The Music Box
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| The Music Box | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card to Music Box (1932) |
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| Directed by | James Parrott |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Written by | H.M. Walker |
| Starring | Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy |
| Music by | Harry Graham Marvin Hatley Leroy Shield |
| Cinematography | Len Powers Walter Lundin |
| Editing by | Richard C. Currier |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | April 16, 1932 |
| Running time | 30 minutes. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Music Box is a Laurel and Hardy short film comedy made in 1932. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film won the very first Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (Comedy) in 1932. It has been considered culturally significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Stan and Oliver start a moving company. They must deliver a heavy player piano up a preposterously tall flight of stairs.
[edit] Cast
- Stan Laurel as Stan Laurel
- Oliver Hardy as Oliver Hardy
- Billy Gilbert as Professor von Schwarzenhoffen
- Charlie Hall as Postman
- Lilyan Irene as Nursemaid
- Sam Lufkin as Police Officer
- William Gillespie as Piano Salesman
[edit] Quotes
- The Professor: I should like to pass
Ollie: Why don't you walk around?
The Professor: What, walk around? Me, Professor Theodore von Schwarzenhoffen, M.D., A.D., D.D.S., F.L.D., F.F.F. and F., should walk around?!
- Stan: Don't you think you are bounding over your steps?
Police Officer: Whadd'ya mean, "bounding over my steps?"
Ollie: (trying to cover up for Stan) Oh, I think he means "overstepping your bounds"!
- Ollie: (cheerfully) Why, we just delivered your piano.
The Professor: Piano? Piano?! I hate and detest pianos! They are mechanical blunderbusses! Take it out of here before I commit murder!
- The opening title card says: "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy decided to reorganize and resupervise their entire financial structure -- so they took the $3.80 and went into business."
[edit] Location
The steps, which serviced as the location, are still in existence in Los Angeles, California. The "Music Box" steps are a public staircase, and do not lead to a single residence (as in the film), but instead connect Vendome Street (at the base of the hill) with Descanso Drive (at the top of the hill). They are located near the neighborhood where Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake Boulevard intersect. The address is 923-935 Vendome Street near the intersection of Del Monte Street. A plaque was set into one of the lower steps between 1993 and 1995.
The "Music Box" steps can be seen in the background of an earlier Charley Chase silent comedy produced at the Hal Roach Studios, "Isn't Life Terrible?" (1925), during a scene in which Chase is trying to sell fountain pens to Fay Wray.
San Francisco is known for its hills, but Los Angeles has a few formidable hills of its own which have figured in comedy films. In addition to the two described above, the apparent "skyscraper" in the famous Harold Lloyd picture Safety Last! was filmed on a structure that was located on a steeply sloping street near downtown, which made Lloyd's stunts look much more dangerous than they were.
[edit] Film remakes
The film is a partial remake of their 1927 silent short Hats Off, which was filmed at the same location and is today considered a lost film. Hats Off was itself remade in the same location in a film called It's Your Move starring Edgar Kennedy in 1945.
[edit] In popular culture
A series of TV ads for a windshield wiper company featured actors who looked much like Laurel and Hardy. One of the ads referred to this film by portraying them trying to safely deliver a piano.
