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.

The girls find a pair of steamship tickets, not knowing that the cabin the tickets are for is inhabited by a gorilla.

After a mix-up with his application photograph, an aspiring actor is invited to a screen test and goes off to Hollywood.

Two small town widows bring their children to Hollywood, where their children become competing film stars. The girl is sweet, the boy is a killjoy sissy. For publicity, the rival families go to London to meet a middle European boy King. The three kids decide they need to escape their stifling lives and run away to the docks and join a gang.

A little orphan girl walks into the life of a hand-to-mouth carnival huckster. He teaches her the ropes and raises her as his own.

Ambitious shoe salesman, Harold, unknowingly meets the boss' daughter and tells her he is a leather tycoon. The rest of the film he spends hiding his true circumstances, in the store and later on a ship. Trying to deliver a letter, he later finds himself dangling high above the street on a building's scaffolding.

A gentle botany student has to toughen up to replace his father as chief of police.

A "love-'em-and-leave-'em" sailor hooks up with a dance-hall girl in Paris while waiting for his ship to sail. She falls in love with him, and when his ship leaves port she decides to show up at its next stop and reunite with her lover. However, when she arrives at the ship's next destination, she discovers that her "lover" has already found another local girl to spend his time with. Complications ensue.

Fight manager takes out an insurance policy on his puny pugilist and then proceeds to try to arrange for an accident so that he can collect.

Fifi, a dusky, sultry Senegalese spy, uses her wiles to get information out of two American army soldiers, Ham and Eggs, in France during World War I.

An escaped convict is out to kill the judge who sentenced him. Two inept detectives are hired to guard the judge.

From Death Valley in the Mojave Desert to Mount Whittier, the outlaw gangs are wreaking havoc on the gold and money shipments from the mines and ranches. Wells Fargo organizes an express service that will insure the shipments and ensure a guaranteed delivery. Granger Hume is hired to help Wells-Fargo deliver on their promise.

After a night of carousing, a rich oil tycoon awakes to find that he was married the night before. He calls in his lawyer to straighten things out.

Slapstick film about two married couples.

The transition from horses to automobiles at the turn of the century causes problems between a father and son.

Deputy Marshal Jerry Steele (Ken Maynard) heads off to Oklahoma where a gang of nasty cattle rustlers is terrorizing the local ranchers. After a bit of detective work -- greatly aided by a motley group of would-be outlaws deputized for the occasion -- Steele unmasks a supposedly upstanding citizen Bob Crew (Tom Santschi) as the leader of the rustlers.

A newly-married woman disguises herself as a doughboy in order to stay close to her husband.

A short comedy by Leo McCarey about a Jewish father who is worried about his daughter.

Following the "no good deed goes unpunished" idiom, when after rescuing a group of settlers, hero Don Miguel Arguella is double-crossed by the group leader who files a claim on his land and makes a move towards his girlfriend. Sadly, this is a lost film.

Charley has several dilemmas facing him at Christmas, all posed by his greedy, heartless landlord Noah and his family.

Clyde Cook is a traveling handyman who whitewashes farm barns and he flirts with the wife of a jealous farmer. The husband sees this and takes off after Clyde who runs into an army recruiting station and enlists. The highly-offended farmer also enlists and the chase continues across several army posts.

An irresponsible young millionaire changes his tune when he falls for the daughter of a downtown minister.

Two burglars break into the home of an eccentric doctor. The doctor catches them, but offers to let them go free -- and give them a thousand dollars -- if they go to a cemetery and bring back the body of a man who he believes died of "water on the brain."

A cowboy and a wild horse find they have some things in common: both have enemies out to get them and both must save their mates from danger.

Thundering Landlords is a 1925 short

Jamison has a very jealous wife. Mrs. Jamison has a very gossipy friend. When the friend spots Jamison on the street talking to an attractive young woman, she reports back to Mrs. Jamison that her husband is obviously having an affair. Mrs. Jamison storms out, and a few minutes later a guest arrives for a visit -- a Professor Brown. Jamison doesn't realize the professor is a woman, and Mrs. Jamison, who has returned, doesn't realize the woman is Professor Brown. She presumes she has caught her husband with his mistress. A dancing butler, a game-playing dog, and a very accommodating burglar complicate the situation.

