The Birmingham Press

Birmingham Comedy Festival to show classic duo films

Hat-trick of Laurel & Hardy films to be screened in Stourbridge.

A triple-bill of classic movies starring Laurel and Hardy, the greatest double-act of all time, is to be screened at Stourbridge Town Hall on Sunday 7th April .

The Very Best of Laurel and Hardy features three films by Stan and Ollie, whose comedy adventures continue to delight audiences the world over, 80 years after they were produced.

Presented by Birmingham Comedy Festival the screening includes The Music Box, which won the 1932 Academy Award for Best Comedy Short and sees the two famously struggling to deliver a piano, and 1928’s silent masterpiece, The Finishing Touch.

Concluding the bill is 1933’s Sons of The Desert which finds The Boys hatching a cunning plan to deceive their wives so they can attend a lodge convention in Chicago.

The films will be introduced by John Ullah, Grand Sheik of The Laughing Gravy Tent, the Birmingham branch of the international Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society, and author of This Is More Than I Can Stand, the biography of Birmingham-born Laurel and Hardy co-star Charlie Hall.

Said John: “Come and enjoy Laurel and Hardy in three of their best loved films – spanning their work from silent, to talkies to feature film. With some classic slapstick, iconic moments, and plenty of laughs.”

Alex Jackson, booker for Dudley Borough Halls, added: “We’re delighted to be working with the excellent Birmingham Comedy Festival again following the sell-out success of last year’s Lost Hancocks show in Stourbridge.”

The bowler hat-wearing Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were two of cinema’s greatest stars. First paired in the late 1920s, they made over 100 screen appearances together before retiring in the 1950s. Still popular today, the story of the duo’s farewell tour is recounted in the new film, the BAFTA-nominated Stan and Ollie, starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly.

The Very Best Of Laurel and Hardy is at Stourbridge Town Hall, Crown Centre, Crown Lane, Stourbridge DY8 1YE on Sunday 7 April at 2pm. Tickets £9. For more information call 01384 812812 or see: boroughhalls.co.uk

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