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Block-Heads
''Block-Heads'' is a 1938 American comedy film directed by John G. Blystone and starring Laurel and Hardy, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It was produced by Hal Roach Studios for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, a reworking of elements from the Laurel and Hardy shorts ''We Faw Down'' (1928) and ''Unaccustomed As We Are'' (1929), was Roach's final film for MGM. Plot In the trenches of World War I, Oliver (Ollie), Stan, and their fellow soldiers as they prepare for combat. However, Stan is relegated to trench duty while his comrades proceed into battle. Subsequently, the film fast-forwards two decades, revealing Stan's continued vigilance at his post, symbolized by the accumulation of bean cans and the well-worn path of his patrol. His accidental discovery prompts a hero's welcome upon his return home, where he reunites with Ollie, now married to Mrs. Hardy. Upon visiting Stan at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, Soldiers' Home, Ollie discovers him seemingly wheelchair-bound, leading ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurel And Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "sound film, talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" (by Hollywood composer Marvin Hatley, T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats. Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had appeared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minna Gombell
Minna Marie Gombell (''née'' Gombel; May 28, 1892 – April 14, 1973) was an American stage and film actress. Early years She was born Minna Marie Gombel in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of William and Emma M. Debring Gombel. Her father was a medical doctor who came to the United States from Germany in 1880. Her mother was from Baltimore and of German descent. Life and work Gombell was active in stock theater, starring with troupes in Albany, Atlanta, Cleveland, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. Her Broadway credits include ''Indiscretion'' (1928), ''The Great Power'' (1928), ''Ballyhoo'' (1926), ''Alloy'' (1924), ''Mr. Pitt'' (1923), ''Listening in'' (1922), ''On the Hiring Line'' (1919), ''The Indestructible Wife'' (1917), ''Six Months' Option'' (1917), and ''My Lady's Garter'' (1915). She had a successful stage career from 1912 as Winifred Lee before being signed by the Fox Film Corporation in the late 1920s. Her first film was ''Doctors' Wives'' (1931) in which she played ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Slover
Karl Slover (September 21, 1918 – November 15, 2011) was a Slovakian-born American actor best known as one of the Munchkins in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Only three other adult Munchkin performers remained alive at the time of Slover's death. Early years Slover was born as Karl Kosiczky on September 21, 1918, in Prakovce, Slovakia (then Prakfalva, Kingdom of Hungary). Diagnosed at an early age with pituitary dwarfism, Slover was barely two feet tall by his eighth birthday. Dwarfism was not a family trait; his father stood six feet six inches, and his mother was just a few inches shorter. Slover's father went to great lengths to make Slover taller, including taking him to Hungary, where doctors fixed stretchers to his arms and legs. Career When Slover was just nine years old, his father sent him to work for a traveling show based out of Berlin, Germany. After working with the show for several years, Slover moved to the United States where he joined another traveling s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patricia Ellis
Patricia Ellis (born Patricia Gene O'Brien; May 20, 1918 – March 26, 1970) was an American film actress from 1932 to 1939, who then had a brief singing career until 1941. Early years Born in Birmingham, Michigan, in 1918 (although she gave her year of birth to the Social Security Administration as 1920), Ellis was the eldest of four children born to Eugene Gladstone O'Brien, a Detroit insurance salesman, and Florence ( Calkins), who married on April 16, 1917. Ellis's younger siblings were Joseph, Eugene, and Margery. Her parents divorced 12 years later, on April 19, 1929, when Patricia was 10 years old, reportedly "with the understanding that during the summer months the children ... were to remain with their mother and the father was to keep them during the school year". She was later known as Patricia Leftwich after her mother married Alexander Leftwich, described as "an eminent New York producer of musical shows." She had a step-brother, Alexander Leftwich Jr. Her childhood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Gilbert
William Gilbert Barron (September 12, 1894 – September 23, 1971), known professionally as Billy Gilbert, was an American actor and comedian. He was known for his comic sneeze routines. He appeared in over 200 feature films, short subjects and television shows beginning in 1929. Career Early life and vaudeville career The child of singers with the Metropolitan Opera, he was born on September 12, 1894, in a dressing room at the Hopkins Opera House in Louisville, Kentucky. As a child, he lived in San Francisco, and he left school to be in a troupe of singing children. His early work included a female-impersonation act and professional boxing. Gilbert began working in vaudeville at the age of 12, and later played in burlesque on the Columbia and Mutual wheels. Big break in films Gilbert was spotted by Stan Laurel, who was in the audience of Gilbert's show ''Sensations of 1929''. Laurel went backstage to meet Gilbert and was so impressed by him he introduced him to comedy pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
We Faw Down
