Film REVIEW: Laurel & Hardy Double Bill - ★★★★★

The Boys in bowlers are back!

Join us for a glorious afternoon in the company of the world’s best-loved

comedy team.

This year’s picks are two newlyrestored rarities. First up is the world premiere of the new restoration of With Love and Hisses, with Oliver ‘Babe’ Hardy as a pompous sergeant in the Home Guard, driven to distraction by Stan’s well-meaning but infuriating private. James Finlayson joins the mayhem as Captain Bustle, exasperated by the hapless recruits in his charge. It’s an auspicious early outing for the Laurel-Hardy-Finlayson

trio, whose comedy chemistry, sparked earlier that same year, would flourish across 13 years of filmmaking together.

We finish with Slipping Wives – an early on-screen pairing in which the gormless

Stan is enlisted in a society wife’s plot to make her neglectful husband jealous,

much to the consternation of Ollie’s bullish butler. Expect farcical mishaps,

mistaken identities and pantomime tussles… plus the first instance of Laurel and Hardy in a bed together, one of their trademark scenarios, later affectionately given homage in the sketches by Morecambe and Wise.

Dir. Fred Guiol | USA | 1927 | U | b&w

English intertitles | 25m & 25m

Performing live: Günter Buchwald

(piano), Frank Bockius (percussion)

MIX UP REVIEWS:

Houston (Age 9) and Mum - ★★★★★

"Hippfest Laurel and Hardy...well, it was incredible. The live piano and percussion really set the scene in transporting you back in time.

There was a short explanation of the two films prior to the showing which explained how many films L&H did and when they hooked up with a Scotsman who starred in the film.

It was wonderful to hear the audience lol and all ages appreciating the experience.

Definitely worth it and would go again"

Have you seen it?

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