Harry Bernard

Following their initial pairing in early 1927, Laurel and Hardy ended their first year on top. Their success moving into 1928 galvanized the efforts of everyone at Hal Roach Studios (including famed director Leo McCarey), who proudly upped their game in support of the winning comedy duo. Whether wreaking accidental havoc as a two-man band, doing battle against one another as millionaire and butler, or even becoming grave robbers for a mad scientist, Laurel and Hardy prove in their second year that they have what it takes to not only win over audiences in the twilight of the silent era, but generate enough momentum to make a successful transition to “talkies” in 1929.

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Modern comedians share their thoughts about Laurel and Hardy. Also includes archival footage of contemporary comedians. Hosted by Dom DeLuise.

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Compilation of the mismatched but immortal pair's various films and shorts.

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Stan and Ollie work in a horn factory. Ollie starts having violent fits every time he hears a horn. His doctor prescribes a restful sea voyage. Mayhem ensues.

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The boys get jobs as a butler and maid-- Stan in drag-- for a dinner party. When that ends in disaster, they resort to sweeping streets and accidentally capture a bank robber. The grateful bank president sends them to Oxford, at their request, and higher-education hijinks ensue.

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The first of four films in the "Five Little Peppers" series, based on Margaret Sinclair's popular book, about a widowed mother and her five children. In this one the family inherits co-ownership in a copper mine.

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Charley buys a wreck of an automobile that's been made to appear new by a disreputable used car dealer, but he soon realizes it's literally falling apart. He stops payment, and then must dodge repossesors as well.

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Mandrake and his team attempt to prevent "The Wasp" from stealing and using a new Radium invention.

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When a confused eyewitness identifies New York City cabbie Brick Tennant as a killer, he is sentenced to death for a murder that he wasn't involved in. Though no one is willing to listen to the innocent prisoner's pleas for freedom, Brick's faithful fiancée, Mary, knows that her lover is innocent because she was with him when the crime was committed. As the scheduled execution draws ever nearer, Mary begins to investigate the murder herself.

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After being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Bureau to clean up all their cases, but without violating the constitutional rights of any suspect. Detective Jim Logan is ordered to meet the incoming new-head of the Police Department lab and internal affairs, J.G. Bliss, and takes an instant dislike to her over her attitude toward criminal's rights.

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After committing a murder, Kay assumes a new identity and boards a ship. But, Kay is unaware that Sam, a skirt chasing detective, is following her and must outwit him to escape imprisonment.

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A former college football hero and his college sweetheart get married. Marital turmoil ensues as her criminal law practice soars while he cannot get his career as an architect off the ground. They separate, and the man begins making extra money by singing in a nightclub. When he is unjustly accused of murder, it is up to his estranged wife to defend him in court.

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At an exclusive boarding school for adolescent girls, the lives of two very different students intertwine when introverted class monitor Natalie Freeman learns of the more popular Linda Simpson's secret boyfriend.

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Public Defender Gary Franklin, frustrated by being unable to save criminal Dutch Adams from a death sentence by blaming the slums environment as the cause of Dutch's crimes, enlists the aid of Dutch's sister, Marcia Adams, to get the slum dwellers at appeal for public monies to provide recreational places for the slum kids.

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Singing cowboy Randy shows up at Mrs. Blake's ranch. She is beset by bad guys, and Randy loves her daughter Janet.

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Russ Matthews, a theatrical agent who is not above pulling off a hoax or two or more to further the career of his clients (and himself), and a newspaper gossip-columnist, Carol Wilson, get involved with gangsters when one of Larry's radio-program future-predicting cons gets out of hand.

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A crooked producer makes money from Broadway flops by selling more than 100% interest to multiple parties. He only fails if it makes a profit.

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Hoppy's brother has been murdered and he is on the trail of the murderers. To get them he makes himself seem to be a wanted man.

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A detective investigates a racing scam.

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After winning a qualifying trial for a big speed-boat race in Santa Monica, California, Joe Dunn is offered a bribe, by gamblers, not to take part in the race and is so incensed that he starts a fight which lands him in jail. The girl he loves, Peggy McNeil, takes his place, but crashes into a buoy and is seriously injured---and Joe goes to desperate lengths to raise money for the services of a famous surgeon.

