Charlie Hall

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 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

Bela Lugosi at his most committedly absurd: Dr. James Brewster, a scientist whose experiments with ape glands have turned him into a stooped, shaggy ape-man who must harvest human spinal fluid to stay alive. Wallace Ford and Louise Currie play the reporters who stumble onto the story, and Henry Hall wanders through as the creepiest character in the picture — a mysterious man who keeps appearing to comment on events. Shot in a week for Monogram under William Beaudine, it is cheap even by poverty-row standards, but Lugosi plays the degradation with real conviction, and the final twist is genuinely strange. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi