![]() So too are Roach's non Laurel and Hardy features a mixed bag, but any movie buff is sure to find a favourite from among Topper, Turnabout, One Million B.C. Whatever issues with money or credit or interference that Stan and Hal had run into, at least Roach usually let the boys have their way. Stan would later admit that it was a mistake. Stan and Oliver, always under separate contracts to Roach, had decided to leave the studio in search of greener pastures which they would not find at Twentieth Century Fox or MGM. Some have the feel of being padded the extra reels while others are classics from Babes in Toyland to Way Out West to Sons of the Desert. Laurel and Hardy's features are a mixed bag. His features of the 1920s, westerns and adventures, did not have the backing of his distributors nor the success of the shorter films. Roach had longed to make this move for sometime. Hal Roach moved into more feature productions, even for the masters of the short film, Laurel and Hardy. Animated cartoons began filling that slot in a movie night lineup. The sheen was coming off the short film products as the 1930s wore on. The staff would preview the films within an inch of their lives, timing the laughs so they could edit to the second. He knew the characters, he knew gags, he knew what worked. This expensive, and I'm sure tiring, experiment did not last long, but perpetually endeared the stars to their worldwide fans.Īlthough not credited as a director on the Laurel and Hardy films, Stan was always the welcome support to James Parrott, James Horne, Leo McCarey, etc. Learning or reading their lines phonetically displayed on a chalkboard, and with different supporting casts, Laurel and Hardy remade their shorts for Spanish, German, French and Italian audiences. Previously silent pictures had no barrier to foreign markets. Roach also had popular stars like Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly under contract. The advent of sound or talking pictures was no impediment to the popular team or to Our Gang. In 1920 they would find a permanent home in Culver City. Early rental spaces for the Lot included Santa Monica Boulevard, Olive Street and the Bradbury Mansion on Court Street. Roach took equal pride in providing a working environment that brought out the best in all. Hal Roach took pride in the quality of product they presented to the public. Roach also determined that the public was tiring of the purely slapstick so he, his directors and stars moved into more character-based comedy. With Lloyd as his star and distribution assured, at least for his comedies, Roach set about creating a studio and a standardized process. Shorts still ruled the screen with the public demanding more and better. Comedians such as Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle and Lloyd were creating their own personas and improving the quality of their pictures with plot and characterization. Lonesome Luke and Harold Lloyd had really taken off. Roach longed to make features and every sort of film but was finding his comedies to be his most successful product. ![]() ![]() In the second half of the decade, Hollywood solidified itself as the centre of the movie business.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |