The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case

Infobox Film
name = The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case


caption =
director = James Parrott
producer = Hal Roach
writer = H.M. Walker
starring = Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
music = Marvin Hatley
Nathaniel Shilkret
cinematography = Walter Lundin
George Stevens
editing = Richard C. Currier
distributor =
country = USA
released = 1930
runtime = 30:12 (3 reels)
language = English
preceded_by = "Pardon Us"
followed_by = "Another Fine Mess"
imdb_id = 0021054

"The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" is a Laurel and Hardy comedy film released in 1930. It is 28 minutes in duration and was made from three-reels. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by MGM.

Plot

Laurel and Hardy are sat at a dockside. Stan is fishing. Stan twirls the fishing line above his head and catches Oliver's derby hat in the hook. The hat falls into the water. Stan retrieves the hat, Oliver puts it back on his head and water pours from the hat all over him. Oliver sees a notice in a newspaper which says one Ebeneezer Laurel has died. Ebeneezer Laurel has left a large estate and parties interested in the estate should go to the Laurel mansion for the reading of the will. Stan can't remember if Ebeneezer is a relative or not but they decided to go to the Laurel mansion anyway. They arrive at the mansion during a thunderstorm. They discover that Ebeneezer has been murdered and that the police had placed the notice in the newspaper to draw all of the relatives together to find out who committed the murder.

Stan and Oliver are shown to a room to sleep overnight. Their bedroom is the room in which Ebeneezer was murdered and they are scared. They hear a strange noise and the door opens. Through the door and in the darkness they can see a pair of eyes. They hide under the sheets of the bed. A cat jumps on the bed scaring both of them. There is a thunderclap and a sheet falls off a painting on the wall. The painting is of a ghost and they are scared once more. They hear a scream and decide to investigate. Stan puts on Oliver's trousers by mistake and drags a lamp covered in a sheet behind him with Oliver's braces. They both think the lamp is a ghost and fall down the stairs. The other relatives staying in the house begin to disappear. The butler is calling all of the relatives to a study telling them they have a phone call. After lifting the handset of the phone a trapdoor opens into which the relatives disappear. A bat flies in through the bedroom window and into Stan and Oliver's bed. Stan and Oliver return to their bedroom and get into the bed. The bat takes off flying under the bed sheet, fluttering up and down. They panic and run downstairs, as the bat flies with the bed sheet, it looked liked a ghost, when the police found out.

All of the other relatives have now disappeared and the butler calls Stan and Oliver to take a telephone call in the study. Oliver takes the call and falls through the trapdoor. He returns up through the trapdoor a moment later. The murderer a man dressed in drag appears through a secret door with a knife. A fight ensues. Stan and Oliver wake up from a dream. They are both fighting over Stan's fishing line at the dockside. They fall into the water.

Cultural significance

This is the first film where Oliver says "Here's Another "Nice" Mess You've Gotten Me Into". The phrase is commonly misquoted as "Here's Another "Fine" Mess You've Gotten Me Into" and has passed into everyday language usage. The phrase means to blame another person for causing both people an avoidable problem.

Parodies

* The film is a parody of the silent horror film "The Cat and the Canary" (1927).
* The film is also a parody of a silent film called "The Bat" (1926).
* The film name is a play on words from the film "The Canary Murder Case" (1929), and other titles based on Philo Vance mystery novels, although the films' plots are totally different.
* "If a Body Meets a Body" (1945) with The Three Stooges has a similar plot, and also features actor Fred Kelsey.

Film production

Stan's wife Lois Laurel gave birth prematurely during filming. The baby died 9 days later.

Film similarities

The elements of the night in a sinister mansion and the dream ending were re-used in their 1934 film "Oliver the Eighth."

Cast

* Stan Laurel
* Oliver Hardy
* Fred Kelsey
* Tiny Sandford
* Dell Henderson
* Frank Austin
* Stanley Blystone

See also

*Laurel and Hardy films
*Laurel and Hardy

External links

*imdb title|id=0021054|title=The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case