Movie Review "Perfect Day"

Hal Roach ( 1929 ) Two Reels
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Isabelle Keith, Kay Deslys
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: James Parrott

Stan and Ollie are in the kitchen preparing to go on a Sunday picnic with their wives and Uncle Ed who is suffering from the gout with a swollen bandaged foot. Ollie brings out an impressive trey of sandwiches with much fanfare. It only takes a few seconds but Stan manages to knock all the sandwiches on the floor and stand on them. An attempt to pick the sandwiches up only leads to Stan removing the chair propping up uncle Ed's leg causing it to fall on the family dog which in turn causes the dog to attack the gout ridden foot, and in the confusion Ollie sits on the remaining sandwiches and a thermos gets destroyed. A short time later the entire family is on their way out of the house with their picnic basket. They get into their car and spend a few minutes saying goodbye to all their friendly neighbors. But just as they begin to drive off the car runs over a nail. Changing the flat tire only results in Uncle Ed's bandaged foot getting slammed in the car door twice, sat on, and inevitably run over. Instead of handing Ollie the spare Stan removes the nail from the damaged tire and hands it back to Ollie. After the tire is changed Ollie is not able to drive off not realizing that Stan has forgotten to remove the jack.

Ollie removes the jack only to see the tire flatten again and realizes that Stan had handed him the wrong tire. Ollie throws the jack in anger at Stan which misses and ends up going through a neighbor's window. The neighbor retaliates by throwing the jack through the car's windshield. Stan and Ollie retaliate by throwing a brick through their neighbor's side window and he retaliates by throwing a brick through their side window. Stan and Ollie remove their jackets to get ready for a fight when they suddenly see something down the block. Everyone runs into the house to hide and the town's minister walks by on his way to church. Once the minister is gone everyone sneaks out of the house and gets back into the car. Stan and Ollie realize that they are both wearing the wrong jacket and attempt to trade back but Stan keeps putting his arm through Ollie's jacket. Finally getting their jackets on they get into the car only to discover it will not start. Ollie goes to check under the hood only to have Stan honk the horn while he is under it. Stan fiddles with the controls again causing a small explosion. Ollie asks Stan "Why don't you do something to help me?" and when Stan asks what should he do Ollie tells him to throw out the clutch. Stan rips the clutch out of the car and throws it on the ground. Ollie picks it up and bangs Stan over the head with it causing a bell ringing noise. Ollie attempts to drive off again but the engine explodes. He opens the hood again while Stan grabs the neighbors hose and squirts it into the burning engine block putting the fire out but soaking Ollie. Angry that he was soaked Ollie pushes Stan into the car which causes the engine to suddenly start up. Stan and Ollie jump back into the car and the family finally drives off. But they do not get that far down their block before they drive into a road construction puddle that turns out to be bottomless causing the car and all it's passengers sink out of sight.

An early entry in Laurel and Hardy's sound movies, it had one of that era's most memorable sound effects, the bell sound when Ollie throws the broken clutch over Stan's head. While later comedies would odd sound effects when banging heads, the Three Stooges in particular, it was this movie that did it first. Another first went unnoticed. It was the first movie to use the 's' word. It happens when the family are running into the house to avoid their minister. While getting out of the car Edgar Kennedy mutters "Oh sh*t!". No one seems to have noticed this gaff and it has remained on the soundtrack for decades. It was not until the film was finally released on home video and could be viewed over and over again that a fan finally found the word. Word spread and other fans with their own copy of the movie were able to find the gaff.