Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)

Original title

Unaccustomed as We Are

Directed by

Lewis R. Foster, Hal Roach

Genre

comedy film, buddy film

Country

United States

Runtime

21 min

Rated

NR

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 52 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appear in their first talking comedy. They get into a series of mishaps at home involving a dinner party and a neighbor. The humor comes from physical gags rather than the spoken words.

playfullightheartedwhimsicalnostalgicold-fashionedfunnychaoticslapstick

What happens

Unaccustomed As We Are is the first sound film comedy starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, released on May 4, 1929. It was produced by Hal Roach and directed by Lewis R. Foster. The title, Unaccustomed As We Are..., was a spoofing reference to the fact that its two stars had never before spoken audibly in their films. And in point of fact, although it was a film with dialogue, the soundtrack mostly carried music, and sound effects, with dialogue a long way third. In case the Talkies did not prove popular, and in order to be released in theatres which had not yet been converted for sound, Hal Roach hedged his bets by releasing it in both the new All-Talking format and in Silent format (in the latter case, with intertitles carrying the dialogue). As with the Laurel and Hardy silent films, visual gags remained the heart and soul of the picture: the characters were certainly talking, but the comedy was not yet in the dialogue, the film still relied entirely on sight-gags for its laughs. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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