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Hoppy goes undercover as an outlaw (which permits him, for once, to drink and be mean to children) to track down a bunch of outlaws operating along the border. Loco, the head bad guy, deflects suspicion from himself by pretending to be a moron.

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A remake of Frank Capra's Submarine (1928), Devil's Playground is a snappy Columbia "B plus" picture starring Richard Dix and Chester Morris. Submarine officers Dorgan (Dix) and Mason (Morris) battle on land for the affections of dance-hall girl Carmen (Dolores del Rio). She marries Dorgan but makes a play for Mason when her husband is on duty. The romantic rivalry is forgotten when Dorgan must rescue Mason and his crew from a sunken sub.

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Orphaned shoeshine boy Spanky is working on a Mississippi riverboat during the Civil War. There he befriends young runaway slave Buckwheat. After wronging a vicious gambler, Spanky and Buckwheat are forced to jump ship. Finding solace at a nearby house, the two are picked by Marshall Valiant for an important mission. This inspires Spanky to organize the local kids to form a small army of their own.

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A master of disguise poses as a wax figure to rob a safe of its jewels.

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A wealthy mama's boy finds himself the victim of con artists involved in an oil stocks racket.

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Duke and Jeanie Benson, an outlaw couple hiding out under assumed names. Duke realizes that he has a winning sweepstake ticket and will win $150,000 if he can cash it in without getting apprehended.

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A sports announcer and a friend investigate after a pitcher misses a series. When they discover that gangsters are trying to find a hidden fortune, they use the radio show to foil the plan.

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The boys are a dentist and his assistant traveling to the Old West to open a new practice. Once in town, they buy a business--only to wake up the next day and see that the entire population of this bustling town had left for the California gold fields early that morning! Then, they discover an evil plot to sell out these settlers to some hostile Indians, so they spring to the rescue.

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When Patsy criticises her poetry, Thelma ups and leaves for a better standard of living.

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Roscoe the Rainmaker is invited to California (with sidekick "Billy") to relieve a terrible dry spell and to save the community from an unscrupulous businessman who stands to profit from the drought

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An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the ponies.

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Band leader Jack Conrad is impressed by prison inmate Ray Ferrera on saxophone. Conrad hires Ray to join his band and tour upon his release. Ray hooks up with Jean, a dancer in the show, and the two become a successful dance act. However, when an ex-inmate buddy of Ray's robs the tour bus, Ray is suspected of wrongdoing by Jack and the others in the group. After a gang of thugs hijacks the tour bus, Ray tries to use his street smarts to redeem his reputation.

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The Great Elmer and Company, two out-of-work magicians, help lovelorn Jerry Bronson adopt Spanky Milford, to distract him. When Bronson makes up and elopes, the pair are stuck with the little boy. But Spanky inherits a Kentucky fortune, so they head south to Banesville, where the Milfords and Wakefields are conducting a bitter feud.

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John and Mary Sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society. The newborn community suffers many hardships - drought, vicious raccoons and the long arm of the law - but ultimately pull together to reach a bread-based Utopia.

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Thelma rushes into the apartment she shares with Patsy, excited because she's fallen in love with Archie, a rich man with yachts and a British accent. Patsy isn't impressed and less so when Archie comes calling. She does her best to sink the romance, making noise while the lovers talk and offering Limburger cheese sandwiches. In desperation, Archie calls his brother Benny, who's a sailor, and asks him to keep Patsy company. After a series of mishaps, they end up at a saloon where Patsy orders everything on the menu. Who's going to have to pay?

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Betty's father has an invention that looks like a fancy camera; it emits an ultra-lavender ray that temporarily rids the ray's target of inhibitions. To test it, Betty's father zaps Charley hoping his newly-aberrant behavior will cause Betty to end her affections for the milquetoast. Dad's plan backfires: the invention works perfectly, Charley gets a backbone, and Betty loves her new forceful man. However, Charley's courage and lack of a superego get him in trouble with the law. He goes on trial for assaulting a bullying police officer. Is Charley going up the river leaving Betty high and dry?

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