''We Faw Down'' is a synchronized sound short subject film directed by Leo McCarey starring comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 29, 1928. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized orchestral musical score with sound effects. It was remade in part with their film '' Sons of the Desert'' in 1933. Plot Stan and Ollie are about to attend a poker game when Ollie receives a telephone call telling them their absence is holding up the game. Ollie then tells their wives they have a business engagement at the Orpheum Theater and sneak off to their poker game. En route, they gallantly stop to assist two young ladies retrieve a hat that has blown under a parked car. They end up being soaked by a passing street-cleaning vehicle while trying to retrieve it. The girls invite them up to their apartment while their clothes dry. One of the females becomes very amorous with Stan and all proceed to become blotto with b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chill Wills
Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet. Early life Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas, on July 18, 1902. Career Wills was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s. He provided the deep voice for Stan Laurel's performance of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in ''Way Out West (1937 film), Way Out West'' (1937), in which the Avalon Boys Quartet appeared. After appearing in a few western film, Westerns, he disbanded the group in 1938, and struck out on a solo acting career. During the 1940s, Wills was a contract player for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, appearing in Westerns. Wills was also cast in a number of dramatic roles, including as "the City of Chicago" as personified by a phantom police sergeant in the film noir ''City That Never Sleeps'' (1953), and that of Uncle Bawley in ''Giant (1956 film), Giant'' (1956), which also features ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Bond
Thomas Ross Bond (September 16, 1926 – September 24, 2005) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He was best known for his work as a child actor for two nonconsecutive periods in ''Our Gang'' (''Little Rascals'') comedies (first as "Tommy" and later as "Butch"). Also, he is noted for being the first actor to appear onscreen as DC Comics character Jimmy Olsen, in the film serials ''Superman'' (1948) and '' Atom Man vs. Superman'' (1950). Biography Early years and ''Our Gang'' Born in Dallas, Texas, Bond got his start in 1931 at the age of 5 when a talent scout for Hal Roach studios approached him as he was walking down a Dallas street with his mother. Bond was hired at Hal Roach Studios for the ''Our Gang'' series in the summer of 1931 to begin work that upcoming fall, at around the same time as George "Spanky" McFarland was hired. Bond worked in ''Our Gang'' for three years, alternately appearing as a supporting character and a background actor. His speaki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvin Hatley
Thomas Marvin Hatley (April 3, 1905 – August 26, 1986), professionally known simply as Marvin Hatley, was an American film composer and musical director, best known for his work for the Hal Roach studio from 1929 until 1940. Hatley wrote many of the musical cues appearing in the ''Our Gang'', ''Laurel and Hardy'', and ''Charley Chase'' films. His most memorable composition is "Dance of the Cuckoos" (also known as "Ku-Ku", or "The Cookoo Song"), which serves as Laurel and Hardy's theme song. He was also the "player piano" (performing off-screen) in '' The Music Box'' (1932). His work in Laurel and Hardy's films '' Way Out West'' and ''Block-Heads'' earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1939, Hatley was fired from the Roach studio. At the insistence of Stan Laurel, however, he did return to score one final Laurel & Hardy film, '' Saps at Sea''. Hatley went on to become a lounge pianist, and often remarked that he earned more money in that care ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Finlayson (actor)
James Henderson Finlayson (27 August 1887 – 9 October 1953) was a Scottish actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Balding, with a fake moustache, he had many trademark comic mannerisms—including his squinting, outraged double-take reactions, and his characteristic exclamation: "D'ooooooh!" He is the best remembered comic foil of Laurel and Hardy. Finlayson was known by a variety of nicknames. According to Laurel and Hardy scholar Randy Skretvedt, he "called himself Jimmy, was known around the lot as Jim and is usually referred to today as 'Fin'"Skretvedt, p. 77—a truncated version of his surname, as author John McCabe also noted in his 1961 biography ''Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy''. Early life and stage career Born in Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland to Alexander and Isabella (née Henderson) Finlayson, James worked as a tinsmith before pursuing an acting career. As part of John Clyde's company, he played Jamie Ratcliffe in ''Jeanie Deans'' at the Theatre R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unaccustomed As We Are
''Unaccustomed As We Are'' is the first sound film comedy starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, released on May 4, 1929. The title, ''Unaccustomed As We Are...'', was a spoofing reference to the fact that its two stars had never before spoken audibly in their films. And in point of fact, although it ''was'' a film with dialogue, the soundtrack mostly carried music, and sound effects, with dialogue a long way third. In case the Talkies did not prove popular, and in order to be released in theatres which had not yet been converted for sound, Hal Roach hedged his bets by releasing it in both the new All-Talking format and in Silent format (in the latter case, with intertitles carrying the dialogue). As with the Laurel and Hardy silent films, visual gags remained the heart and soul of the picture: the characters were certainly talking, but the comedy was not yet in the dialogue, the film still relied entirely on sight-gags for its laughs. The film entered the public domain in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeffie Tilbury
Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury (20 November 1863 – 24 July 1950) was an English-American actress. profile at Cinemorgue. Early years Born in , , England, Tilbury was the only child of the variety performer and John Christian Tilbury, a riding-master and "fashionable 'man about town'" from a comfortably wealthy background, his grandfather, of the Tilbury family firm of London coachbuilders, having created the[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
