00:00Hal Roach's most lasting achievement may have been his pairing of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
00:06Each had been working at the studio for years, but in 1926, Roach paired them in a movie for the
00:11first time.
00:12They stayed together for another hundred films, translated into dozens of different languages.
00:18There are Laurel and Hardy clubs around the world, even today.
00:36Hey!
00:39Where are the tools in the saddlebag?
00:43You better hand them to me.
00:45Okay.
00:45Come on!
01:01Laurel and Hardy were magical, magical, because if you look at them, you see Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, you
01:09see the Flintstones, you see.
01:12They influenced a lot of people after them.
01:16Fire!
01:25Oliver Hardy was a bit actor from Georgia, a singer with, if you can believe it, a beautiful voice.
01:33But he mainly played heavies until Roach teamed him with Stan Laurel.
01:40It's my break.
01:41It's my break!
01:43It's my break.
01:44You went in the pocket there.
01:47Stan Laurel came over from England in a comedy troupe with Charlie Chaplin, but it took Hal Roach and Oliver
01:52Hardy to make him famous.
01:59I think one of the reasons that children loved Stan and Ollie is they seemed like grown-up kids.
02:08That's the best cup of tea you ever made.
02:12Shakespeare.
02:14Longfellow.
02:15Needles.
02:16Pin.
02:22Give me part of that banana.
02:24Huh?
02:25Give me part of the banana.
02:31You know what I ought to do to you?
02:33Do what?
02:33I ought to bend every bone in your head.
02:36Is that so?
02:37Yes.
02:41Uh-oh.
02:42Uh-oh.
02:43Take a look through that.
02:46No!
02:50Roach developed a unique comedy team with Laurel and Hardy.
02:53Rather than a straight man playing against a funny partner, here were two comedians, good for twice as many laughs.
03:03When I was a little kid and I watched their movies, I focused on the skinny little guy.
03:13I focused on Stan Laurel because I knew he would do something funny.
03:18And he was the underdog and my sympathies always lay with him.
03:23And he would do very clever things that I adored, like he would take his finger off, like this.
03:30Can you get a close-up?
03:41But as I grew up, I began to notice the nuances in Hardy's performance.
03:48I began to see how beguiling, how charming, and how utterly tasteful in his takes he was.
03:57I must have made a faux pas.
04:07In the Laurel and Hardy movies, Hal Roach gave us a world in which the impossible seemed matter-of-fact.
04:38Why don't you put some ice in it?
04:41Once again, Hal Roach had picked the right magicians to create his cinematic illusions.
04:50Their physical timing was extraordinary.
04:53To just miss each other, to just miss cars, to just miss flying objects,
04:58to miss doors slammed right in the face by a half an inch.
05:02It was remarkable.
05:04And I'm sure that they worked it out very carefully.
05:07Nothing was frantic.
05:09They were very calm in their comedy.
05:19For the coffee.
05:29Roach taught Laurel and Hardy how to play off each other, down to the split second.
05:33Roach and his team relied on the pair to improvise.
05:36They would change the script by as much as 50% to milk each scene for maximum comic effect.
05:59In the age of talkies, Stan and Ollie worked out a split second verbal timing as well.
06:05Hello.
06:06Hello.
06:08Hello.
06:09Hello.
06:10This is Mr. Hardy.
06:11How are you?
06:12How are you?
06:12Fine, thank you.
06:13That's good.
06:14Nice weather we're having.
06:15Oh, it's a beautiful day.
06:17Say, Mrs. Gilbert is locked out of her apartment, and will you please send up a key?
06:21What's the number?
06:22Just a minute.
06:23Hold on.
06:23Right there.
06:261314.
06:27Why should I send up a key?
06:28I've got nothing to do with it.
06:30If she came in here and...
06:42Oliver Hardy was always pounding on Stan Laurel, you know?
06:46But there was just an incredible friendship there, you know?
06:51Even as a kid, I could see that.
06:53I knew that these guys were really close, and that it was all in fun.
07:00What a beautiful morning.
07:05Turn on the radio, and let's have some music.
07:10On the set, Laurel and Hardy became fast friends, and it showed.
07:15At the core of all comedy, you've got to have some heart.
07:20You know, there's got to be a heart to it, or it isn't fun.
07:23Creating warmth was a major objective for Hal Roach, and at the time, for Hollywood,
07:28wrapped as it was by drug and sex scandals throughout the 1920s.
07:39Over a span of 15 years, and hundreds of gags, like this one tuning the car radio,
07:45Laurel and Hardy were never less than clean, warm, and endearing.
07:55In an era of scratchy records, no TV or video, movies were the great escape.
08:01Laurel and Hardy were idols.
08:03Hal Roach, the man who made them go.
08:09Roach understood the setup.
08:14The punchline, he left to the genius and wit of the comics,
08:19but I know that his storylines and his setups for each joke were very carefully planned.
08:25The setup here is simple.
08:27Ollie comes to a veteran's home to visit his old friend.
08:31Stan has folded up one of his legs in the nearest chair to get comfortable.
08:39Ollie, of course, comes to a different conclusion.
08:42Feeling sorry for him, he offers to bring Stan home to dinner.
08:47Don't excite yourself, Stanley.
08:48I'll carry you.
08:50Just take it.
08:55Are you comfortable?
09:13In movies like this, Hal Roach was trying to make the audience comfortable
09:18while entertaining it every step of the way.
09:21In the process, Roach was very consciously trying to clean up Hollywood's image,
09:26preempting would-be censors by showing just how wholesome filmmaking could be,
09:31and just how funny.
09:42Thank you, Stanley.
09:45I'm not much later to go now.
09:50I don't think there's a better body of work than the Laurel and Hardy pictures.
09:55I just don't think it's possible to top that stuff.
09:59I mean, I try, lots of people try, but I don't think anybody's going to do better.
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