L&H Reviews: The Lucky Dog!

 Hello, people! Today, since this is my first official post, I thought I'd kick it off with a review of the first movie in which we see Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy paired together, The Lucky Dog ( 1919? 1921? 1922? Those are all possible dates of when the film was released.) Here's a video of it:

 Well, this is a pleasant comedy, but a sort of strange one. This is a Stan Laurel movie, not a Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy movie. Oliver is more of a supporting player.
 In this movie, Stan finds himself kicked out of his apartment and is living on the streets. He finds a dog, and likes to think of it as his own, I guess. He then finds Oliver Hardy, who is trying to rob him. Those plans don't work too well, and Oliver gets a kick in the tush, for it. He ends up finding a nice woman with a dog who insists he enter his dog in a dog show. This scene is a bit weird. He then goes inside the nice woman's house, and sits down and talks with the butler. Meanwhile, Oliver is planning a scheme to kill Stan, involving guns and dynamite. The guns do not work, and the dog has dynamite in his mouth.  They go outside to get away, but the dog follows. They end up getting blown up.
 This one is a pretty funny one, with some great gags. In the beginning, there's a pretty funny running gag where Stan keeps on having near-death experiences with trains and other vehicles. Then, there's ladies dancing around him, except it's all in his imagination.
 I like how Oliver has a little sidekick that also hates Stan, so they scheme together and think of evil ways to kill poor Laurel.
 There's one part that I mentioned before that I really liked. Oliver's gun scheme is not working on Stan, so Stan remarks, " What have you got in there, rubber bullets?"
 One thing film historians could fix though is the title cards. Not that the jokes aren't funny, it's just some of them have wrong spelling and punctuation.
 There's a couple of celebrity lookalikes in this film. I notice me a Chaplin look-a-like, and somewhat of a Charley Chase lookalike, who would later work at Hal Roach, like Laurel and Hardy.
 As Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies notes, the first line we hear Oliver say to Stan isn't very promising: " Stick 'em up, or else I'll comb your  hair with lead!"
 Speaking of lead, you may notice how Stan's eyes look weird. Well, Stan had blue eyes, and blue eyes couldn't be captured on film back then, so during the editing process they switched the blue in his eyes to lead, so at least his eyelids would be seen.
 Does anybody else think the dog in this film is super cute?
 Anyhow, I like this movie, although it is far away from some of Laurel and Hardy's best efforts. It's pretty cool how they encounter together on this film, although the whole idea of Ollie-killing-Stan isn't very true to the Stan and Ollie characters.
 But, hey, who can I argue with? This movie was filmed in 1917, 10 years before their official pairing!
 I'd recommend watching this video, and a short excerpt of it is featured on this Laurel and Hardy DVD I have, which I can't remember what it's called.
 My all-time favorite part in this film isn't very funny to most audiences, but it's when Oliver's sidekick is getting chased in and out of rooms by the dog while all the gun business is going on! You just keep on seeing quick cuts to Ollie's sidekick running in and out of rooms with the dog following him. It's hilarious!
 The quality for this could've been better, but it was made almost 100 years ago, so I can't really make negative comments on that..
 Overall, I like this video, and out of 10, I would rate it at a 9. Well, that's all for today! I'll see you tomorrow!!!