Double Whoopee
About Double Whoopee
A Broadway hotel is waiting for a German prince. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy arrive at the same moment, and the staff take Hardy for the prince. Their letter of introduction says they have come to work. Hardy is the footman and Laurel the doorman. Laurel shuts a taxi door on a blonde guest's dress, played by Jean Harlow, and the skirt tears off as the cab pulls away. The prince, busy posing, steps into an elevator whose car Hardy has already called. He drops down the shaft. Pulled out, he tries again, and Laurel sends the car away under him a second time.
Cast & crew
More about Double Whoopee
Lewis R. Foster directed this silent Hal Roach short. It was shot from February 5 to February 9, 1929, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released it on May 18, 1929. It runs 20 minutes. There is no spoken dialogue. William Gillespie plays the hotel manager, Charlie Hall the cab driver, and Ed Brandenburg a bellhop. The introduction card misspells the word competent.
Themes
Making
Roach shot it in five days in February 1929. Harlow's torn skirt is a door gag, not a strip staged in the lobby.
Preservation
The short survives complete. A print is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Jean Harlow's part is the guest whose dress is caught in the cab door. She is on screen only for that gag.
- The prince is dressed like a von Stroheim officer, white tunic and all, and preens before he will enter the lobby.
- The staff bow to Hardy until the letter is read.
- It is a silent short. Sound was not part of the shooting.
Scenes
- The cab drives off and Harlow's skirt stays in the door Laurel has closed.
- The prince steps where the elevator used to be and falls down the shaft, then does it again.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Double Whoopee (1929).webm)
