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The Music Box

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For other uses, see Music box (disambiguation).

The Music Box
Lobby card, 1932
Directed byJames Parrott
Written byH.M. Walker
Produced byHal Roach
StarringStan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
CinematographyLen Powers
Walter Lundin
Edited byRichard C. Currier
Music byHarry Graham
Marvin Hatley
Leroy Shield
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • April 16, 1932 (1932-04-16) (US)
Running time
29:16
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Music Box is a Laurel and Hardy short film comedy released in 1932. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, which depicts the pair attempting to move a piano up a long flight of steps, won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) in 1932.[1][2] In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3][4][5] The film is widely seen as the most iconic Laurel and Hardy short, with the featured stairs becoming a popular tourist attraction.

Plot

In a music store, a woman (Hazel Howell) orders a player piano as a surprise birthday gift for her husband. She tells the manager (William Gillespie) her address—1127 Walnut Avenue—and he hires the Laurel and Hardy Transfer Company, recently founded by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, to deliver the piano in their horse-drawn freight wagon.

The duo soon learn from a postman (Charlie Hall) that the home is at the top of an incredibly long stairway. Trying to heave the box up the steps, they encounter a nursemaid (Lilyan Irene [de]) pushing a baby carriage down the steps; in trying to let her pass, they knock the piano back down the stairs. After the woman laughs at them, Stan angrily kicks her in the rear, causing her to punch him back and hit Ollie over the head with a milk bottle. As Stan and Ollie try to heft the piano back up the stairs, the woman reports them to a cop (Sam Lufkin), but words it such that the cop believes Oliver sexually harassed her. The cop confronts the hapless duo at the bottom of the stairs, and when they go down to talk with him, the piano rolls back down the steps and over Ollie. The cop then hits both of them as a lesson and departs.

The two doggedly persist in carrying the piano up the stairs for a third time. Halfway up, they encounter the short-tempered, pompous, and egotistical Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen (Billy Gilbert), M.D., A.D., D.D.S., F.L.D., F-F-F, and F. He haughtily demands they move the piano out of his way for him to pass, but when the exhausted and frustrated Ollie suggests he walk around, the Professor flies in a rage and begins angrily pushing them and the piano. In retaliation, Stan knocks the Professor's top hat down the stairs and into the street, where it is crushed by a passing vehicle. The outraged professor leaves, loudly threatening to have the two arrested.

Finally, Stan and Ollie get the piano to the top, where Stan accidentally pushes Ollie into a fountain. As they ring the bell, the piano (soaked by the fountain) rolls back down to the street again; Ollie grabs a hold of it, and the piano drags him all the way down. That afternoon, they wearily get it back up the stairs and meet the postman by the house, only for him to reveal they did not have to lift the piano up the stairs; they could have taken it up a road that scales the hill and stopped in front of the house. In frustration, Stan and Ollie promptly carry the piano back down the stairs and scale the hill.

Finding no one home but eager to complete their job and leave, they decide to use a ladder and pulley to take the piano inside via the balcony then move it downstairs. As they get the piano to the balcony, Stan drops the pulley onto Ollie, knocking him and the ladder down and busting the door open. After a series of mishaps involving them mixing up each other's bowler hats, they begin moving the piano downstairs, only for Ollie to lose his footing and fall out a window with the piano into the fountain. Blaming Stan, he angrily throws his hat at them, and when Stan tries throwing it back, he falls into the fountain as well. They eventually take the piano through the open front door, but make shambles of the living room while unpacking it, as the wood falls everywhere and the water from the fountain leaks all over the carpet.

Once the piano is out, they begin cleaning up the mess while dancing to music coming from the piano. Meanwhile, the owner of the house (and the woman's husband) is revealed to be the Professor, who returns from talking with the same cop and is outraged at the mess. In a rage, he claims he detests pianos, making Stan and Ollie think they have the wrong address. They try to take the piano and leave, but still angered at the mess, the Professor instead takes an axe and proceeds to chop the piano to pieces (only briefly stopping when the piano plays "The Star-Spangled Banner"). His wife then comes home and tearfully reveals that the piano was a gift. This makes him regret his actions, even claiming he loves pianos. To apologize for his actions, the Professor agrees to sign the delivery receipt, but Stan gives him a pen that mis-functions and squirts ink into his face. The Professor again loses his temper as Stan and Ollie finally flee.

Cast

The stairs in 2009
Downward view, 2010
Sign at top of hill, Descanso Drive

Uncredited cast

Location

The steps, 133 with multiple landings,[7] which are the focal point of The Music Box, still exist in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, near the Laurel and Hardy Park. The steps are a public staircase that connects Vendome Street (at the base of the hill) with Descanso Drive (at the top of the hill),[8] and are located at 923-925 North Vendome Street near the intersection of Del Monte Drive. A plaque commemorating the film was set into one of the lower steps.[9]

The steps can also be seen in the Charley Chase silent comedy Isn't Life Terrible? (1925), during a scene in which Chase is trying to sell fountain pens to Fay Wray. The steps are also used, for a gag similar to Hats Off and The Music Box, in Ice Cold Cocos (1926), a Billy Bevan comedy short directed by Del Lord.[10] The steps are also referenced in The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair, a short story by Ray Bradbury, as the meeting place of the couple in the story, who call each other Ollie and Stan in homage to the comedic duo.

