Bacon Grabbers
About Bacon Grabbers
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy work for the sheriff, sent to take back a radio from Collis P. Kennedy, who has paid nothing on it since 1921. Kennedy chases them off with a toy bulldog, then locks himself in. A wild shot from his rifle blows the top off a fire hydrant and soaks a policeman, who then helps them inside. They get the radio as far as the street and leave it there while they trade kicks with Kennedy. A steamroller flattens it. Mrs. Kennedy arrives and tells her husband she has just paid the debt. The set is theirs, in pieces. Laurel and Hardy laugh, and the steamroller comes back and flattens their car.
Cast & crew
More about Bacon Grabbers
Lewis R. Foster directed. Leo McCarey and H. M. Walker wrote it. Hal Roach produced, George Stevens photographed, and Richard C. Currier edited. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released it on October 19, 1929. It runs 20 minutes. There is no spoken dialogue. A synchronized organ score and effects were added for release. Edgar Kennedy plays Collis P. Kennedy. Jean Harlow plays his wife and is billed above the action she is in. Eddie Baker is the sheriff. Harry Bernard is the policeman.
Themes
Making
Stevens shot the chase on two real Los Angeles streets, with a working hydrant and a steamroller, rather than on a Roach interior.
Look
George Stevens photographed the repo chase at two houses in Cheviot Hills, including the hydrant Kennedy shoots and the steamroller that finishes the radio.
Music
No one speaks. Release prints carry a synchronized organ score and sound effects.
Preservation
The short survives, picture and synchronized track. A print is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Bacon grabbers was 1920s slang for repossession men.
- Kennedy's missed payments go back to 1921.
- Harlow, given star billing, is on screen for about 30 seconds at the end.
- The houses used are on Haddington Drive and Bannockburn Drive in Cheviot Hills.
- Charlie Hall plays a truck driver. Sam Lufkin appears in a sheriff's hat.
Scenes
- Kennedy's rifle shot uncapped a hydrant and drenched a policeman.
- The steamroller flattens the radio just after Mrs. Kennedy says she has paid for it, then comes back for the car.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Bacon Grabbers (1929).webm)
