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Big Business is a american film of genre Comedy directed by James W. Horne released in USA on 20 april 1929 with Stan Laurel
Big Business (1929)
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Add to a movie listBig Business is a 1929 silent Laurel and Hardy comedy short subject directed by James W. Horne and supervised by Leo McCarey from a McCarey (uncredited) and H. M. Walker script. The film was deemed culturally significant and entered into the United States National Film Registry in 1992.
Synopsis
Stan and Ollie play door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen in California. They end up getting into an escalating feud with grumpy would-be customer James Finlayson. He, goaded by their repeated attempts to sell him a Christmas tree, destroys it with hedge-clippers. Laurel & Hardy retaliate by damaging the man's doorframe. He then goes to work on their clothes and this escalates with his home and their car being destroyed in the melee (after Finlayson has run out of Christmas trees to mangle). A police officer (Tiny Sandford) steps in to stop the fight (after vases are thrown out & smashed, and one hits him on the foot) and negotiates a peaceful resolution. Stan and Ollie give the homeowner a cigar as a peace offering. However, as the pair make their escape, the trick cigar promptly explodes in his face.Actors
Stan Laurel
(Stan)
Oliver Hardy
(Ollie)
James Finlayson
(Homeowner)
Charlie Hall
(Neighbor)
Tiny Sandford
(Policeman)
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Suggestions of similar film to Big Business
There are 488 films with the same actors, 158 films with the same director, 36632 with the same cinematographic genres, 1959 films with the same themes (including 9 films with the same 2 themes than Big Business), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked Big Business, you will probably like those similar films :
Be Big! (1931)
, 28minutesDirected by James W. Horne, James Gibbons Parrott
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anita Garvin, Charlie Hall, Baldwin Cooke, Jack Hill
Rating67%
Laurel and Hardy are almost on their way to Atlantic City with their wives, when Ollie gets a phone call from Cookie, a lodge buddy. Cookie tells Ollie that a stag party is taking place that night in their honor and reveals irresistible details of the event when Ollie says they won't be able to attend.
Beau Hunks (1931)
, 37minutesDirected by James W. Horne
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes French war films, Military humor in film, Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jean Harlow, James W. Horne, Charles Middleton, Tiny Sandford
Rating73%
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy join the French Foreign Legion after Ollie's sweetheart Jeanie-Weenie (only ever seen as a photograph) rejects him, as it is the only place where Ollie can forget her. When they arrive at the barracks in French Algeria, they discover that not only are the other soldiers trying to forget lost loves, their lost loves all happen to be the one and the same woman Ollie is trying to forget: Jeanie-Weenie!
Our Wife (1931)
, 20minutesDirected by James W. Horne
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Babe London, Blanche Payson, Charley Rogers
Rating72%
Oliver is making plans to be married to his sweetheart Dulcy with Stan as his best man, but the plans are thwarted when Dulcy's father sees a picture of Ollie and forbids the marriage. The couple plan to elope, and steal away at night to a Justice of the Peace. After typical Laurel and Hardy blundering, they manage to sneak the girl away from her father's house.
Laughing Gravy (1931)
Directed by James W. Horne, James Gibbons Parrott
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall, Anita Garvin, Harry Bernard, Charles Dorety
Rating72%
On a snowy winter's night, Laurel and Hardy try to keep their pet dog 'Laughing Gravy' hidden from their landlord, mostly without success. The landlord eventually orders them to leave, but fate takes a hand.
One Good Turn (1931)
, 20minutesDirected by James W. Horne
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Mary Carr, Gordon Douglas, Billy Gilbert
Rating70%
Stan and Ollie are suffering during the Great Depression and begging for food. A friendly old lady provides them with some sandwiches. Enjoying their meal they hear that the old lady will be thrown out of her house because she is robbed and cannot pay her mortgage. They don't know that the old lady is rehearsing a play. Stan and Ollie decide to repay the old lady by selling their car. During the auction a drunken man (Billy Gilbert) puts a wallet in Stan's pocket. Ollie accuses Stan of having robbed the old lady but when they return to the old lady's place they hear the truth. Stan takes revenge on Ollie.
Chickens Come Home (1931)
, 30minutesDirected by James W. Horne
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Mae Busch, Baldwin Cooke, Thelma Todd
Rating73%
Fertilizer dealer and mayoral candidate Ollie is confronted by an old flame (Mae Busch) at his office, threatening to publish an old photograph of the woman and Ollie riding piggyback on the beach if she is not paid off. Ollie agrees to meet her that evening to make a settlement, but Mrs. Hardy (Thelma Todd) arrives to remind him of a dinner party taking place at that same moment. Ollie recruits employee Stan to go to the woman's apartment while Ollie attends the party, a maneuver which does not please the woman, who demands Ollie's telephone number, touching off a variety of misunderstandings and suspicions of unfaithfulness between the boys, their wives, Ollie's butler and Mrs. Laurel's gossipy friend.