Jimmie Jump is returning from Europe to the USA. His parents and an old girl-friend, Sally - whom he hasn't seen for years, are expecting him at the dock. But, due to some unfortunate coincidences they are mistaken about the identity of each other, but meet unbeknownst to that fact. Jimmie decides that he has to find that girl. Finally, after having annoyed a policeman, and a great fraction of the female population, he finds her working as a temperance worker. To get her attention, he dresses up in rags to meet her. But his way of introduction causes more confusion.

In this two-reeler, Jimmy Jump wants to please both of his parents, but they disagree about everything. His father wants him to act more manly, although Jimmy gets his sensitivity from his mother. He wants to wed his girlfriend, and so accepts a job at his father's iron foundry, but does not excel there. Next, Jimmy goes to a tough dance-hall to impress his girl. A highlight is his parody of an Isadora Duncan dance.

Hard Boiled comedy short

aka Billy, the Ford Buster

A pawn shop employee must substitute for a robot in this short silent comedy.

The hero's loved one is threatened with marriage with a rival, due to the machinations of her mother. The simplest solution of the situation is to marry her, and upon being reminded of it, the hero lays plans for a hurried ceremony in the goldfish store where he works. But as it is a case of true love, things don't move smoothly. Customers interrupt and so forth, as the justice of the peace tries to spiel off the fateful words. The culminating disaster is when firemen smash in the door, but a simple solution presents itself and the lovers, justice of the peace and witnesses make off with the hook and ladder wagon and the knot is tied before they are caught.

Charley is called upon to go out with his boss on a date with the boss' mistress, to act as a beard.

A young barber's girlfriend falls into the clutches of a shady nightclub owner and his cohorts, who plan to get her involved in their nefarious schemes. When his efforts to rescue her prove futile, he enlists the help of his father, who was at one time a professional baseball player, and his former teammates to save her.

The main premise for the comedy is the Jimmy discovers he can convince people he is a tough figure to be reckoned with merely by giving them a business card identifying him as the bouncer of the "Bucket of Blood Cafe."

A man starts working in a department store and has to deal with a female kleptomaniac.

"Hunky" Dorrey and "Dinky Dubbs are on the run from the cops. They consider getting a job. After one gets his face blackened from a car's exhaust, they see an ad for a "colored Pullman porter". Mistaken identity due to accidental blackface drives the remainder of the plot. The two wind up on a train, where they run into the police again.

Charley looks for a job position but is not anxious to find one. He ends up getting into all sorts of trouble at a masquerade ball.

Jimmy Jump is a cracked reporter at a behind-the-times daily newspaper. He also happens to be in love with the managing editor's daughter. It's Monday, April 1st and the paper's editorial staff has a great deal of trouble telling the difference between April Fool's jokes and real events.

Jimmy Jump's young wife goes in strongly for amateur theatricals. After one of her performances a theater manager signs her up. He opens a publicity campaign by having her appear in public in spectacular costumes, with a monkey for a pet. The monkey gets away and Jimmy is elected to capture it. When peace once more descends upon them, the young wife decides to give up her career and devote her time to Jimmy.

A 1924 silent comedy.

Stan Laurel as a harness racing jockey who must win a big race.

A man tries to win over the daughter of his boss.

A car salesman wants to get marreid but has to make one last sell first.

A morals reformer returns from Hollywood to his small town, and shows his fellow citizens the results of his investigation.

At Thanksgiving, a tramp arrives in a homeless-hostile town.

James Parrott having a lot of pets destroying the place.

James Parrott, little Sammy Brooks, Baker and Jones ("the strong guy" = the drunk) are all workers on a construction-sit run by violent and exploitative boss Noah Young and it is a "building a skyscraper" comedy.

An unconventional super detective (Snub) pursues a trio of crooks who've stolen the fortune of his girlfriend's father. Along the way, absurd things happen like he's tricked into trailing a cow and he enters a cross-country foot race.

