Oliver Hardy

Stan and Ollie inherit a South Sea island, but on the voyage out their boat runs aground on a new atoll rising from the sea, where they declare their own tiny nation, until the discovery of uranium brings the world's powers swarming. The final film of Laurel and Hardy, a Franco-Italian co-production released in the U.S. as Utopia. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

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 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

After Ollie is rejected by the innkeeper's daughter, he and Stan join the French Foreign Legion so he can forget her, only to find themselves marching through the desert and tangled in a local rebellion. The boys' only non-Hal Roach feature. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

A silent-era, very loose adaptation of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, written, directed by, and starring Larry Semon as the Scarecrow. The plot barely resembles the familiar 1939 film: a tyrannical wizard rules Oz, a farmhand disguised as a scarecrow helps a deposed princess, and Oliver Hardy (before his partnership with Stan Laurel) plays the Tin Woodsman. Semon stuffs the film with his trademark gag-heavy, slapstick style, and the result is a curious artifact more than a classic, but it is the earliest surviving feature-length Oz adaptation. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Fantasy · Comedy · Adventure · Silent

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