1929, over 85 years ago, was a pretty prolific year in terms of films for Laurel and Hardy and this one also came out back then. It is black-and-whit and we still do not hear their voices, even if it is not a silent film anymore. As usual, it runs for 20 minutes roughly and with this one Laurel and Hardy try to satisfy the steadily-growing number of audience members who loved to see animals in movies. This one has a goat from start to finish. The duo takes care of her, but hides her from a landlord. When the police officer finally finds her in the end, a cute surprise is waiting for our heroes. I must say the only thing I liked here were the last 2 minutes. Some nice drama and comedy and of course the cute ending I already mentioned. Everything before that is fairly forgettable and not as funny as I hoped it could be. Laurel and Hardy have many funnier films out from the late 20s and early 30s. Maybe it's the goat's fault, maybe the writer's. But I do not recommend this one. The last 2 minutes are not worth sitting through the first 18. Thumbs down.

Angora Love (1929) *** (out of 4)Funny two reeler has Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel walking out of a pastry shop when a goat begins to follow them. They eventually lose the animal but two nights later he's back and the duo has to take them to their hotel room where chaos follows since the landlord is in the room below them.This film was remade by Laurel and Hardy as LAUGHING GRAVY and that there is considered by many fans and critics to be one of the best movies the two men ever made. This one here isn't quite as good as that film but there are still enough funny moments here to make the film worth watching. The one thing I noticed while watching this is how good a sport both men were and especially during the scenes where they're trying to give the goat a bath. They really get their hands dirty so to speak and these scenes get some of the biggest laughs as does the water fight towards the end.

WHENEVER an idea was successful during those "Golden Days" of the Silent Movies, you could bet your bottom dollar that it would be repeated; although "Reworking" is the term that is used. Of course one could make the argument that this reworking business has never left us, for success in the Movies or TV always leads to a trend; with all competing parties vying to come up with their own version of said hit Movie or TV Program.TO this last premise we strongly disagree; for this is copycatting or plagiarism, plain and simple.THIS, the last Silent Laurel & Hardy Short, surely must have been quite well received; for ANGORA LOVE (Hal Roach/MGM, 1929) was reworked on the Roach Lot, not once, but twice over the next three years. We were treated to LAUGHING GRAVY (Roach/MGM, 1931), in which the Goat was replaced with a cute, little puppy-dog. Also, the weather is transformed into the dead of Winter, in the middle of a blizzard. They also made other line-up changes with substituting Landlord Edgar Kennedy with Landlord Charlie Hall.THE second reworking of the hidden animal premise is the 3 Reeler, THE CHIMP (Roach/MGM, 1932), which substituted a female ape from a dissolved and defunct Circus, to which Stan and Babe were former employees. The Circus paid off its employees with their assets and the Boys received the Chimpanzee as their final payday.BACK to our original 'victim', today's subject, ANGORA LOVE. Recomember? THE short starts off simply enough. The boys encounter the Goat on the street and the Nanny in return follows them back to their rooming house; after Stan feeds a doughnut to her. The comic moments that follow are generated with the interplay between L & H and slow-burn exponent, Edgar Kennedy, their Landlord. The incident's impact is amplified by having the interplay occur at night. And as luck would have it; their room is situated directly above the Landlord's quarters.IN addition to the noise, the bathing of the goat, its odor and Landlord Edgar's suspicions about Laurel & Hardy's having another person illegally in the room; we were most amused by a little throw-away gag, which may well have been missed by the Censors. While admonishing the boys about the noise they'd been making and reminding them of the house rules about any unauthorized person's being in there overnight, regardless of their sex.ITS camera shot is made from inside The Boy's room, over their shoulder. With Edgar in the hall and facing them, he warns; "Remember, this is a respectable establishment!" Just as he says this, a lady clad in evening clothes walks across and behind the Landlord; followed by a uniformed Sailor, who cocks his hat forward as they pass! POODLE SCHNITZ!!

Although the title suggests an examination of the twisted obsessions of Ed Wood Jr., 'Angora Love' is in fact a Laurel & Hardy comedy, a diverting short which offers a heart-warming tale of two guys and the goat who refuses to leave them alone. Much of the humor revolves around the boys' efforts to hide the goat, Penelope by name, from their grouchy, goat-hating landlord, Edgar Kennedy, who gives one of his definitive grouch performances here. Apparently the premise held some special significance for Stan & Ollie, for they reworked it twice more with sound, first in the 1931 short Laughing Gravy, in which several of the gags from this film are re-enacted, and then just a year later in The Chimp, which borrows only the basic premise.Angora Love, which was made in the spring of 1929 but not released until December of that year, was the last silent film made by Laurel & Hardy. It was originally accompanied by a music-and-effects track, but, contrary to an earlier post, there was never dialog on the soundtrack.One of the best sequences occurs at the beginning, when the guys and the goat "meet cute." Penelope, having been fed a dough-nut by Stan, fixates on him and refuses to go away. Obviously, she wants more. The boys' attempt to give her the slip is funny and also rather poignant, at least from the goat's point of view. Cinematographer George Stevens helpfully offers us a tracking shot filmed from the goat's subjective P.O.V., or, as we might call it today, GoatCam. Once the trio is holed up in the boys' apartment the atmosphere gets somewhat claustrophobic, but the gags keep on coming. There's some silliness involving Stan's aerobics work-out, and a painful routine in which Ollie repeatedly steps on a tack. There's also an elaborately messy attempt to wash Penelope, and a sequence involving foot-rubbing which, despite the guys' innocent personalities, might strike some viewers as suggestively homo-erotic, or in any event kind of weird. There's also a quick throwaway gag involving a sailor and a prostitute that never would have gotten past the censors a few years later; it's understated but unmistakable, and not typical of Laurel & Hardy, but amusing in a raffish way.In a sense it might have been more appropriate if Stan & Ollie had concluded their silent movie career on a spectacular note, perhaps with one of those rousing, garment-ripping riots that seemed to erupt so frequently in Culver City at the time. Still, while Angora Love is not one of the team's liveliest silent comedies, it did serve as a useful prototype for two of their talkies, and is plenty amusing in its own right.