Paul Parrott plays an obsessive-compulsive bill poster in this thoroughly average Hal Roach comedy from 1923. Hired to help publicize a new Gloria Snootful picture, Paul goes bonkers with glue and paper and ends up attaching promotional material to any surface within his reach, including the rear ends of a number of people, though his attempt to nail a poster to a glass window is somewhat less successful.

Stan is Phillip McCann, a gas station attendant who arrives at his job by chauffeur and donning a fur coat over his work clothes. After being dropped off, he puts his sign on the doorframe and wanders off to a nearby cafe where waitress Katherine Grant serves him an egg, medium rare, and a cup of tea, well done....

Jack Frost is a silent comedy short

Laurel portrays a commercial traveller, hawking a patent medicine cried Professor I.O. Dine's Knox-All: that name is the funniest joke in this movie, which ain't sayin' much. I should point out that this movie dates from 1923, the shank of Prohibition. During Prohibition, quite a lot of Americans purchased patent medicine if it had (ahem!) 'medicinal' properties, so -- if Knox-All contains alcohol.

Hal Roach short is a spoof of the 1923 Western COVERED WAGON, which was a huge hit for Paramount. In this film a group of people are heading out West to Hollywood so they pack up their "wagons" and head out where they must battle various elements including crossing a dangerous river and battling Indians. The "wagons" are actually cars with a cover on them and the Indians even ride in on bicycles so you can tell the type of humor that Roach is going for.

The story of the first Thanksgiving is re-imagined as a father tells it to his son.

This Hal Roach comedy short I found on the "American Slapstick" DVD collection of rare silent comedies starts bizarre and has an anything goes-quality one rarely sees in Mr. Roach's output. It stars Snub Pollard who is initially introduced as a baby left on a doorstep before we see him fully grown about 20 or so years later still in that basket! From there, he gets bumped car to car crossing the street prior to getting literally thrown through a window as an auction is taking place! Also appearing is James Finlayson as a man who's items accidentally get sold.

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

'Snub' Pollard is an local actor getting a big break in the movie industry, coming home to show off his fame.

Newly Rich is a silent comedy short

Snub Pollard comedy directed by Charley Chase and produced by Hal Roach.

A very rich old man promises to leave his extended family his fortune if they all move in together and get along for one year.

A meek young man must find the courage within when a rogue tramp menaces his hometown.

The owners of a movie studio are having problems with a temperamental director, and they promise an actor on one of his pictures that he can have the job if he can find a way to make the director leave the picture.

In the Movies is a silent comedy short

Like many a Snub Pollard comedy, "Years to Come" is a complete flight of fancy. In this one, it is the year 2000, and the roles of women and men have been completely reversed. That's where almost all the jokes come from.

An idle, wealthy playboy foolishly joins the Navy when the father of the girl he wants to marry tells him to get a job to prove himself worthy.

Snub is an street sweeper with OCD, living in a neighborhood full of fussy people. He is sweeping the street when he anticipates a cop who is about to throw some litter into the road and dashes over to catch it in his cart. He then tries to save a drunken man from falling into the road before stopping his cart to pick up a solitary leaf which has dared to fallen upon the ground. The eccentric and obsessed street sweeper meticulously disposes of the leaf but when he turns around he finds half the tree has shed its leaves at that very moment

While his wife is shopping, Snub attempts to take a fifteen minute break.

Comic adventures of newlyweds and children.

A young man, unaccustomed to children, must accompany a young girl on a train trip.

Snub, as a member of the London police force, is assigned to a neighborhood where a terrific free-for-all battle is taking place. After the struggle is snuffed out by a particularly belligerent chap who wades into the crowd and sends its members into the land of twittering birdies with an assortment of right and left-handed blows, Snub steps forth and accepts credit for the feat.

A tipsy doctor encounters his patient sleepwalking on a building ledge, high above the street.

Don't Rock the Boat

Captain Dandy (Snub Pollard) is about to sail and arrives on the dock where several women take turns to individually say goodbye to him (the last one even wrestles him to the ground) before he boards the ship.

