Putting Pants on Philip
About Putting Pants on Philip
Piedmont Mumblethunder (Oliver Hardy) waits at the pier for his nephew Philip (Stan Laurel), who arrives from Scotland in a kilt and loses his head around women. Women faint when the kilt blows on a ventilator grate. Piedmont drags him to a tailor for trousers. Philip chases a girl, takes off the kilt to cover a puddle, and she walks around it. Piedmont steps on the kilt and falls into the mud.
Cast & crew
More about Putting Pants on Philip
Clyde Bruckman directed. Hal Roach produced. H. M. Walker wrote the titles. Leo McCarey is also credited on the script. George Stevens photographed it. Richard C. Currier edited. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released it on 3 December 1927. Part of the short was shot at the Culver Hotel. Dorothy Coburn is the girl Philip follows.
Themes
Making
Roach's unit used the Culver Hotel and a tailor shop. Stevens, later a feature director, was the cameraman.
Reviews
William K. Everson wrote that the short has brilliant pantomime from Laurel, sight gags, and a construction that builds steadily.
Look
George Stevens shot the pier arrival, the ventilator-grate gag, and the muddy finish.
Preservation
The short survives. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Wes D. Gehring identifies this as the first official Laurel and Hardy film as a team. They had already appeared in the same pictures without that billing.
- Sam Lufkin, Jack Hill, and Harvey Clark are in the street scenes.
- William K. Everson called the short one of their most unusual and one of their best, and singled out Laurel's pantomime.
- A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
- The kilt, not a pair of lost trousers, is what ends in the mud.
Scenes
- Philip steps onto a ventilator and the kilt blows up in front of a crowd.
- He lays the kilt over a puddle for a girl, and she walks around it.
- Hardy steps on the kilt and drops into the mud. The last shot is his face.
