Review of One Too Many

When the folks at Kino Video assembled their fine "Slapstick Encyclopedia" collection, a multi-cassette selection of silent comedies, someone decided to kick off the first installment with One Too Many, an obscure one-reel farce made in Florida in 1916, which stars the very young Oliver Hardy. As enjoyable as the set is over all, this decision was an unfortunate one, for One Too Many is a slapdash film, so poorly made that it might discourage some viewers from watching further. The story contains several classic ingredients of farce: characters driven by by greed, elaborate deception, panic when plans go awry, and complications escalating to the point of absurdity, etc. Unlike the good ones, however, One Too Many is incoherent, unfunny, and ultimately annoying. It's hard to tell at this point whether the hopelessly confusing plot is the result of missing footage or inept film-making, but whatever the cause, by the halfway point even the most attentive viewer has no idea what the character relationships are, or what precisely is happening, and by the end one no longer cares.

The only point of interest here is seeing the 24 year-old "Babe" Hardy, who appears considerably heavier than he would a decade later when he teamed with Stan Laurel, but who is nonetheless full of youthful energy. In the opening scene, awakening with a hangover, Babe performs a highly athletic backward roll off a bed. Trust me, that's as funny as this movie gets. If you read this before seeing the first cassette of Kino's "Slapstick Encyclopedia," I suggest you fast-forward past this misfire and skip to the good stuff.