Helpmates

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For the chess term, see helpmate.
Helpmates
Directed by James Parrott
Produced by Hal Roach
Starring Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Release date(s) January 23, 1932
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
IMDb profile

Helpmates is a Laurel and Hardy short film comedy. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and released by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer on January 23, 1932.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Ollie's house is a mess after a wild party from the previous night. Ollie receives a telegram from his wife (who is on vacation in Chicago), which tells him that she is returning home in the afternoon. Fearing his wife's wrath he calls Stan over to help him clean up. Things go downhill and they make more mess not less. Ollie becomes frustrated and lights the oven the wrong way, turning on the gas first instead of lighting the oven. The result is an explosion that trashes the living room and kitchen, as well as Ollie's hat.

Ollie's suits get stained with soot, soaked with dirty water, and covered in flour, until he has no choice but to go meet his wife at the station in his Civil War Army suit. Stan manages to restore the house's interior to its proper look. Stan decides to light a fire in the fireplace for Ollie and his wife to come home to. When the logs fail to ignite he soaks the fireplace with gasoline, lights a match, and moves it towards the logs.

Ollie returns from the train station with a black eye and without his wife. The house is a smouldering ruin. Stan has completely destroyed it.

[edit] Quotes

Stan: Who do you think I am? Cinderella? If I had any sense I would walk out on you.
Ollie: Well, it's a good thing you haven't any sense!!
Stan: It certainly is!

(Several times the camera cuts back to Stan, who isn't quite certain he's told off Ollie properly. Each time, he visibly and almost inaudibly re-creates the exchange, then nods his head triumphantly.)

After Stan has inadvertently reduced Ollie's house to a smoldering ruin by trying to light a cozy fire -- with a full can of gasoline:

Stan: Well, I guess there's nothing else I can do.
Ollie: No, I guess there isn't.

[edit] Colorized version

Helpmates had the dubious honor of becoming the first completed black & white film to undergo film colorization. First experimented in 1983 through a company called Colorization Inc., a subsidiary of Hal Roach Studios, it was first publicly shown at the 1984 The Sons of the Desert - sponsored International Helpmates Convention. Colorization became a success for the studio and the colorized version of Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West was eventually soon released on video cassette through the Hal Roach Studios Film Classics label. The colorized Helpmates was released to the public along with the colorized version of Laurel and Hardy's 1932 classic short The Music Box on video cassette in 1986. The technology for this process was far inferior compared to today's subsequent digital colorization technology. There were numerous continuity errors, garish color design choices, and some scenes were either altered or deleted altogether in the colorized version. The first noticeable change comes in the beginning of the short when the panning of the party mess inside Ollie's house is condensed into freeze frame stills. Other notable changes also included the heavily edited down phone conversation between Stan and Ollie about Stan not coming to the party, fearing he might have hydrophosphates. The most controversial edit was the scene in which Ollie crashes his head through the dresser drawer after Stan opens it to find a handkerchief. The colorized version of the film was copyrighted in 1986, despite it being actually completed in 1984. The colorized version is not available on DVD in the United States, but it is available as part of the Region 2 Laurel & Hardy DVD box set from Universal Pictures in the U.K.

[edit] Cast

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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