Six Laurel and Hardy silent films, presented in complete, beautiful new 35mm prints struck from original camera negatives (with the exception of Duck Soup). The Return of Laurel and Hardy is presented by John Quinn in cooperation with Hal Roach Studio.

Duck Soup
Based on a sketch written by Stan Laurel's father, Duck Soup is considered a silent blueprint for the talkie, Another Fine Mess. It was also Laurel and Hardy's first film together (with the exception of their brief, accidental appearance together in the 1917 comedy, Lucky Dog). “The incredible thing about Duck Soup,” writes William K. Everson, “is how naturally and easily the two comics gravitate together, working as a team even though the film was not written with that in mind....”
• Directed by Fred Guiol. Produced by Hal Roach. Supervised by Leo McCarey. Based on a Music Hall sketch, “Home from the Honeymoon,” by Arthur Jefferson. With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Madeline Hurlock, William Austin. (1927)

You're Darn Tootin'
Stan and Ollie make beautiful comedy together as professional musicians who innocently ruin any concert.
• Directed by E. Livingston (Edgar) Kennedy. Produced by Hal Roach. Supervised by Leo McCarey. Photographed by Floyd Jackman. With Laurel, Hardy, Sam Lufkin, Chet Brandenberg. (1928)

Double Whoopee
Featuring “Hal Roach's latest find,” Jean Harlow, Double Whoopee spoofs the false nobility of Erich von Stroheim in Foolish Wives. With Stroheim's double and stand-in, Jack Peters.
• Directed by Lewis R. Foster. Produced by Hal Roach. Photographed by George Stevens and Jack Roach. With Laurel, Hardy, Jean Harlow, Jack Peters. (1929)

Habeas Corpus
Hired by a mad scientist to steal bodies from a cemetery, Laurel and Hardy combine many traditional slapstick routines with their own comic genius in a delightfully spooky graveyard setting.
• Directed by James Parrott. Produced by Hal Roach. Supervised by Leo McCarey. Photographed by Len Powers. With Laurel, Hardy, Richard Carle. (1928)

Liberty
Escaped convicts Laurel and Hardy attempt to re-enter society, the hard way, with innumerable pants-changings, and ending with the boys hanging from the girders of an unbuilt building (“flawlessly done, technically quite up to Harold Lloyd standards” William K. Everson).
• Directed by Leo McCarey. Produced by Hal Roach. Photographed by George Stevens and Jack Roach. With Laurel, Hardy, James Finlayson, Jean Harlow. (1929)

Big Business
“The apotheosis of all Laurel & Hardy films...the funniest two reels on film.... in its precise mounting excitement, attention to detail, meticulous editing, and no-pause-for-breath action, it is to the comedy film what The Birth of a Nation is to the historical spectacle.” William K. Everson, The Films of Laurel and Hardy.
• Directed by James Wesley Horne. Produced by Hal Roach. Supervised by Leo McCarey. Photographed by George Stevens. With Laurel, Hardy, James Finlayson. (1929)