Turner Classic Movie historian Ben Mankiewicz cites this Laurel and Hardy short as their last silent film. The opening title card states it's 'the dramatic story of a goat', and I guess you could call it that if you want, for me it was just funny. After the Boys make their acquaintance with said goat outside a pastry shop, the animal is immediately befriended by Stan with one of the tasty morsels, thereby making a friend for life, or at least the twenty minutes or so of this picture.
Having just watched their 1928 silent "Habeas Corpus", I noted a gag they repeated here when Ollie falls into a huge hole in the street filled with water trying to outrun the goat. I thought it might have been the same location used, but this time the street corner building was occupied by a shop whereas in the earlier film it was just a large drab structure. I suppose it could have been urban renewal.
Following the boys to their room in a hotel, the goat becomes an unwanted guest, with constant attempts by the landlord to figure out what all the noise is about. Edgar Kennedy was the perfect foil for these kind of roles, and his effort to proclaim his establishment as a respectable hotel leads to a sight gag of a sailor following one of the tenants to her room down the hall. That was probably pretty risqué stuff for 1929 but it slipped by to the amusement of this viewer.
I'm not enough of a Laurel and Hardy student to know if this was one of their better silent efforts, but it was amusing in most respects. If made today, I don't think the PETA folks would have taken kindly to the way the boys manhandled the goat getting him to take a bath, but it didn't look like the animal minded too much. Somewhere along the way it rewrote the rule book on reproductive anatomy, since the short ended with three cute but tiny goats emerging from under a cabinet. Not baaaad.
Having just watched their 1928 silent "Habeas Corpus", I noted a gag they repeated here when Ollie falls into a huge hole in the street filled with water trying to outrun the goat. I thought it might have been the same location used, but this time the street corner building was occupied by a shop whereas in the earlier film it was just a large drab structure. I suppose it could have been urban renewal.
Following the boys to their room in a hotel, the goat becomes an unwanted guest, with constant attempts by the landlord to figure out what all the noise is about. Edgar Kennedy was the perfect foil for these kind of roles, and his effort to proclaim his establishment as a respectable hotel leads to a sight gag of a sailor following one of the tenants to her room down the hall. That was probably pretty risqué stuff for 1929 but it slipped by to the amusement of this viewer.
I'm not enough of a Laurel and Hardy student to know if this was one of their better silent efforts, but it was amusing in most respects. If made today, I don't think the PETA folks would have taken kindly to the way the boys manhandled the goat getting him to take a bath, but it didn't look like the animal minded too much. Somewhere along the way it rewrote the rule book on reproductive anatomy, since the short ended with three cute but tiny goats emerging from under a cabinet. Not baaaad.