The Battle of the Century
About The Battle of the Century
Ollie, short of money, puts Stan in the ring as Canvasback Clump against Thunderclap Callahan, for a $500 purse. Stan knocks Callahan down and then will not go back to his corner, so the count never finishes. Callahan gets up and flattens him. An insurance man sells Ollie a policy on Stan that pays only if Stan is hurt. Ollie plants a banana peel. A pie man slips on it instead. The argument becomes a street fight fought with pies.
Cast & crew
More about The Battle of the Century
Clyde Bruckman directed. Hal Roach produced. The story is credited to Roach, H. M. Walker, and Leo McCarey. George Stevens photographed it. Richard C. Currier edited. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released it on 31 December 1927. Noah Young plays Thunderclap Callahan. Eugene Pallette plays the insurance agent. Charlie Hall is the pie delivery man.
Themes
Making
The banana peel was supposed to injure Stan for the insurance. It takes down the pie wagon instead, and the rest of the reel is the street.
Look
George Stevens shot the ring and the pie fight in the street.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The boxing reel was found in 1979. The second reel, including the pie fight and scenes long missing, was identified in 2015. The 2020 restoration runs 26 minutes 8 seconds. It entered the public domain in the United States in 2023.
Notes
- Stan's ring name in the film is Canvasback Clump.
- Counts of the pies used in the street fight run from over 3,000 to as many as 10,000.
- For years only the pie fight was known. Richard Feiner found the boxing reel in 1979.
- Jon Mirsalis announced the second reel in June 2015 at the Mostly Lost workshop in Culpeper, Virginia. The 16mm print came from Gordon Berkow, who had it from Robert Youngson, and it was printed from the original 35mm negative.
- Lobster Films began a restoration. Jeff Joseph finished work with the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The result is in Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations, issued on DVD and Blu-ray in 2020. That digital remaster runs 26 minutes 8 seconds.
- A young Lou Costello is in the prizefight crowd.
- The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2023.
Scenes
- Stan knocks Callahan down and refuses to return to the corner, so the referee cannot finish the count.
- A pie man hits the banana peel Ollie set for Stan.
- The sidewalk fills with people throwing pies.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Battle of the Century.webm)
- Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations (DVD and Blu-ray, 2020)
