Them Thar Hills 1934

In this early silent comedy, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play a famously easygoing duo who find themselves under instruction from a doctor about gout and a healthier way of living. The doctor, Billy Gilbert, explains that gout can come from “too much high living” and prescribes a mountain retreat, plenty of water, and a period away from civilization. To make the plan portable, the pair decide to rent a trailer to tow into the mountains, turning a wellness suggestion into a wandering misadventure.

En route, a tense standoff unfolds between a group of moonshiners and the police, and the outlaws dump barrels of their product into the well behind their cabin just before the authorities close in. The moonshiners are arrested before they can finish dumping everything, leaving the threat of contaminated water momentarily at bay. The travelers soon spot a deserted cabin in the hills, pull up in front of it, and settle into the trailer for a homemade dinner. Laurel draws water from the well for coffee and notices the unusually colored water, which Hardy attributes to a rich iron content, and both take several sip-sized samples, turning the simple act of making a drink into a curious, comedic ritual.

As dinner unfolds, Hardy hums a tune to himself while Laurel chimes in with his own melody, the two trading off notes in a playful, if slightly grating, duet that tests Hardy’s patience. While chopping wood for the trailer’s wood stove, Laurel makes a comic miscue and nicks the tip of Hardy’s shoe, prompting a quick improvisation: they slip Hardy’s foot into a purse to keep it warm until the shoe can be repaired. The domestic scene of cooking and quarreling becomes a showcase of timing, reaction, and the kind of escalating silliness that defines their partnership.

Not far away, Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall—a curmudgeonly couple whose car has run out of gas—happen upon the cabin and the trailer. They are drawn to the tainted, surprisingly tasty water and the two men’s drunken banter, while Mrs. Hall asks for a taste of the water and enjoys it so much that she lingers. Mr. Hall introduces himself and his wife to the pair, and Hardy allows him to help himself to whatever gasoline they have to spare, while Mrs. Hall eagerly shares in the drink. The mood becomes merrier as Mrs. Hall—already feeling the effects—joins in with a carefree enthusiasm, singing and laughing in the enclosed space, much to Mr. Hall’s growing irritation.

Mr. Hall’s frustration reaches a peak when he kicks Mrs. Hall out of the trailer and lands a sharp slap on Hardy’s cheek. Laurel, sensing a chance to tilt the balance, uses whatever food and tools are at hand to consistently undermine Mr. Hall’s dignity, provoking fresh rounds of laughter from Hardy with each petty humiliation. Their antics escalate until Mr. Hall finally unhooks the trailer from the car, and it tips backward. The two stumble and crash through the trailer’s back wall, tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs and laughter. In a last flourish of mischief, Hardy douses Mr. Hall with molasses and tops the prank with a pillow covered in feathers.

Mr. Hall retaliates by coating the seat of his own pants with gasoline and setting it ablaze. Hardy races to the well to douse the flames, but the situation takes a chaotic turn when the alcohol-laced well water reacts, triggering an explosion that launches Hardy into the air. The riotous sequence pays off in pure slapstick chaos, blending practical effects with the duo’s unflappable chemistry, and leaving the audience with a memorable, if volatile, mountain misadventure.