“He who filters your good name steals trash”. Laurel and Hardy in Tit for Tat (1935)
This is a unique Laurel and Hardy film. It is their one and only sequel. All their other films involve a universe rebooted. With each film they are reborn, no matter what disaster has concluded their previous film. At the end of Midnight Patrol they are both murdered in cold blood, but nobody seriously thinks this is the end of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. They will simply be reborn in a different situation.
Apparently in some foreign language versions, Be Big and Laughing Gravy were presented as though a continuous story. But to all intents and purposes, Tit for Tat is the only sequel, the only film which references the events of a previous film – Them Thar Hills.
Stan and Ollie have just opened an electrical goods store. Unfortunately, this store is located right next door to Charley Hall and Mae Busch’s grocery. While Mae Busch is good natured about those tipsy adventures that took place during that memorable recent mountain holiday, Charley Hall (Stan and Ollie’s most frequent antagonist as it happens), is not.
Things go from bad to worse when an elevated platform sends Ollie shooting up to Mae’s bedroom window ledge.
As I always say – Stan and Ollie are innocents, but the world they inhabit is not innocent. When Mae invites Ollie into her bedroom so that he can walk safely down the steps, Ollie accepts without the slightest thought of illicit libidinous intent. But the sight of Mae and Ollie walking and laughing downstairs together is more than Charley can stand. The tit for tat is on. Or rather, back on.
This tit for tat battle, resumed after some interruption from Them Thar Hills, is wonderfully timed. Stan, Ollie, and Charley are all wonderfully patient while being titted and equally careful and methodical while tatting. Watches are stuffed into an electric blender. A cash till is filled with honey. No defense against these actions is possible. All you can do is watch the destruction of your property and/or dignity and plot your next move.
The self-destructiveness of endless reciprocal retribution is well illustrated. Stan and Ollie (mainly Ollie) are so busy with Charley that they ignore the far more serious threat to their livelihoods. Throughout the film, a polite and well-dressed man has been going into their shop and calmly stealing appliances. He begins with small hand-held items, then makes use of a wheel-barrow, before eventually investing in a rented truck to cart away the largest electrical goods. He does this brazenly and casually and at the end of the film our heroes have no stock left.
The effect of this juxtaposition is to illustrate how deliciously and distractingly compulsive irrational retribution can be. This film isn’t just funny, it’s actually quite wise.
Stan’s mangled quotation about “filtering your good name” comes from Shakespeare. I’m trying to imagine in what sort of context Stan (by which I mean “Stan” the character not “Stan Laurel” the accomplished actor and film maker) could have read or seen Othello. A bizarre and ludicrous context no doubt.
