Hog Wild

From its relatively low-key opening of Ollie berating his wife (Fay Holderness) over his missing hat, Hog Wild escalates into one of Laurel and Hardy's most audacious and imaginatively choreographed slapstick shorts. Stan arrives to help his friend install a cumbersome radio antenna on the roof of Ollie's home (the film was originally shown in the UK as Aerial Antics), setting the scene for collapsing chimneys, subsequent head injuries and a hilarious finale in which Stan's wayward car criss-crosses Los Angeles traffic at high speed with Ollie clinging on for dear life at the top of a ladder. The film is notable both for being the duo's first to feature a music soundtrack throughout, and for MGM releasing re-shot versions for French and Spanish markets with the stars speaking the foreign-language dialogue phonetically. Its true legacy, however, is as one of the pair's most ambitious one-reelers with an impressive above-average gag count.