A Happy Anniversary

In the interest of spreading good cheer, here's an anniversary worth celebrating - on this day 85 years ago, the first Laurel and Hardy film was released. Putting Pants on Philip is not exactly a classic, and Stan and Ollie have not yet settled into their archetypal incarnations, but the chemistry is already amazing, and there are glimmers of the comic wonders to come. Ollie plays a well-dressed, well-set-up fellow who's deeply embarrassed by the arrival of his Scottish nephew, Philip, in a kilt. The young fellow must be taken to a tailor forthwith and kitted out with trousers. But getting him there will not be straightforward - not least because Philip can't resist the ladies, leaping into the air in a cartoonish manner at sight of one and setting off in hot pursuit. Stan chasing skirt, imagine! Not to mention Stan in his kilt prefiguring Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch... There's a taster of Putting Pants on Philip here (with a rather tiresome voice-over) and the whole film can be tracked down by the determined on YouTube.