If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

How sad is this?

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Laurel and Hardy, clowns that they are, end up looking like them, but with chimney soot for makeup, not white greasepaint dabbed with the colors of the rainbow. They will drive nasty landlord Charlie Hall to the brink in this short, first hiding a dig, then getting locked outside, and finally ending up on the roof which can barely withstand the weight of the snow and the dog, let alone two grown men, actually one overgrown. It's a dark, rather sinister situation, with slow moving scenes indicating a melodramatic mood that it seems enjoying making fun of. There is a continuation after the first two reels flash "the end", seemingly more like an outtake than released footage. These three reelers were often dark in theme, its comedy more adult than some of their true classics.

This is probably one of the more well-known of Laurel & Hardy's shorts. I remember when I was a kid this one was shown all the time – although without that extra reel, which wasn't re-discovered until 1985. They don't seem to show Laurel & Hardy shorts on TV anymore which is a real shame; there's a whole generation growing up knowing little about the duo.In this one they try to conceal their little dog Laughing Gravy (possibly the only dog in cinema history to have a film named after him rather than the other way around) from their pint-size landlord, the permanently grumpy Charlie Hall. Of course, they're unsuccessful and when the landlord pitches the dog out into the snow, Ollie braves the elements to smuggle it back in. As always, the boys complicate things by attempting to haul Ollie up the side of the building using a couple of sheets tied together – with inevitable results. Although the snow is obviously fake and the location is a set, the film really does succeed in making you feel the cold as the boys slide around on the roof in their nightshirts.There isn't that much dialogue in this film – or at least in the first twenty minutes – nearly all the humour is physical, punctuated by a number of long despairing looks into the camera from Ollie. Stan stares at the camera too on occasion, but you can tell there isn't much going on inside his character's head. He looks at the camera and you can almost hear the cogs creaking as they turn.The laughs are pretty solid and arrive at fairly regular intervals until that final reel when things change entirely. It's not difficult to see why it was cut from the original because it just bears no relation to the rest of the film other than the fact that it is a protracted build up to a decent punch-line involving the dog.

In the pantheon of character actors that supported Laurel and Hardy over the years Charley Hall is second to Jimmy Finleyson as their constant foe (or victim). Hall was a good journeyman comedian, and appeared in many shorts besides those with the boys. Inevitably they irritate him (which may be why Finn is somewhat higher in the rating of their foes - Finn reacts to their comments, sometimes asking for mistreatment, but frequently being somewhat in the right; Charley usually just is bad tempered. In BE BIG Ollie and Stan are trying to get some ice cream for dinner at home that night. Charley is selling ice cream, and repeatedly tells Stan that they don't have Chocolate (apparently Stan's favorite). Finally instead of rattling off all the flavors he has, Charley grits his teeth and decides to list all the flavors he doesn't have! It still doesn't work.It's very possible that Charley's best performance against L & H was in LAUGHING GRAVY (possibly THEM THAR HILLS is equally good - but that was one of two shorts that are interconnected). LAUGHING GRAVY stands on it's own feet - it was a sound version of the silent short ANGORA LOVE, about the difficulties of the boys sneaking a goat into their rooming house when it won't stop following them. Later this plot would also be used in THE CHIMP, with a chimpanzee as the animal they have to keep hiding from their landlord (Billy Gilbert). But here it is Hall who is the landlord, and has been having problems with these two roomers some time before the short begins. He keeps being awaken by them and keeps threatening to send them out into the snow drifts outside. Stan has a cute little dog, "Laughing Gravy", and does not want to put the dog out into the snow. But there is a no-pets rule. The short expands on how they boys try to keep the dog in the room, but try to keep Charley from finding out. The results are usually at Ollie's expense, although both boys get locked out at one point. Ollie keeps getting soaked, and Charley keeps getting angrier and angrier at Ollie's making one disturbance after another. The culmination is when they are washing the dog, and Stan sees Hall staring at them - and pushes the dog out and starts washing Ollie's head in the soapy water instead!They are told to leave the boarding house. Here an interesting thing developed. It seems that many of the Laurel & Hardy films had scenes shot that were cut out (and not necessarily by television). Few of these have been found, though occasionally we know what they are (the Spanish version of PARDON US has a sequence involving the boys saving the warden's daughter from Walter Long during a fire - which apparently was in the English version too, but finally cut out of that version). In the case of LAUGHING GRAVY a ten minute sequence involving Stan getting a telegram and Ollie dying to know what it is about was dropped. They are packing when the telegram is delivered, and Stan reads it, but quickly folds it into his pocket. Ollie keeps asking what is on the telegram, but Stan says it's nothing. Ollie gets so annoyed, he starts singing a song, "You'll be sorry when it's too late...when our friendship has turned to hate!" Stan finally gives in, and gives Ollie the message. Stan has inherited a fortune from an uncle - but he has to give up his friendship with Ollie, who the uncle could not stand. The sequence is not a bad one, but one realizes why it was cut - it did nothing to further the plot line of the short. In fact, it was rather weak in comparison with the rest of the short (and costs the short a "10" out of "10" - it gets a "9" as a result). Still it is nice to occasionally see a lost sequence returned to any film.The real conclusion is when Hall (holding a hunting rifle) is waiting for the boys and Lauging Gravy to leave the boarding house. But as they are about to leave they hear nailing. They open the door and see a policemen has put up a quarantine sign there - Stan and Ollie can't leave with their dog now! Shocked beyond endurance by this twist, Hall says there is just so much a man can take. We see him walk off the camera's range. Then we hear two shots. The policeman enters to check the body, while Stan, Ollie, and Laughing Gravy head back upstairs. A really good conclusion to the short.

Laurel and Hardy have some trouble with a landlord who does not allow their dog. The dog is names Laughing Gravy. When the landlord discovers the dog he throws him out on the street in the cold snow. Laural and Hardy have to rescue the dog and make sure the landlord doesn't find out. You can understand the mayhem they will cause.The typical Laurel and Hardy humor, which is quite amusing, is a little too predictable here. This short gets funnier near the end, but the first half wasn't that good. Well, one little surprise was funny in that first half. Still, I enjoyed it.