Liberty (1929)
, 20minutesDirected by Leo McCarey
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Tom Kennedy, Sam Lufkin, James Finlayson, Jack Hill
Rating74%
Stan and Ollie are prison escapees. In their haste to change into street clothes, they wind up wearing each other's pants. A cop chases them to a construction site, where they escape by riding an elevator to the top floor of an unfinished building. Atop the girders, 20 stories in the air, they finally switch trousers, contend with a crab that has found its way into Ollie's pants, and manage to nearly fall to their death a few dozen times.
Block-Heads (1938)
, 57minutesDirected by James W. Horne, John G. Blystone
Origin USA
Genres War, Comedy
Themes Political films, Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell, Billy Gilbert, James Finlayson
Rating74%
The film opens in the trenches of World War I where Ollie, Stan and the rest of their army company are ready to go 'over the top', but Stan is ordered to stay behind to guard the trench. Stock scenes of fighting are then seen followed by the caption 'Armistice'. Twenty years pass, and Stan is still guarding the post, as shown by the huge pile of bean cans he has accumulated, and the path he has worn pacing back and forth on guard. He is found by accident (after firing on a plane he sees approaching) and is brought home, feted as a hero. Ollie, who has been married for a year to the formidable Mrs. Hardy (Minna Gombell), sees him in a newspaper and visits him in the veterans' home. He finds Stan in a wheelchair, having apparently lost a leg, and invites him home. However, Stan is in fact just resting in another veteran's wheelchair and Ollie only finds out he still has both legs after pushing him around in the chair and then carrying him. Ollie, angrily: "Why didn't you tell me you had two legs?" Stan: "Well, you didn't ask me." They reach Ollie's automobile, which he says belongs to his wife and is 'practically new', but it is boxed in by a dump truck. Stan climbs into the cab to move it and inadvertently operates the dump mechanism, burying the car in sand and leaving only Ollie's head exposed. It is then completely wrecked when Ollie demonstrates the automatic garage door at his home and allows Stan to drive the car in to test it.
Any Old Port! (1932)
, 20minutesDirected by James W. Horne
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Sports films, Martial arts films, Boxing films, Le boxe anglaise, Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Julie Bishop, Walter Long, Charlie Hall, Eddie Baker
Rating72%
Sailors Laurel and Hardy disembark and book in a sleazy hotel. The owner Mugsie Long intends to marry a young girl against her wishes, but Stan and Ollie come to her rescue. After fleeing the hotel, the boys find out they've left their money in their room, but an old pal of Ollie's offers $50 if Ollie will fight in a boxing ring that night. Ollie agrees but predictably makes Stan the fighter and himself the manager. The catch is Stan's opponent is Mugsie himself. Knowing how tough Mugsie is, Ollie makes a seemingly wise bet with a drunk on Mugsie to win. The drunk accepts the bet, making himself seem to Ollie a sucker. Seeing Stan as his opponent, Mugsie loads his glove with metal before the fight begins. However, during the course of the fight, Mugsie and Stan accidentally switch gloves, causing Mugsie to comically run away from Stan knowing he has the loaded glove. Stan, who doesn't realize the glove is loaded despite it weighing his arm down, manages to knock out Mugsie when he tries to pull the loaded glove off his hand and winds up knocking himself out. Ollie winces in defeat while the drunk chuckles in triumph; turns out he wasn't so much a sucker after all. Mugsie's second calls a policeman and tells him Stan had been fighting with a loaded glove. Ollie is forced to give the drunk the money they received for entering the fight, to Stan's consternation, until Ollie explains, "I bet on you to lose and you double-crossed me!" Stan, enraged at his own buddy and manager betting against him, starts to knock Ollie out cold...but as he draws his fist back, he accidentally knocks out the policeman investigating about the loaded glove, ironically still on his hand! Stan and Ollie flee the stadium in terror.
Two Tars (1928)
, 21minutesDirected by Leo McCarey, James Gibbons Parrott
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Transport films, Films about automobiles, Buddy films
Actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Charlie Hall, Thelma Hill, Harry Bernard
Rating71%
Sailors on leave, Laurel and Hardy pick up two girls and spend the afternoon driving in the country. They find themselves in the middle of a huge traffic jam. Tempers boil over among the motorists, and soon the street is a mess of mangled cars and car parts.