Film historian Robert Youngson presents a feature-length anthology of rarely seen silent films by comedy legends Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Along with clips from many of the shorts that made the duo stars, it includes clips from a 1918 comedy starring Laurel on his own as well as scenes from three shorts Hardy made in 1917 and '18 with his original comedy partner, Billy West. To put the duo's work in context, the film briefly features other comedians who worked with producer Hal Roach.

Police sergeants Johnson and McManus take on Los Angeles confidence tricksters. Con man Tony Wells, lining up rich widow Jessica Royce as his latest mark, sets up a false paranormal society with other charlatans to convince the credulous Jessica that her late son is speaking to her through their sham seances. When the plan leads to murder, Johnson and McManus must bring the group down before they kill again.

The wedding of Ellen and David is halted by a stranger who insists that the bride is already married to someone else. Though the flabbergasted Ellen denies the charge, the interloper produces enough evidence that his accusation must be investigated. Ellen and David travel to the small coastal town where her first wedding allegedly occurred. There, they meet a number of individuals whose stories make Ellen question her own sanity.

Leon's boss and his wife aren't getting along together, so Leon asks them to visit his home and observe how he and Mrs. Errol manage to keep the old knot tied. Before the couple arrives, Leon manages to get into a situation with a pretty, blonde neighbor, which leaves him having to introduce her as his wife when they do arrive. Neither Leon's wife, when she comes home, nor the neighbor's husband are too pleased with this arrangement.

A nightclub singer uses alcohol in excess to sooth her painful life.

While packing her belongings in preparation of evacuating the White House because of the impending British invasion of Washington D.C., Dolly Payne Madison thinks back on her childhood, her first marriage, and later romances with two very different politicians, Aaron Burr and his good friend James Madison. She plays each against the other, not only for romantic reasons, but also to influence the shaping of the young country. By manipulating Burr's affections, she helps Thomas Jefferson win the presidency, and eventually she becomes First Lady of the land herself.

An Australian nurse discovers an effective new treatment for infantile paralysis, but experiences great difficulty in convincing doctors of the validity of her claims.

A singing ranch foreman (Roy Rogers) and his friend (George "Gabby" Hayes) urge a chorus-girl heiress (Dale Evans) not to sell the property.

A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speeding away from her wedding day in her fiance's car. Seeing the soldier, she gives him a ride and explains her predicament. Things get sticky when the cops capture them and accuse the soldier of desertion.

A group of people are invited to a party at a creepy mansion where legend has it a ghost appears once a year.

Hired actors posing as Russian royalty complicate a social-climbing mother's efforts to fix up her son with the daughter of a wealthy Texas rancher.

Andy, the owner of a bicycle shop, gets involved with one of his customers.

The ghost of a murdered man returns to Earth to help a young couple find his killer.

The host of a whodunit radio show finds himself involved in his own mystery when he awakens to find a woman with a knife in her back in his bedroom.

This film was made by the U.S. government during World War II to show its young servicemen the results of "fooling around" with "loose women" overseas. Actual victims of such sexually transmitted diseases as syphilis and gonorrhoea are shown, along with the physical deterioration that accompanies those diseases.

Edgar tries his hand at making pies for Vivien's charity bazaar with predictable results.

Andy becomes the manager of a prizefighter. The problem is, the figher has just skipped town.

Edgar Kennedy's hunting trip with his single buddies is kiboshed when his wife, Vivien, has made other arrangements for their vacation time. One of Edgar's friends thinks he has a way for Edgar to go hunting with them. He should pretend to join the National Guard, who are holding a two week camp. In reality, Edgar will have only rented a uniform to convince Vivien that he has joined. Two things may threaten Edgar's plan. First, Vivien, regardless of if she trusts her husband or not, may want to see him off at the train station, which would force him onto the train going to the guard camp. And second, if he can fool Vivien that he is joining the National Guard, he may have also convinced the National Guard that he has joined for real. But in carrying out his plan, Edgar may get into even bigger trouble.

Edgar starts a trailer vacation with his wife Vivien and father-in-law, but doesn't get far before they are overtaken by two men from the finance company, who repossess the trailer for non-payment. Edgar discovers that Pop had failed to mail the money order he had given him for the payment. He also finds some other items Pop failed to take care of.

Edgar is a census taker, but is primarily interested in finding a rich widow for his father-in-law (Billy Franey), so he won't have to continue to support him. All Pop wants to make him happy is a cow. When Edgar comes home with both a cow and a phony rich widow, the results are not what Edgar planned for.

A businessman boasts he'll give his daughter a large amount of cash for her wedding, and then frantically tries to raise the money. This 1940 comedy stars Leon Errol, Marjorie Gateson, Dennis O'Keefe, Adele Pearce and Walter Catlett.

Edgar Kennedy is over-joyed when told he has won a $5,000 prize in a "How To Be Happy Though Married" contest. A reporter interviews Edgar and his wife Vivien who tell him about their engagement and elopement. Then Viviens father tells them that according to a law he has found in a law-book, they aren't legally married. After a series of misadventures, they learn that the law is a new one and that the Kennedy marriage is legal.

53rd episode of RKO's "Mr. Average Man" Series starring Edgar Kennedy.

Working stiff Tom Tupper is stopped by a 'man on the spot' reporter during his daily commute. Asked for his opinion on male/female relations, Tom tells the radio audience that he thinks men could do a better job running the household than women. When he arrives home, his infuriated wife Margaret proposes that her husband put his money where his mouth is. The couple switch roles, with Margaret going to the office and Tom cooking and cleaning. While Margaret becomes a successful entrepreneur, the man of the house comes dangerously close to having a nervous breakdown. Overwhelmed by a woman's work, Tom begs Margaret to go back to the way things were, but his now-independent wife isn't interested.

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.

A short film about a family man who realizes he's a bore at social gatherings so he purchases a trunk full of magic tricks hoping to soon be the life of the party.

Father-in-law Billy Franey discovers the letter that Edgar has written a matrimonial agency to marry him off and slips Edgar's picture in it. When Minerva Urecal (sporting an Italian accent) shows up, wife Vivien Oakland resists attempts to get her out of the house so she can confront the interloper and her husband.

Carmelita Fuentes is a fiery-Latin singer/dancer in Mexico City who has designs on Dennis Lindsay, an American publicity agent, for unclear reasons, while Lindsay's shiftless uncle Matthew Lindsay aids and abets her every step of the way to the marriage altar.

Edgar starts out in a non-unfamiliar grumpy mood and tells some people off obnoxiously, then becomes overcome with joy and kindheartedness when he discovers that his wife is about to have a baby.

Pop's noisy mechanical clock is driving Edgar crazy.

Edgar lost his job at the bank three months ago, but hasn't told his wife, and they have been living off their savings, while Edgar pretends to go to work everyday. He answers a want-ad for a job selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. He makes no sales, especially after he fills an apartment hallway with trash to demonstrate his cleaner and then finds there is no electricity to run the machine. He comes to a house where a bridal shower is being held, with his wife in attendance, and she thinks Edgar has brought the cleaner as gift for her friend. Edgar has to take the last of their money out of the bank to pay for the demo model he had. The bank manager shows up at Edgar's house to offer him his bank job back, but Edgar's wife won't let him go back, as she has found the prefect job for Edgar... selling vacuum cleaners.

To make Edgar do something about his physical condition, his wife has invited her old boy friend, in tip-top shape, to spend the weekend with them. In addition to getting worn out playing golf, Edgar overhears a phone call that makes him think Vivien is arranging to run off with his hated rival.

Owner of salon catering to fat society dames must deal with a dull fiance, a romantic stranger, the jealous blond who loves him, and the lecherous husband of a client.

Fake fortunetellers win the confidence of clients and then get them to part with their money by buying mining stocks which are worthless.

Girl moves out of her parents house against their wishes. Gets a job in a dress shop, gets mixed up with dirty pictures and blackmail.

Noted child psychologist Errol marries a widow with a nasty brat, and finds none of his theories seem to work when trapped in a pullman car on the way to his honeymoon at Niagara Falls.

A shoplifter gets sentenced to a women's prison.

Leon's wife wants to surprise him by buying the cabin where they had spent their honeymoon. But when she secretly meets with the man who owns the cabin, Leon misunderstands what she is doing, and gets suspicious. When his friend at work convinces Leon that his wife is going to run away with another man, Leon decides to take immediate action.

A crime novelist devises a scheme to catch the thief who has stolen the valuable "Konjer Diamonds". Director Lew Landers' 1938 B-film stars Preston Foster, Whitney Bourne, Cecil Kellaway, Donald Meek, Samuel S. Hinds, Arthur Lake, Paul Guilfoyle and June Johnson.

Jerry Cummings, a mining engineer, has pledged a large diamond on a short-term note to a pair of crooked loan sharks, Crone and Jan Jaffin, and heads for Mexico. His daughter Betsy, posing as a jewel thief called Mary Layton, is working to keep the crooks from absconding with the jewel, and her efforts are hindered greatly by an artist, Jimmy Baxter, who thinks she is a crook and Crone and Jaffin the good guys.

Errol's wife goes back to work, despite his objections.

Edgar impulsively invites his boss, Mr. Markham, to his home for dinner when his boss compliments him for giving coffee money to a down and out man. At the train station Edgar intervenes, keeping another man from beating a young man named Frankie, and Edgar takes Frankie home with him, even though the stranger warns Edgar that the young man is nothing but trouble.

Edgar finds some gold in his attic and the guy working on his roof tells him he could go to jail for having it!! This is because President Franklin Roosevelt has actually campaigned Congress to make gold ownership illegal in order to force people off the gold standard as well as to try to get more currency into circulation.

Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.

William Bakewell stars as an inventor who develops a high-powered boat engine. Bakewell, of course, created this wonder machine to benefit mankind-and, incidentally, to win an upcoming motorboat race.

Edgar Kennedy's wife decides he should do the housework for the day, the same day the piano tuner Franklin Pangborn comes by.

Andy takes his newest invention, a knee-action washing machine, before a group of potential investors, but his idiot stepson proceeds to disrupt the demonstration.

Henry Morton just wants to go fishing. Little things thwart him: Maxine the maid makes noise, Sonny, a lad in the household, makes a mess, and Henry's wife wants the car for shopping. A newly arrived friend, Bert, suggests that Henry fake his own death, don a disguise and appear as Bert's English valet, and skulk about. They'll mourn and the truth can later be revealed. Sonny hears the entire plan and alerts Henry's wife and the rest of the household. Only Maxine is in the dark. Henry's wife gives the valet an attic room, throws herself in his arms, complains about her late husband, and sends Henry into a tizzy. He and Bert set up a séance to try to fix their ruse.

New York manicurist Mamie Murphy plans to marry a rich man, so she repeatedly turns down the proposals of honest reporter David Haines. When she is announced the winner of $2,500 and a ticket worth $150,000 for champion horse Lady Luck, if the horse wins an upcoming race, Mamie is pursued by wealthy sportsman Jack Conroy and nightclub owner and racketeer Tony Morelli.

Mr. Brown is riding home from work one day with his new neighbor, Mr. Johnson. When Brown explains that he has all kinds of problems at home, Johnson wants to help him. So, when they arrive, Johnson gives Brown a demonstration of one of the tricks that he uses to get his family to act as he wishes them too. But when Brown tries out Johnson's ideas on his own, things do not go as planned.

Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on revenge.

The Keystone Hotel hosts a very prestigious beauty contest. When the cross-eyed judge presents the first prize to an elderly cleaning woman, angry members of the audience respond by hurling custard pies. The Keystone Kops are summoned, and arrive just in time to get plastered with pastry.

When reporter Dan Miller is once again late to meet his girl friend, Helen Murdock, because he is working on a story, Helen breaks up with him. Later, in an effort to reconcile with her, Dan misses an appointment with the district attorney, and is fired when his editor learns that the district attorney was murdered in Dan's absence. The man suspected of the crime, Mitts Coster, is rumored to be traveling to Europe aboard an ocean liner. While Dan's friend, photographer Snapper McGillicuddy, fetches Helen to the boat, under the pretense that Dan is leaving town to forget her, Dan searches the ship for Mitts, whom he does not recognize. When Helen arrives, Dan feigns illness, and she admits her love for him. When Helen learns of Dan's ruse, however, she angrily hits him with a package that a passenger gave her when she boarded the ship. The package contains a passport for Dorothy Madden, who greatly resembles Helen, and $2,000 dollars.

Ex-wife remarries, doesn't tell husband so he'll still pay alimony.

When a dancer disappears from a theater, Clay Dalzell is asked to investigate, leading him on a trail of murder and deception.

There are plenty of suspects when an unscrupulous, blackmailing businessman turns up dead, especially the Police Commissioner's current paramour, who actually confessed to the killing before it was committed.

Wife tries to do something about her husband's fondness for the bottle.

Andy remarries, but his new wife has no use for either his son or his dog.

Leon's ex-wife moves into the apartment next to him.

Walter goes to his girlfriend's parents to ask their permission to marry her; but the family puts on an act and pretends to be totally loony.

A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways.

At Joe's Roadside, a popular but rundown New York roadhouse where the wealthy and not-so-wealthy hang out, a wealthy Manhattan girl and a struggling Brooklyn boy meet and fall in love. She marries him against the wishes of her family, believing that love can solve everything, but she soon wonders if she made the right choice when she finds herself living in a manner, and with the kinds of people, she hadn't counted on.

On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young business man is about to commit suicide. With the note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in his hand, he notices a thick envelope addressed to him at the desk. As he begin to read, we're taken back to the days of WW1 and his meeting with a young woman named Mary Lane.

A burglar is recruited by the French Surete to help find his kidnapped girlfriend, who has been kidnapped by a deranged White Russian to impersonate the missing Princess Anastasia Romanoff while under his hypnotic spell.

Ordered out of town by angry Judge Beaumont, vagrants Stanley and Oliver meet a congenial drunk who invites them to stay at his luxurious mansion. The drunk can't find his key, but the boys find a way in, sending the surprised woman inside into a faint.

Calvin Jones is a cowboy who wants to invest in a Broadway play. Joe Lehman's secretary Ruth learns that her boss is attempting to swindle Jones and pulls a successful coup d'etat producing a play that she stars in.

Running Hollywood is a comedy short.

An opera diva sets her sights on a womanizing army officer.

A New England fisherman's second wife prefers his son.

A comedy-drama about marriage and divorce. A wife does not want children, her husband leaves her and marries a woman who does.

Early 30s pre-code comedy about a woman attempting to get her two ex-husbands to pay back alimony.

Bobby Jones shows Huntley Gordon and Vivian Oakland some tips on the use of the niblick (9 iron)

Karl Dane & George K. Arthur trading places while dining.

Comedy centering on the question of whether a man's wife is or isn't pregnant.

A wealthy industrialist's wife gets into a big argument with him; to cool off, she goes on an ocean trip. He thinks she's left him for good, so he marries another woman. When his first wife returns, complications ensue.

Based on the farcical stage play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning* writer Elmer Rice, Oh, Sailor Behave! is a movie Musical with a split personality. Nanette Dodge (Irene Delroy) falls for newspaper reporter Charlie Carroll (Charles King) who is on assignment in Venice to land an interview with Romanian General Skulany (Noah Beery). Our couple is split apart by a pair of storylines - Nanette tries to woo a Russian prince (Lowell Sherman) who is blackmailing her sister, while Charlie, following a lead to the general, finds himself Romantically involved with Kunegundi (Vivien Oakland), "the general's favorite."

Five years after Adolphe's death in a train wreck, he is discovered very much alive and with amnesia. Unfortunately he and his first wife are remarried and with children.

Elmer and Fannie Blue (Ray Hughes and Dorothy Gulliver) are happy that their neighbors in the duplex apartment next door, that shares an interior wall, have vacated and are looking forward to having newer and nicer neighbors. Then, Oscar Black and his wife (Harry Gribbon and Vivien Oakland, who was billed as Vivian Oakland) move in

Bored with small town life, a woman leaves for the big city and winds up becoming the mistress of a ruthless businessman.

A chorus girl gets bad advice from her fellow chorines in handling a rich suitor who assumes she is a gold digger.

Mr. Young introduces the sketch in an appropriately melodramatic fashion, wearing an opera cape and a glowering expression. He recites a bit of doggerel about the current popularity of mystery plays ("full of thrills and sighing moans, slamming doors and ringing phones") and then slinks away. Eerie music, thunder, and sinister lighting set the scene. Vivien enters, frightened, and then John, ditto. They tiptoe about, and exchange ridiculous quips about how terrible it all is. Young staggers in, groaning, and slumps into a chair. Vivien screams, and dashes away. When John bumps into the corpse and excuses himself, the corpse comes to life long enough to say "That's all right" before falling dead again.

A musical comedy that follows the progress of a college All America football player whose swollen head is deflated when, after graduating , he takes a job as a Wall Street stock salesman. While poor at selling, he knows how to charm women and his boss has him concentrate his efforts on disposing of bad stock to gullible females, one of whom turns out to be the wife of his boss. The film is considered lost, with only its soundtrack remaining.

Oliver stands to inherit a large fortune from his rich Uncle Bernal, with the condition that he be happily married. But when Mrs. Hardy walks out just before Uncle Bernal is due for a visit, Stanley is pressed into duty (and into drag) to impersonate Oliver's loving spouse.

Loud Soup is a comedy short

Off to Buffalo is a comedy short

Stan & Ollie attempt to fool their wives by sneaking out to a poker game, but instead get involved with two flirty ladies, one of whom is the girlfriend of a jealous boxer.

Imagine My Embarrassment is a silent comedy short

In 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George's owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, Eliza flees with her son, Harry, after learning the Shelbys plan to hand them over to a crooked creditor to prevent foreclosure. George also escapes and goes on the run while Eliza and Harry are captured and brought back home. Mother and son are separated as George tries to find them both.

Titus Tillsbury is a successful businessman who is visited by a blackmailing old flame. He enlists a friend to keep her away from his home and wife.

The story involves various misunderstandings and entanglements that occur between two married couples, the Browns (Glenn Tryon & Vivien Oakland) and the Dazzles (Tyler Brooke & Anita Garvin). The two couples have apartments across the hall from one another, and all four plan to attend a costume ball together. But after each husband expresses unhappiness with his wife's costume the women angrily refuse to go to the party. The two husbands decide to go "stag" and pick up dates, but when Mrs. Brown changes her mind about attending, and Mr. Dazzle and Mr. Brown switch costumes, mix-ups result.

A young man visiting Hollywood on family business gets into trouble when he sees a bank robbery in progress, and thinks it is a movie scene.

In order to land an important client, Morgan is obliged to escort a beautiful redhead to a costume ball. Finding out about this, and suspecting that some hanky-panky is involved, Morgan's wife Angela dons a mask and a red wig and offers herself as the companion of her unwitting hubby. Angela's jealousy-motivated subterfuge works to everyone's advantage when she manages to cinch the deal for Morgan.

Charlie is the great divorce attorney, in demand by all women wishing to shed their husbands. While explaining to one woman how to obtain a divorce by getting photos in a compromising situation...

A divorced couple try to pretend they are still happily married in order to get $100,000 from the woman's divorce-disapproving aunt.

After a homely married couple separately undergo plastic surgery, they unwittingly plan an extramarital affair with each other.

The head of a big movie studio is pulling his hair out because the company is bankrupt unless they can find a writer for a smash comedy. An aspiring writer is awaiting outside the office and the producer agrees to see him. He listens while the writer tells his story and acts the numerous parts. The story is rotten, but the producer lets him escape while vowing vengeance on any other author who would read his story aloud.

Casper is the baby-expert at a large department store and his life is less than peaceful as he provides much amusement for the babies at his own expense. On Sunday, he and his wife go on a picnic with the neighbors and hoe comes home on his day of rest with three traffic tickets and numerous stings from the hornets he failed to amuse.

Tom Grant saves Grace Percival from being tromped by a herd of stampeding horses,led by Tony, and they become friends. Grace tells Slade, a renegade who has been trying to capture Tony, the leader of the wild horses, that Tom has promised to capture Tony for her. Not if Slade has anything to say about he isn't.

Mr. Barry has a huge argument with his wife, and to make her jealous, he asks his valet to set him up with a pretty girl who is stranded in their neighborhood. He takes her out to dinner, but to his disgust he discovers that she lacks even one ounce of class and her table manners are frightening. Soon enough, Barrymore is reunited with his wife.

A man finds out that his wife wishes he would act more like his twin brother, so he decides to impersonate his twin in an attempt to determine his wife's fidelity.

Glenn's first attempt at wearing long trousers and being a man about town goes swimmingly as he quickly falls for a vivacious young widow who accidentally runs him down. But his father feels she is beyond his abilities and competes for her attention.

John Shefford is looking for his uncle Venters who years ago found a hidden valley and lived there with Jane Withersteen and young Fay Larkin. He finds Kay, now grown, who tells John that Willets and his men got into the nearly inaccessible valley and she has agreed to marry him to save the lives of the other two. John and Fay head for the valley with Willets and with his men right behind.

Rev. John Morton, who is determined to follow as closely as possible the teachings of Jesus, inherits a considerable fortune when his uncle dies. Shortly thereafter he succumbs to the wiles of Mary Carlson and marries her. To Mary's dismay, John uses his money for charitable work. When John learns that not only has Mary been unfaithful to him but she was also his uncle's mistress and became Mrs. Morton in order to share the inheritance she believed to be rightfully hers, he sends her away with his secretary.