Although similar in appearance, the staircase is not the same one used by The Three Stooges in their 1941 film An Ache in Every Stake. Those stairs (147 steps in length) are approximately two miles northeast, located at 2212 Edendale Place in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles.[11][12]

Reception

The short was popular with audiences in 1932 and generally well received by critics. After previewing The Music Box in late February that year, the New York trade paper The Film Daily assured theater owners that the comedy "is up to the Laurel-Hardy standard, and should score easily."[13] Motion Picture Herald, after previewing the film in March, described it as "great fun" and noted, "Unusually long for a comedy [short], it is well worth the extra length."[14] The Chicago-based movie magazine Motion Picture is even more enthusiastic about the comedy in its June 1932 issue:

[Laurel and Hardy's] latest "short" lasts thirty minutes. And it is a fast and funny half-hour. Perhaps they got their idea from Charlie Chaplin, who once was screamingly funny as a piano-mover's helper—but don't hold that against them. They have improved on Chaplin, which is no easy task. Not with a pair as absurdly, ridiculously, and insanely awkward as these two. The gags are almost as side-splitting as they are.[15]

Not all contemporary reviews, however, were positive. Variety, the entertainment industry's leading paper in 1932, did not publish its review of The Music Box until November 22, over seven months after MGM officially released the short to theaters. The reviewer, Alfred Greason, wrote:

Less than average subject for this comedy pair, who depend on house wrecking for their laughs instead of upon the laughs within the situations themselves. Any pair of clowns can make haw-haws out of roughhouse; this pair have reached distinction by reason of a comic quality within themselves. Resort to house wrecking argues lack of resources in the 'script' department.[16]

Remakes

A Still from the short Hats Off!.
  • The film is a partial remake of their lost silent short Hats Off! (1927), directed by Hal Yates, which utilized a washing machine instead of a piano, and was filmed at the same location and is today considered a lost film.[17] Hats Off was itself remade by Edgar Kennedy in 1945 as It's Your Move (again directed by Yates), but utilizing a different staircase although located in the same vicinity where the "Music Box Steps" are in Silver Lake (known as the Descanso Stairs, they are situated at the intersection of Descanso and Larissa drives, specifically between the residences of 3217 Descanso Drive and 3200-3206 Larissa Drive, and one block from Sunset Boulevard, which can be seen in the background in several long shots).
  • Hal Roach Studios colorized The Music Box in 1986 with a remastered stereo soundtrack featuring the Hal Roach Studios incidental stock music score conducted by Ronnie Hazelhurst. The film was later released on VHS along with a colorized version of Helpmates.
  • The Music Box was also dubbed in Spanish, with the lengthy title No cualquiera aguanta un piano, mucho menos una pianola (the English translation being "Not anyone can load a piano, let alone a pianola").
  • With some aspects of the original script omitted, actor Jorge Arvizu and other actors have produced additional Spanish versions of The Music Box, as well as other remakes of Laurel and Hardy shorts and features.

References

  1. ^ "The 5th Academy Awards (1932) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, California. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  2. ^ "Here Are Complete Academy Awards", Hollywood Filmograph, November 26, 1932, p. 9. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 13, 2019. The 1932 Academy Awards dinner and presentations were held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on November 18.
  3. ^ "Film Article: The Music Box", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Time Warner, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  4. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  5. ^ "New to the National Film Registry (December 1997) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". www.loc.gov. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  6. ^ "The Music Box at Another Nice Mess". Retrieved June 9, 2018.
  7. ^ "Climb the Music Box Steps ... without the piano". Los Angeles Times. October 17, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  8. ^ Hutchinson, Pamela (March 3, 2020). "Silent witness: the Hollywood alley with the five-star reviews". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  9. ^ "The Music Box Steps". Atlasobscura.com. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  10. ^ SilentEra entry for Ice Cold Cocos. silentera.com
  11. ^ Robert Davidson. "ThreeStooges.net :: The Three Stooges Journal - Issue No. 98%20threestooges.net". threestooges.net.
  12. ^ Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. pp. 195–197. ISBN 0971186804.
  13. ^ "Laurel and Hardy in 'The Music Box'", review, The Film Daily (New York, N.Y.), February 28, 1932, p. 12. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  14. ^ "SHORTS / The Music Box / (MGM)", review, Motion Picture Herald (New York, N.Y.), March 12, 1932, p. 57. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  15. ^ Reid, James Edwin (1932). "Featured Shorts / The Music Box", review, Motion Picture (Chicago, Illinois), June 1932, p. 68. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  16. ^ "LAUREL AND HARDY / 'The Music Box' / Comedy / 15 Mins.", review, Variety, November 22, 1932, p. 16. Retrieved May 13, 2019. In his reviews for Variety, Alfred Rushton Greason used the pen name "Rush". A reference to that pen name is included in the headline of his obituary "ALFRED R. GREASON OF VARIETY IS DEAD: U.der Pen Name of 'Rush,' He Was Versatile Critlc of Theatrical Weekly", The New York Times, January 22, 1934, p. 15. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  17. ^ Brennan, John V.; Larrabee, John (2012). "The Silents: Hats Off", Laurel and Hardy Central. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
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