a crowd and knows his nephew is in the center of it. A great deal of the comedy concerns the effort to put pants on the young fellow."
The following is a review from The Film Daily, "A simple, but nonetheless effective idea, furnishes the comedy idea, which feature Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and which Leo McCarey directed. A young Scotsman, clad in kilts, arrives from the heatherland and his laughable appearance attracts crowd after crowd, causing much embarrassment to his unappreciative relative. Beautiful women are this strangers' weakness and this makes matters worse - and highly funny. Much of this film, which is generously loaded with laughs, shows the relative trying to put a pair of civilized pants on the Scotsman."
The following is a review from The Motion Picture News. "This picture is much better than its title would indicate. Working greatly to the advantage of the film, and to the enjoyment of those who like laughs in their comedies, are Stan Laurel, a capital comedian, and Oliver Hardy, who knows many of the most effective tricks of screen fun making. Clyde Bruckman directed the piece. If he built up the story as well, he deserves credit for inventing some sure-fire gags. Along with that, he - if responsible he is - must take some criticism for playing too strongly on the incident of measuring Phillip for a pair of pants in the tailor shop. This is topped off with a bit of acting by Laurel which must be rated as excellent work from the acting standpoint. But it is comedy that seems just a bit too sophisticated for the average two reeler. The acting is an immensely clever burlesque, in a restrained fashion, of those scenes done by the ingenues who make their mistakes in the interests of screen and stage and story book plot. Phillip's flair for attracting crowds, because of the kilties and his admiration for the ladies, is the best bet of gags devised for this film. The story is about a Scot who comes to visit with his uncle in America. The uncle has his hands full trying to be inconspicuous in a town where men in kilts are a superlative novelty. The uncle can always locate Phillip by looking for a crowd - for he is certain to be the center of it, trying the explain to a cop just why he persists in some particularly comely young ladies. It is a diverting picture despite a rough spot here and there on its rather slick surface."
Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World, 1928
If you are interested in seeing where this film was shot the following video does much better than I ever could.
And for anyone who is interested this film can be seen on YouTube below.
Resources Used
Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies by Randy Skredvedt
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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