The Battle of the Century (1927)

Director:

Clyde Bruckman

Writers:

Hal Roach (writer)
H.M. Walker (titles)

Release Date:

31 December 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Comedy

Plot:

Fight manager (Hardy) takes out an insurance policy on his puny pugilist (Laurel) and then proceeds...

Plot Keywords:

Two Reeler | Pie Fight

Cast

Stan Laurel	...	Prize fighter
Oliver Hardy	...	Manager
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jack Adams	...	Undetermined Role
Ed Brandenburg	...	Warring pedestrian
Dorothy Coburn	...	Pie victim boarding auto
George B. French	...	Dentist
Anita Garvin	...	Slips on pie
Dick Gilbert	...	Sewer worker
Charlie Hall	...	Pie delivery man
Jack Hill	...	Ringside spectator
Ham Kinsey	...	Ringside spectator
Sam Lufkin	...	Boxing referee
Gene Morgan	...	Ring announcer
Bob O'Connor	...	Warring pedestrian (as Bob O'Conor)
Eugene Pallette	...	Insurance agent
Bert Roach	...	Ringside spectator
Dick Sutherland	...	Dental patient
Lyle Tayo	...	Woman at window
Ellinor Vanderveer	...	Lady in car (as Ellinor Van der Veer)
Dorothea Wolbert	...	Warring pedestrian
Charley Young	...	Fruit vendor
Noah Young	...	Thunder-Clap Callahan

Runtime:

19 min (original version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Hal Roach Studios

Trivia:

An entire day's production from the Los Angeles Pie Company - some 3,000 pies - was used in the famous pie fight.

Goofs:

Continuity: 'Lou Costello' leaps from second row to ringside between shots.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld (1994) (TV)

Pretty much impossible to rate in its current form

This is one of the lost films of Laurel and Hardy--or at least partially lost. Today only about half of the film remains--all of the boxing sequence (which is pretty good) and bits and pieces of the giant pie fight. The rest, sadly, appears gone forever, though fans of the team hold out hope--after all, newly discovered bits and pieces have been found of many great supposedly missing or truncated films (such as the great recent find of a longer version of METROPOLIS). Because this film isn't totally intact, it's not fair that anyone should have to give it a numerical score, but IMDb forces this for all reviews. My score of 6 is because I really didn't think much of the pie fight and there just isn't enough of the original film left to get a better score.

By the way, according to IMDb, Lou Costello is an extra at ring side. I looked but couldn't really tell he was there. Perhaps he was the guy who caught Hardy at the end of the fight. The problem is that Costello would have been a lot thinner and younger--as he had himself been an amateur boxer about this same time period.

As far as pie fights go, this is probably the best and was the inspiration for the one in THE GREAT RACE many years later. Despite people thinking this is a slapstick cliché, there were actually very few pie fights ever shown on film and the few that did occur were rarely as big or crazy as this one--usually just a pie or two (like you'd see in a couple of The Three Stooges' films).

Also, and this is an odd one, during the fight scene, you see a pretty lady walking by "The Pink Pup". This is the same place you see featured in THAT'S MY WIFE and THEIR PURPLE MOMENT--two other silent Laurel and Hardy shorts.

If you do want to see this ten minute film, it's included in the huge UK DVD Laurel and Hardy collection.