Hal Roach Studios

Harold Lloyd's first feature-length comedy, directed by Fred Newmeyer for Hal Roach Studios. Lloyd plays a wealthy young idler who joins the Navy to impress his girlfriend's disapproving father. After a shore leave brawl in a foreign port, he finds himself aboard a ship where he must rescue his girl from a villainous maharajah. The film marks Lloyd's transition from two-reel shorts to features, and his "glasses character"—an ambitious, all-American go-getter—was now fully formed. The film's blend of physical comedy and romantic adventure set the template for Lloyd's greatest features to come. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A Harold Lloyd comedy directed by Fred Newmeyer for Hal Roach Studios. Lloyd plays a young man who works as an extra at a film studio and is mistaken for a society gentleman. Invited to a fancy dinner party, he must bluff his way through high-society etiquette with predictably disastrous results. The film's centerpiece is Lloyd's desperate attempt to ride a horse, a sequence of escalating physical comedy that showcases his trademark blend of daring and Everyman appeal. The film is a classic example of Lloyd's "glasses character" navigating social situations far above his station. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A classic Laurel and Hardy short directed by Leo McCarey for Hal Roach Studios. Stan and Ollie are escaped convicts on the run, trying to change clothes in a variety of unlikely locations. Their attempts to swap pants lead to a series of escalating comic mishaps, culminating in the famous scene where they find themselves on a girder high above a city street, still struggling with their trousers. The film is a masterclass in comic construction, building from a simple premise to breathtaking physical comedy. The skyscraper finale is one of the duo's most iconic sequences. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Short

A Laurel and Hardy short directed by Lewis R. Foster for Hal Roach Studios. Stan and Ollie play two sailors on shore leave who pick up two girls and take them to an amusement park. The simple date becomes a comic nightmare as the boys discover they barely have enough money between them for one soda, let alone a full outing. The film's centerpiece is a brilliantly staged sequence on a boat ride, where the boys' attempts to impress their dates end in watery chaos. The film is a perfect example of the duo's early sound-era shorts, where their comic timing and vocal interplay were still being refined. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Short

A small-town clerk moves to the city to make his fortune and tells his sweetheart back home he is a success. When she visits, he has to keep up the act, and to earn real money he arranges a publicity stunt in which a friend will climb the outside of the department store. The friend is chased off by a policeman, so the clerk does the climb himself, floor by floor, dodging pigeons, a collapsing ledge, a flagpole, and finally a clock that leaves him hanging from its hands high above the street. The climb is the most famous image in silent comedy. Harold Lloyd produced the film, Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor directed, and real buildings on real streets were used with carefully placed platforms just out of frame. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Action · Silent

A Laurel and Hardy silent short directed by James Parrott for Hal Roach Studios. Ollie and his wife invite Stan over for a quiet Sunday, but Stan's arrival turns the domestic peace into chaos. A golf outing degenerates into a series of disasters, and the boys end up in a mud fight with a group of women golfers. The film's comic premise—the destructive potential of an unwanted houseguest—was a perfect vehicle for the duo's escalating misfortune. The golf sequences showcase their physical comedy in an outdoor setting, and the escalating mud fight is a classic Roach studio free-for-all. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Short · Silent

A Hal Roach two-reel parody of Rex Beach's rugged Yukon novel The Spoilers — released the same year as yet another straight adaptation of the story. Stan Laurel, in one of the solo shorts he made before teaming with Oliver Hardy, plays prospector Bob Canister, whose gold claim is jumped by the corrupt local sheriff, played by perennial Roach foil James Finlayson. Directed by Ralph Ceder, the short spoofs the novel's legendary climactic brawl with a saloon fight that keeps escalating. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Western · Silent · Short

Oliver Hardy invites Stan Laurel over for a home-cooked meal, but the attempt to use Mrs. Hardy's new kitchen leads to culinary disaster, a destroyed apartment, and a run-in with their neighbor. The first all-talking Laurel and Hardy comedy, directed by Lewis R. Foster and produced by Hal Roach. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

A hypochondriac millionaire sails to a tropical island resort seeking rest and quiet, only to find himself in the middle of a revolution led by a brutal dictator. Harold Lloyd's feature-length comedy, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy