We Faw Down
| We Faw Down | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Leo McCarey |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Written by | H.M. Walker |
| Starring |
Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Vivien Oakland Bess Flowers Kay Deslys |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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20 minutes; 2 reels |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
Silent film English (Original intertitles) |
We Faw Down is a 1928 two-reel silent comedy starring Laurel and Hardy and directed by Leo McCarey. It was shot in August and September 1928, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 29 of that year, with synchronized music and sound effects in theaters wired for sound.
The plot line was later reworked into one of Laurel and Hardy's most celebrated films, Sons of the Desert (1933).
The Boys tell their wives they have a business engagement, then sneak off to a poker game. En route, they stop to help two young ladies with a flat tire, and wind up splattered with mud. The girls invite them up to their apartment while their clothes dry, and all proceed to get roaring drunk. A boyfriend appears, sending the duo scrambling out the back window, in full view of their wives.
This is the first Laurel and Hardy film with Leo McCarey in the director's chair after more than a year guiding the team's characters' development as "Supervisor." He would go on to direct their best silents, and eventually to win Best Director Oscars for the feature films The Awful Truth (1937) and Going My Way (1944).
A contemporary account says that the basic story was contributed, unusually, by Oliver Hardy, who had heard similar gossip from his laundress. Critic/historian William K. Everson makes a different contention, tracing the story back to the Mack Sennett comedy Ambrose's First Falsehood.
Interior shooting took place at the Hal Roach studio; exteriors were shot both on the Roach back lot and on several locations in Culver City.
The original Victor sound discs for We Faw Down were thought lost until the 1990s, when a set was discovered. Certain European DVD editions feature this original synchronized score, but American DVDs (Region 1) still have music cannibalized from other Laurel and Hardy Victor soundtracks.
This short is better known for what got cut out of it than for what remained in it. As originally scripted and shot, the team flee the girls' apartment having pulled on each other's pants, then dart from spot to spot in town trying to find a private place to rectify the situation. An irate husband, a suspicious cop — even a belligerent king crab — all conspire to thwart the swapping of the pants. Thoough excised from We Faw Down, the footage would be used for their next film Liberty.
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Wikipedia