''Why Girls Love Sailors'' is an American comedy short

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

directed by

Fred Guiol Fred Guiol (February 17, 1898 – May 23, 1964), pronounced "Gill," was an American film director and screenwriter. Guiol worked at the Hal Roach Studios for many years, first as a property man, later as assistant director and finally writer and ...

for Hal Roach Studios. It stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before they had become the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. It was shot during February 1927 and released July 17, 1927, by

Pathé Exchange Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the m ...

. It was considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

until the 1980s. Why Girls Love Sailors lobby card

Plot

The film starts with the loading of a ship called the Merry Maiden. Oliver is first mate on the ship and described as "a bully, the nastiest crew member, after the captain of course". He features a beard and a mustache, rather than his usual solitary mustache. Stan plays Willie Brisling a guy who is engaged to Nelly and they are in love. The captain leaves his ship, he sees Nelly and decides he wants her. Stan has a tattoo of a ship on his chest and shows it to the captain. The captain pours a jug of water down Stan's sweater and abducts Nelly. The captain takes Nelly to his ship and Stan sneaks on board to rescue her. Oliver starts to look for Stan. Stan decides to save Nelly his last hope is to get rid of the crew, one by one. Stan disguises himself as a prostitute. The crew begin to fall for his charms. Stan calls one of the crewmen over, he hits the crewman with a cosh and knocks him out. Then he throws the cosh at Oliver, who thinks the crewman threw the cosh. Oliver throws the crewman , overboard, this is repeated until all of the crew are in the sea. Nelly is being harassed by the captain. The captain's wife appears at the ship. The Captain takes a fancy to Stan. The wife appears as Stan is sat in the captain's lap. The captain's wife takes a gun and goes to shoot her husband. Stan stops her and takes off his wig. Stan says "this was a test to see if you really love your husband". The captain and wife begin to make up. But then the captain indicates he's going to "deal with Stan later". Stan is peeved, he opens the door and Nelly appears. Stan indicates the captain has been up to no good with Nelly and that four other loose women have already gone. The captain's wife is furious, Stan gives her the gun back. Stan and Nelly leave. There is a gunshot in the room. The wife, still angry, sees Stan and Nelly through a porthole and shoots them. Stan and Nelly's clothes fall off revealing their underwear.

Cast

Production

The film marks the first appearance of

Anita Garvin Anita Garvin (born Anna Frances Garvin; February 11, 1906 – July 7, 1994) was a tall American stage performer and film actress who worked in both the silent and sound eras."California Death Index, 1940-1997", Anita Garvin Stanley, February 11 ...

in a Laurel and Hardy picture; her involvement in the film was not known until the 1986 rediscovery. Deleted scenes from this film included actress

Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...

Lost film found

After its initial run in 1927 and particularly after

talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

eclipsed silent films marketability, ''Why Girls Love Sailors'' went missing in the U.S. for nearly fifty years.

Cinémathèque Française The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...

had a 16mm print, which French film critic Roland Lacourbe saw in 1971, and pronounced it mediocre. Skretvedt, Randy (1996). ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies''. Beverly Hills, CA: Past Times Publishing. , p. 81. When it was finally published, it was drawn from a 16mm print in a private collection, and only due to the efforts of a private collector in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. Laurel and Hardy author Glenn Mitchell is even less impressed by the film than was Lacourbe: "''Why Girls Love Sailors'' is one of several instances where the status of a 'lost' film has been reduced by its rediscovery," he writes.Mitchell, Glenn (1995). ''The Laurel & Hardy Encyclopedia''. London: Batsford, Ltd. , p.289. It is available in Europe on VHS and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

releases, with reconstructed credits. In the United States, both VHS and DVD editions are out of print.

References

External links

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Stills
at lordheath.com {{Fred Guiol 1927 films 1927 comedy films American black-and-white films American LGBT-related films American silent short films Films directed by Fred Guiol Laurel and Hardy (film series) Films with screenplays by H. M. Walker 1920s LGBT-related films 1920s rediscovered films Rediscovered American films Silent American comedy films 1920s American films