BIG BUSINESS (1929) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - James W. Horne, Leo McCarey

Written by - H.M. Walker, Leo McCarey

Starring - Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy

"By 1929, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had been together for almost three years, and had created one of the most powerful team ups in cinema history. Big Business, which was released that year, is one of their most definitive works and one of the best films of the golden age of silent slapstick comedy. 

In this film, Laurel and Hardy play two Christmas Tree door-to-door salesmen in sunny California - already a hilarious set up because of its natural paradox. They run into a man who is eventually angered by their persistance, and their ineptitude leads to a funny feaud in which each of the party destroys the other party's property. 

Aside from it being gloriously hilarious, and a perfect example of the extreme craftsmanship and potential of so called lowbrow entertainment, Big Business represents the culmination of one of the favoured structures of the films of Laurel and Hardy. This was one which Leo McCarey, who co-created many of their films including this one, called "Reciprocating Destruction". 

In Big Business, the succession of evil ingeniousness mixed with a fundamental ineptutide and an overall childishness happens in a crescendo that leads up to an amazing cathartic finale. Everything in the film seems to be following a cohesive and musical rhythm, not only in the gags, but also with everything that happens around the eccentric clownish scene - the crowd gathering around and the police eventually approaching them. It is almost as if Big Business were taking place in an absurd alternative universe, a street corner in a city in which we are sure other comedy greats also create havoc on an hourly basis. 

Laurel and Hardy show great chemistry and a wonderful understanding, but one must not forget to also praise James Finlayson, aka Fin, who often played their antagonist and contributed to the delight of the duo's film, not least of all because of his own excellent supporting comedic persona as the high-tempered, eye squinting man."

Comedy, USA