A young man in New York has exasperated his father because of his constant carousing and irresponsibility, so his father sends him to his uncle's ranch in the west. The young man arrives in the town of Piute Pass, which is being terrorized by Tiger Lip Tompkins and his gang, the Masked Angels. The Easterner befriends a young woman whose father is being held captive by Tompkins, and he decides to help her.

After numerous failed attempts to commit suicide, our hero (Lloyd) runs into a lawyer who is looking for a stooge to stand in as a groom in order to secure an inheritance for his client (Davis). The inheritance is a house, which her scheming uncle "haunts" so that he can scare them off and claim the property.

A bicycle messenger is sent to make a posh delivery to a wealthy artist's estate-- populated with attractive models.

Snub and his wife give up their bungalow and allow another couple to move in. Then it develops that they can't find another home, and must live in an improvised tent. (From IMDb)

A young adventurer trades places with a European prince and falls in love above his station.

Snub goes butterfly hunting in Grffith Park and catches Marie Mosquini by accident. They go to a café where all the men have a lot of hair on their faces and the usual mischief ensues.

The film begins with a girl who is supposedly irresistible to all men. Several guys all come to her to pledge their undying love--including Harold Lloyd's brother, Gaylord (who is a dentist). Shortly after this, a new dentist (Snub Pollard) arrives to work in an office across the hall. In a very funny scene, Pollard manages to steal all of Gaylord's patients from his waiting room. However, when it comes to dental work, Snub is highly unlikely to receive the American Dental Association's seal of approval. That's because he's incredibly rough and manages to toss a guy out the window when he pulls his tooth.

As a penniless man worries about how he will manage to eat, he is joined by a young waif and her dog, who are in the same predicament. Meanwhile, across town a dishonest lawyer is working with a gang of criminals, trying to swindle an innocent young heiress out of her inheritance. As the heiress is on her way home from the lawyer's office, she notices the young man and the waif in the midst of their latest problem with the authorities, and she rescues them. Later on, the young man will have an unexpected opportunity to repay her for her kindness.

After a wild bachelor party, our hero finds himself aboard a sailing vessel where he encounters numerous adventures. In a dream sequence, he fantasizes that the ship is seized by a band of female pirates.

A young playwright spends his last cent to pay the past-due rent for the pretty dancer who's his boarding house next-door neighbor. Soon after, he winds up at a gambling club, where he wins big - just before a police raid.

Count the Votes is a 1919 American short comedy film. It is considered to be lost.

Soft Money is a 1919 American short comedy film. The film is considered to be lost.

Harold and his rival fight over Bebe on her birthday, first at her home and then at a nearby skating rink.

Chop Suey & Co. is a 1919 American short comedy film

This time, Harold's the skinny sap who married the hottie, and he doesn't quite have the spine to tell her ex-beaus to blow. The honeymoon finds him mistaken for a boiler worker.

The adventures of a penniless young man, who finds himself in a house full of crooks.

Boy trying to impress girl, gets chased by her father and the police right into an ongoing marathon.

A young man's dreams are shaken by his father's insistence that he get a job and go to work. He becomes a waiter in a restaurant, and has some funny adventures.

Stage hand Harold falls in love with the leading lady of a visiting theatrical troupe.

While running away from his girl's father, Harold's car breaks down in front of a dance hall run by crooks. Harold has to not only stay one step ahead of the girl's father, but also those trying to rob them of everything they have.

A short film starring Harold Lloyd.

A bumbling American soldier saves a girl from a bunch of Cossacks.

Lloyd is a serious young middle-class guy on the make who wants to marry the boss’ daughter. The problem is getting in to see the boss so that he can ask for her hand in marriage as the office is guarded by a bunch of comic, clumsy flunkies who throw everyone out who tries to get in.

Stan Laurel is picked up at the train depot and brought back by the husband to the family home where the wife is having a suffragette meeting. None too pleased they cause mayhem and then the neighbours are brought into it as Stan cleans up the backyard by throwing all the rubbish into their award winning garden.

Stan plays a janitor at a hotel dropping letters and trying to retrieve them with a vacuum, getting wet, helping a lady shoot her cheating husband and being chased by the police.

A nervy young man follows a pretty lady into a diner to flirt with her, but winds up getting stuck with the tab.