Whoever typed up the job recommendation for Laurel and Hardy (see above) probably didn't know them very well. The Boys rewrite the rule book on the doorman position of an upscale hotel, throwing the entire assemblage of guests and staff into an uproar. Recurring bits involve a visiting Prussian dignitary (Hans Joby) falling down an elevator shaft, and a frustrated cab driver (Charlie Hall) rounding the block every time Ollie inadvertently 'blews' his whistle. The treat for this viewer was catching Harlean Carpenter in a quick appearance, in a rather daring scene exposing her bare back when the gown she's wearing gets caught in a taxi door. In the credits she's listed as the 'swanky blonde', and that she is once you realize she's Jean Harlow. Among the myriad of eye pokes, foot stomps and requisite pratfalls, Laurel and Hardy once again wreak havoc where more refined hotel guests would fear to tread.

I just rewatched two versions of this Laurel & Hardy comedy short: the original silent one on YouTube with an organ score and the sound-dubbed one on VHS with Chuck McCann providing the voices from a script (of which one of the lines is perhaps one of the earliest instances of Ollie saying "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into") by Al Kilgore mostly matching the lip movements of the players and music provided by Miles Kreuger (with of course Marvin Hatley's L & H theme of "The Cuckoo Song" mixed in). Both are pretty hilarious whichever version you watch especially when the tit-for-tat shenanigans come in. And what a great scene when the about-to-become-legendary star Jean Harlow makes her appearance and then has her dignity almost shattered! Actually, her first take was supposedly even more revealing but I've yet to see any evidence of that. Oh well! Unlike later entries when Stan usually accepts some of Ollie's abuse, he gives it as well here which is often refreshing to see. Also providing a good turn is usual L & H nemesis Charlie Hall as a taxi driver who gets more than enough of Ollie's whistle. I also liked Tiny Sandford as a policeman and especially Captain John Peters as the von Stroheim-like Prince who was actually his double in his movies. About the voices: Chuck got Mr. Laurel's right but is a bit off concerning both Mr. Hall's and Mr. Hardy's, especially concerning the latter's laugh. Still, like I said, both versions of Double Whoopee is highly recommended.

"Double Whoopie" is recalled because it was one of two films where Jean Harlow and Laurel & Hardy crossed paths (the other was "Bacon Grabbers"). It was only one sequence but it is done so perfectly that it remains memorable to this day. We are at a great city hotel, and they are expecting a leading European prince and his party. They are also expecting a new doorman and groom. Enter Ollie, grandly dressed in his doorman's uniform (which is, of course, identical to a royal prince's uniform). He is treated like the great man he has always seen himself as - although he does not deserve to be a great man. Ollie only reveals his real identity when he signs the guest book (his hand exercise in the air is similar to what Art Carney would do years later on "The Honeymooners" when limbering up). Quickly disabused of their error, Ollie and Stan are told to go to their posts.Most people looking at "Double Whoopie" today see the spoofing (by Hans Joby) of Von Stroheim's persona in "Foolish Wives", complete with mile long cigarette holder and monocle. They fail to see that Hardy's doorman is also based on another character: Emil Jannings doorman in "The Last Laugh", who is treated with respect because of his uniform, and is stripped of his self-dignity when he is demoted and loses his uniform. Ollie is not stripped, but he certainly is put in his subservient place quickly.Joby arrives, and has a series of increasingly aggravating mishaps concerning his use of the elevator, which Stan or Ollie take over causing Joby to fall again and again into the shaft (dirtying all of his fine apparel. This gradually leads him to threaten war! But he is not the only one who crosses the boys. There is Charlie Hall, one of their best perennial foes. Charlie is a cab driver, and several times Stan blows Ollie's cab signaling whistle, causing Charlie to pull into the hotel's driveway, and putting on his cab meter. Of course, when Ollie tries to explain it wasn't him, Charlie does not believe it, and increasing threatens to break his neck. A limo pulls up, and out steps the beautiful Harlean Carpenter (a.k.a. Jean Harlow). As this is a silent short film, her plebeian, nasal voice is not evident. We can fully believe her a socialite. Snobby, she fully accepts Ollie's grand manner of welcoming her and accompanying her to the front desk. Neither is aware (nor are the people in the lobby) that Stan, in shutting the car door, causes it to close on her gown, so she is walking in her slip. Eventually she is aware of what has happened, and runs out. By the way, that is the total sequence of Harlow in the film - about a minute and a half.Others get pulled into the increasing crescendo of errors and blunders, including one unfortunate gentleman whose shirt is ripped off by Stan, and who subsequently also has a mustard plaster ripped off painfully by Stan. By the time the film is over there are people chasing people (including policeman Tiny Sandford after a frightened Charlie Hall) throughout the lobby - just as the boys leave, looking thoroughly disappointed at the behavior of everyone around them.It is a wonderful little comedy or ever increasing disaster on disaster. If Harlow does not get as much time as one wants, while unfortunate, it is just as well that her footage is so good.Ironically, although MGM did have distribution rights to Laurel & Hardy's work with Hal Roach (and they did appear in some MGM performances in the 1930s), they never made a sound film with Harlow. But they almost did. In 1934 Laurel & Hardy appeared in the film "Hollywood Party", where they had a memorable sequence with Lupe Velez regarding breaking eggs. The film had originally been planned to have a musical score by Rodgers and Hart, and was to have many first rank stars in it, including Harlow as a telephone operator in a movie studio who dreams of becoming a star. But the plans were dropped, and the final movie was not what at all like the original idea. Still Harlow never fully left the boys' film world. In "Beau Hunks", Hardy joins the French Foreign Legion to forget the woman he loves (Jean Harlow). He looks sadly at her photograph several times. Imagine his chagrin when he finds that most of the other legionnaires also joined to forget her...and that the leader of the Riffs also has a sad crush on Harlow!

"Must" viewing for all Stan and Ollie fans, as they make short shrift of an upscale hotel. It's also worth viewing for what is surely the only erotic moment in a Laurel & Hardy fan, as Stan causes Jean Harlow to inadvertently lose her dress. In R-rated terms it's nothing, but for 1929, it's pretty darn