The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case
Encyclopedia
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.
where Stan is fishing. Ollie sees a notice in a newspaper
which says one Ebeneezer Laurel has died and left a large estate. 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 decide to go to the mansion anyway. They arrive during a thunderstorm
and discover that Ebeneezer had 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 crime.
Stan and Ollie are shown to a bedroom to sleep overnight, which is the room in which Ebeneezer was murdered. They hear a strange noise and in the darkness see a pair of eyes which turns out to be a cat. They then hear a scream and decide to investigate.
Meanwhile 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 each relative disappears. Stan and Ollie return to their bedroom and get into the bed but a bat has flown into their room and is under their covers, which causes them to panic and run downstairs.
All of the other relatives have now disappeared and the butler calls Stan and Ollie to take a telephone call in the study. Oliver takes the call and falls through the trapdoor and the murderer (a man dressed in drag
) appears through a secret door with a knife. A fight ensues but then Stan and Ollie both wake up from a dream
, fighting over Stan's fishing line at the dockside.
.
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
released in 1930. It is 28 minutes in duration and was made from three-reels. It was directed by James Parrott
James Parrott
James Parrott , was an American actor and film director; and the younger brother of film comedian Charley Chase.-Early years:...
, produced by Hal Roach
Hal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
and distributed by MGM.
Plot
Laurel and Hardy are seated at a docksideDock (maritime)
A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
where Stan is fishing. Ollie sees a notice in a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
which says one Ebeneezer Laurel has died and left a large estate. Parties interested in the estate should go to the Laurel mansion for the reading of the will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. Stan can't remember if Ebeneezer is a relative or not but they decide to go to the mansion anyway. They arrive during a thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
and discover that Ebeneezer had 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 crime.
Stan and Ollie are shown to a bedroom to sleep overnight, which is the room in which Ebeneezer was murdered. They hear a strange noise and in the darkness see a pair of eyes which turns out to be a cat. They then hear a scream and decide to investigate.
Meanwhile the butler is calling all of the relatives to a study
Study (room)
A study is a room in a house which is used for paperwork, computer work, or reading. Historically, the study of a house was reserved for use as the private office and reading room of a family father as the formal head of a household, but today studies are generally either used to operate a home...
telling them they have a phone call. After lifting the handset of the phone a trapdoor
Trapdoor
A trapdoor is a door set into a floor or ceiling .Originally, trapdoors were sack traps in mills, and allowed the sacks to pass up through the mill while naturally falling back to a closed position....
opens into which each relative disappears. Stan and Ollie return to their bedroom and get into the bed but a bat has flown into their room and is under their covers, which causes them to panic and run downstairs.
All of the other relatives have now disappeared and the butler calls Stan and Ollie to take a telephone call in the study. Oliver takes the call and falls through the trapdoor and the murderer (a man dressed in drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
) appears through a secret door with a knife. A fight ensues but then Stan and Ollie both wake up from a dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
, fighting over Stan's fishing line at the dockside.
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.Influences and title
- The film is a parodyParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the silentSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
horror filmHorror filmHorror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
The Cat and the CanaryThe Cat and the Canary (1927 film)The Cat and the Canary is an American silent horror film adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black comedy play of the same name. Directed by German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charles "Charlie" Wilder, and Creighton Hale as...
(1927). - The film is also a parody of a silent filmSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
called The BatThe Bat (1926 film)The Bat is a silent film based on the 1920 hit Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda...
(1926). - The film name may be a play on words from the film The Canary Murder CaseThe Canary Murder CaseThe Canary Murder Case is a murder mystery novel which deals with the murders of a sexy nightclub singer known as "the Canary," and eventually, that of her boyfriend, solved by Philo Vance. S. S. Van Dine's classic whodunnit, second in the Philo Vance series, is said by Howard Haycraft to have...
(1929), and other titles based on Philo VancePhilo VancePhilo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...
mystery novels, although the films' plots are totally different. The dash in place of an ampersand may also indicate that the title derives from the Hall-Mills murder case, a high-profile New Jersey murder trial that dominated newspaper front pages throughout much of 1926. - The 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studioThe Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was the in-house division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California during the Golden Age of American animation, responsible for producing animated short subjects to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters...
animated short directed by Tex AveryTex AveryFrederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
, Who Killed Who?Who Killed Who?Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clichés of the genre for humor.-Plot:...
, borrowed imagery, characters and situations from the film. - If a Body Meets a BodyIf a Body Meets a BodyIf a Body Meets a Body is the 86th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
(1945) with The Three Stooges has a similar plot, and also features actor Fred KelseyFred KelseyFrederick Alvin "Fred" Kelsey was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He appeared in 404 films between 1911 and 1958, often playing policemen or detectives . He also directed 37 films between 1914 and 1920...
.
Film similarities
The elements of the night in a sinister mansion and the dream ending were re-used in their 1934 film Oliver the EighthOliver the Eighth
Oliver The Eighth is a 1934 short film comedy starring Laurel and Hardy. It was directed by Lloyd French, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by MGM.- Plot :...
.
Cast
- Stan LaurelStan LaurelArthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
as himself - Oliver HardyOliver HardyOliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:...
as himself - Frank AustinFrank AustinJohn Frank Austin was an English professional footballer. He played as a full-back and represented England as a schoolboy. He was born in Stoke-on-Trent....
as Butler (uncredited) - Stanley BlystoneStanley BlystoneStanley Blystone was an American film actor who made over 500 films appearances between 1924 and 1956.-Career:Born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Blystone's full name was William Stanley Blystone...
as Detective (uncredited) - Bobby BurnsBobby BurnsBobby Burns was an American film actor and director. He appeared in 201 films between 1908 and 1952 as well as directing 13 films between 1915 and 1916....
as Nervous Relative at Window (uncredited) - Rosa Gore as Old Relative (uncredited)
- Dorothy GrangerDorothy GrangerDorothy Granger was an American actress best known for her roles in short subject comedies in Hollywood.-Career:...
as Young Relative (uncredited) - Dell HendersonDell HendersonGeorge Delbert Henderson was a Canadian actor, director and writer in films from the early silent days.-Biography:Henderson was a frequent associate of film pioneer D.W. Griffith and, on a less prolific basis, Mack Sennett...
as Housekeeper (uncredited) - Fred KelseyFred KelseyFrederick Alvin "Fred" Kelsey was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He appeared in 404 films between 1911 and 1958, often playing policemen or detectives . He also directed 37 films between 1914 and 1920...
as Chief of Detectives (uncredited) - Lon Poff as Old Relative (uncredited)
- Art Rowlands as Theater-goer Relative (uncredited)
- Tiny SandfordTiny SandfordStanley J. "Tiny" Sandford was a tall, burly actor who is best remembered for his roles in Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin films. He was usually cast as a comic heavy, and often played policemen, doormen, prizefighters, or bullies.Sandford was born in Osage, Iowa. After working in stock...
as Policeman (uncredited)