Hustling for Health
About Hustling for Health
Stan Laurel is off on a rest cure and misses his train at Santa Fe Station. A stranger offers a bed, hands him a stack of parcels, and spends Stan's ticket. At the next stop the horse bolts, and Stan is put in the shafts. The man's wife is hosting a meeting on whether husbands are human beings or microbes. Stan breaks it up, then cleans the yard by throwing the rubbish over the wall into Mr. Spotless's garden. When the wife will not cook, he lifts a pie and the rest of the neighbor's dinner from the windowsill. The Spotlesses sit down to their own food, blame Stan, and send him out. He stays in the rain to flirt with their daughter across the wall.
Cast & crew
More about Hustling for Health
Hal Roach produced the one-reeler for Rolin. Frank Terry is the credited director; some listings also put Roach on the direction. Robert Doran photographed it and Thomas J. Crizer cut it. Pathé Exchange released it on 2 February 1919. It was the last comedy Laurel made for Roach before he left the studio. He returned five years later.
Themes
Making
The Rolin short was Laurel's solo work, years before the team with Oliver Hardy. Pathé handled the release.
Look
Robert Doran photographed the Rolin one-reeler, from the missed train at Santa Fe Station through the garden fight.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Frank Terry also plays the homeowner who invites Stan in. Marie Mosquini plays the wife.
- Bud Jamison is Mr. Spotless and Margaret Joslin is Mrs. Spotless. Noah Young doubles as the train conductor and a health inspector who orders the yard cleaned.
- A boy, Jerome LaPlanche, drives the buggy and whips Stan once Stan is pulling it.
Scenes
- Stan, whipped by the boy in the driver's seat, pulls the buggy home.
- Mrs. Spotless recognizes her own dinner on the table next door.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-hustling-for-health)
