Flying Elephants (1928)

Flying Elephants is an American film comedy first released in 1928, directed by Frank Butler and Hal Roach.  The film stars Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Edna Marion and Dorothy Coburn.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


It is the Stone Age, so-named because men are expected to make a living on the stone pile.  At the decree of the stone king, all men between the age of 13 and 95 are ordered to marry.  Mighty Giant knows who he wants to wed, a pretty little prehistoric girl.  But just before he can pop the question, a rival appears, in the form of Little Twinkle Star, a poetic sort who is the exact opposite of the butch Mighty Giant.  As the girl can only marry one of these two promising suitors, there is only one course of action: Mighty Giant and Little Twinkle Star must fight to the death...

Perhaps the most off-the-wall of Laurel and Hardy’s silent shorts.  As its title implies, Flying Elephants has something of the nature of a Monty Python sketch, complete with animated insert (of the titular airborne pachyderms).  Even in bearskins and deprived their trademark bowler hats, Stan and Ollie are instantly recognisable as the legendary double act they would soon become.  The boys’ penchant for slapstick is facilitated by the fact that in caveman times it was (apparently) customary to beat people on the head with a stick whenever possible - you did not have to ask the victim’s permission beforehand.  The jokes are, to say the least, crude to the point of childishness, but there is much fun to be had in this Flintstones-style romp.

© Brian Evans 2010

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