Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)

Oliver invites his friend Stanley over for a nice home-cooked meal, but Mrs. Hardy wants nothing to do with it and walks out. Mrs. Kennedy, Oliver's beautiful neighbor from across the hall,... See full summary »

Directors:

Lewis R. Foster, Hal Roach

Writer:

H.M. Walker (dialogue)

Stars:

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Stan Laurel	...	Stan
Oliver Hardy	...	Ollver Hardy
Edgar Kennedy	...	Officer Kennedy
Mae Busch	...	Mrs. Hardy
Thelma Todd	...	Mrs. Kennedy

Storyline

Oliver invites his friend Stanley over for a nice home-cooked meal, but Mrs. Hardy wants nothing to do with it and walks out. Mrs. Kennedy, Oliver's beautiful neighbor from across the hall, volunteers to help out, but the boys' bumbling soon has her dress on fire. Her husband, a policeman, investigates the ruckus just as Oliver gets the now partially-unclad Mrs. Kennedy hidden in a trunk. Kennedy's boasting of how he handles his own womanizing backfires when his wife pops out of the trunk and blackens his eye. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hardy has returned and wonders what all the noise is coming from next door.

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Plot Keywords:

fire | chest | oven | nail | falling down stairs | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 May 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Their Last Word

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

21 min 18 min (silent) 21 min (sound)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Being Laurel and Hardy's first sound film, it introduced two gags which used sound as a major element and became classics which would be re-used. The first involved Officer Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy) getting his comeuppance from his wife in the room across the hall (heard as a collection of off-screen yells and crashes). The second involved Stan Laurel tripping at the top of the stairs followed by the sound of him supposedly tumbling down the entire flight.

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Connections

Edited into Dance of the Cookoos (1982)

User Reviews

OK but not fantastic

Laurel and Hardy are enjoying a game of pool, when Mr Hardy tells Laurel all about his wife's cooking and decides to invite him round to get some food. However the expectation of food is too much for Mrs Hardy and she refuses leaving the duo to cook for themselves. After a bad start a neighbour offers a little help which only leads to more trouble.

The title refers to the phrase used by after dinner speakers `unaccustomed as I am to public speaking etc' and is used as, in terms of their shorts, the duo were unaccustomed to it as this was their first `talky'. As such the sound quality is pretty poor and at some points the dialogue doesn't flow very well because it sounds like it is being said very deliberately so as to be clearly heard. This slows the action down which is a bad thing because the comedy isn't as to the fore as usual.

There are still some funny scenes but it didn't totally work for me. Hardy didn't do as well as he usually does, although Laurel was as good as I'm used to him being. The support cast are amusing and do better with the dialogue than Hardy (not sure why) but it is more Laurel's film than before.

Overall this is a good short in that it has several good scenes that are funny, but, because they are just starting out with sound on film here, they are not as good as they quickly become.