Underplayed Gems

Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)

Unaccustomed As We Are poster
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
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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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.

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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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