Their Purple Moment (1928)

good back-story, and good acting

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is another of Laurel & Hardy's early shorts that I watched on Hulu as linked from IMDb. This seems to be the first time they have wives that boss them around so they have to sneak around in order to have some fun like later on in films like Be Big or Sons of the Desert. In this one, Stan & Ollie go to a restaurant after a couple of men run out on their dates so the boys volunteer to help pay for the women (Kay Deslys, Anita Garvin) left behind. But both men find out their wives took their money without them knowing. And the gossiping woman, seeing them all there, goes back to tell the spouses what's what. I'll stop there and just say that not much funny happens until the food fight that ends the picture. It replaced an earlier sequence that involved Stan & Ollie dressing as women that was filmed but I'm guessing that's now lost. There's a still from that scene in Randy Skrevedt's book "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies". On that point, Their Purple Moment is at least worth a look.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Mr. Pincher (Laurel) is having to give his wife (Fay Holderness) some money, and he hides his money in what seems a very good secret hiding place for his money, a painting of a man wearing a coat, with the coat opening up. She sees this hiding place, and takes quite a lot of cash without him knowing, and then he and and Ollie decide to go and enjoy themselves, telling their wives they are going to the bowling alley. On their way, the boys stop outside a restaurant to look at some photos, watching some men chucked out for not paying. They see the two women (Kay Deslys and Anita Garvin) left by them, and they invite them to join them for a meal, and a local Gossip (Patsy O'Byrne) sees them and goes to tell Mrs. Pincher and Mrs. Hardy (Lyle Tayo) what their husbands are up to. The boys meanwhile are doing a couple of tricks for the women, and order some steaks, and when Pincher wants to treat some stage performers, that's when he notices the little he has in his wallet. He is whimpering as he watches Ollie and the women tuck in to their meals he knows he can't pay for, and when Ollie finally sees the wallet too, they both try to escape a couple of times. Eventually the Waiter ('Tiny' S.J. Sandford) wanting payment comes over, sees the wallet, and the boys are chased by him, and just after the wives arrive. Everyone is in the kitchen, Ollie blames Pincher for everything, and Pincher unintentionally starts a food fight with the chef and everyone else joins, with Ollie last to get a pie in the face. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable silent film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!

Stan and Ollie have tough wives. No only are these women meaner looking than those you usually see in a Laurel and Hardy domestic comedy, but they are incredibly over-bearing and keep practically every dime the boys make. It didn't seem all that surprising then when they boys wanted to stash away a few bucks and go for a night on the town. The problem is that Stan's wife finds the stash and substitutes it for coupons. The other problem is that the boys run up a huge tab and chase after girls. Hmm....perhaps the wives DID have the right idea after all! I was very surprised when I looked at all the reviews on IMDb for this early Laurel and Hardy film because the ratings were so darn low. I can't understand this as this is a pretty typical Laurel and Hardy short--certainly NOT among their worst. Another thing that surprised me is that IMDb mentions a lost segment with midgets, but there were quite a few scenes in this film with midgets performing at a nightclub (the ubiquitous "Pink Pup").The film has more than its share of laughs and is highly reminiscent of many of the team's better efforts such as SONS OF THE DESERT and BLOTTO. Sure, it's familiar--but it's also quite funny.By the way, I mentioned The Pink Pup because I recently noticed that it also appears in at least two other Laurel and Hardy films made about this same time--THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY and THAT'S MY WIFE.

For about three-fourths of the way, Their Purple Moment is a sharp, funny Laurel & Hardy comedy, albeit one with a distinctly sour take on married life. This is the first of the L&H domestic comedies, and sets the tone for much of what would follow: Stan and Ollie are each at the mercy of their domineering wives, a pair of hard-bitten shrews who treat them like children, promptly appropriate their paychecks, and deny them any pleasures. (Later on the wives would usually be more nuanced, sometimes even sympathetic, but in this early film they're quite mean.) In what would become a standard plot for the team, this film tells the sad story of what happens when the boys attempt to fool their spouses. Of course, the only question is just how disastrously the situation is going to backfire.Here, Stan and Ollie tell the wives they're going bowling, then defiantly set out on a spree, under the delusion they've got lots of cash on hand. So when they encounter two attractive young ladies in distress, stuck with a bill they can't pay, naturally, they step in and gallantly offer to treat them to dinner. And it's all downhill from there!The situation the boys blunder into is a well-constructed comic nightmare that steadily builds in intensity, and the sequence is genuinely suspenseful -- right up to the food-fight finale, which is such a fizzle it practically ruins the whole show. This is surprising, considering that, according to the various books on the team, a much more offbeat and imaginative ending was planned and filmed, but then jettisoned. The original finale utilized the midget troupe of entertainers who perform a floor show in the restaurant. In the earlier version, when the boys discover they have no money to pay their bill, they were to escape by disguising themselves as midgets -- midget women, at that -- and slip away with the troupe. The idea flirts with tastelessness, but it sure seems funnier and more memorable than the finale as it stands now.Oh well. There are good reasons to watch and enjoy Their Purple Moment nonetheless, among them the famous gag of the uncle's portrait with the hidden pocket, the spirited performance of Patsy O'Byrne as the town gossip, and the always welcome presence of Anita Garvin, here playing a good-time gal who packs a knife. There's also a priceless close-up of Stan, when it dawns on him that he has no money to cover the ever-growing tab: in an extended shot he displays a remarkable range of expressions, from horror to befuddlement, to hope and despair and back again. He was the greatest!