User Reviews

Seeing Laurel without Hardy in a film seems strange, yet it's entertaining all the same. It's a well done parody of what became a classic silent film and it showcases Stan's talents very well. While his pictures with Oliver Hardy were great, these early solo efforts give you an idea of how skilled he was at his craft and how great he might have been had he continued in the tradition of Keaton and Chaplin as an individual star on his own. The dance sequence with his real-life wife in the café scene is the best part of the picture, and has some pretty funny bits to go with Laurel's excellent dance steps. And the bullfight climax is a gem, as even the bull takes a pratfall. And I like the irony in the scene where he's buried in hats and comes up wearing his familiar Laurel and Hardy bowler hat. As much as I love the Laurel and Hardy team and feel that there was never a funnier comedy duo on screen during their prime, it's nice to see them on their own once in a while (check out THE FIGHTING KENTUCKIAN that Hardy made with the Duke as another fine example.) Dale Roloff

This is one of Stan Laurel's best solo comedy's, before the 1927 teaming with Oliver Hardy. Laurel is a very good actor in the film, and provides good comedy. The best scene in the film is when Stan dances with Mae Laurel (his real-life common law wife), at the Cafe Espanol. Stan does silly dances that are funny, without you hearing the music. I will recommend this to any Stan Laurel fan.

If you want to see a film starring Stan laurel from the Laurel & Hardy comedies, this is not the film for you. Stan would not begin to find the character and rhythms of those films for another two years. If, however, you want a good travesty of the Rudolph Valentino BLOOD AND SAND, which had been made the previous year, this is the movie for you. All the stops are pulled out, both in physical comedy and on the title cards and if the movie is not held together by character, the plot of Valentino's movie is used -- well sort of.

Besides being an entertaining parody of Rudolph Valentino and of his well-known feature "Blood and Sand", this movie also features Stan Laurel in an interesting early role. As a character spoofing Valentino's bullfighter role, Laurel has a lot of material to work with, and although it was not written to accommodate Laurel's particular strengths or style, it is still easy to see his talent coming across.

Most of the characters and story of "Mud and Sand" closely parallel the Valentino classic, often with puns on the character names or exaggerated slapstick that spoofs the action in the original. It was clearly made with the expectation that its viewers would be familiar with Valentino's movie, and a number of times the humor depends on remembering a character or plot development from it.

At the same time, there is also a fair amount of new material that works well on its own. The sequence showing the young bullfighter's first success, and the scene of him dressing for the final fight, both have some good gag ideas and interesting details.

At times, the gag ideas and the main character have noticeable similarities with Charlie Chaplin's style, while at other times the style simply reflects conventions common to the era. The Stan Laurel character that is so familiar from the Laurel & Hardy comedies is only glimpsed at odd moments.

Yet, while it usually takes a bit of an adjustment to watch Laurel in a different kind of role like this, it is also easy to see his range of comic abilities here. This feature is also entertaining in its own right, especially for those who have seen the movie that it parodies.

Mud and Sand is one of Stan Laurel's spoofs of the popular movies at the time, this one being of Rudolph Valentino's Blood and Sand (hence Stan being Rhubarb Vaselino). While partly inconsistent on characterization (how did he defeat those bulls in the beginning is not explained), this was mostly funny from beginning to end with one of the best sequences being a dance he does with his then common-law wife, Mae Laurel. Another funny sequence concerns his reluctance with romancing a femme fatale, Filet de Sole, while his wife, Caramel, is waiting for him that shows some glimpses of his later innocent character with Oliver Hardy. Well worth seeing for anyone interested in seeing Mr. Laurel's early work before his fateful teaming that made him popular around the world.

"Blood and Sand" was so popular that comedian Stan Laurel, beginning his series of parodies of well-known movies, starred in "Mud and Sand." Premiering in November 1922, Stan plays the lead while his wife, Mae Laurel, serves as his love interest as the seductive widow. One of the highlights is Laurel's interpretation of the famous dance sequence of Valentino's, a scene in the original movie that made female viewers swoon. The comics's steps are wildly different, but they nonetheless gave the men in the theaters something to laugh about.

During the production a bull is chasing Laurel down a confined street after both exited the bullring. The speedy bull was so fast it caught up to him, nearly trampling the comedian over. The crew collectively decided to play a joke on Laurel, informing him regrettably the cameraman didn't capture his scene properly, even though the cinematographer actually had. They told him he would have to perform the same stunt again. Stan, nearly facing death at the hands of the raging bull minutes before, was not laughing when told he had to repeat the sequence. He turned a pale shade of white before the technicians broke out in hysterical laughter at his reaction.

One of the many silent comedies Stan Laurel featured in before he teamed with Oliver Hardy, 'Mud and Sand' is a ho-hum hokum. The story is badly disjointed - though this could be because of the modern-day edit - and the humor itself is not at all inventive.

Potential plotlines are started and ignored; for instance, Stan's promise to make Fillet de Sole pay for what she's done to him never comes to fruition. Stan's character doesn't seem very centered, either, but this is a common criticism of his work before he developed 'Stanley' of Laurel & Hardy fame, so it might be that I was just expecting to see this shortcoming.

I strongly believe that all the silent films should be preserved and viewed, and I'm glad this one is still available. It's just not a great film.

Ever since Hal Roach had the idea of teaming a skinny guy and a fat guy together for a Mutt and Jeff effect on the silent screen a lot forget that both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had some prominent careers as singles on the silent screen, Stan being more well known than Ollie at the time. Mud And Sand gives us a look at a Laurel specialty, spoofing some well known silent cinema classics.

I've not seen the Rudolph Valentino version of Blood And Sand, but I have seen the Tyrone Power sound version, in fact it's a favorite of mine among Power's work. And as Power was known to have a sense of humor if he ever saw Mud And Sand I'm sure he would have appreciated it.

For a solemn and tragic tale Stan Laurel certainly mined quite a few laughs out of it. There is a marvelous gag with a bull being tossed over the Corrida wall while Stan is auditioning to be a matador. I think it might have inspired the Monty Python troupe in their quest for the Holy Grail.

If you're looking for Stanley to be the Laurel we know from the Laurel And Hardy films forget it. That was a character that Stan worked into to complement Ollie's bulk and know it all attitude. Stan works in broad satire in Mud And Sand as he did with a few silent screen classics. And his scenes with the wife and temptress are something else as well.

I've got to make it a point to see more of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy's work before they were a team. Hope the rest of you will as well.

Before Stan Laurel became the smaller half of the all-time greatest comedy team, he laboured under contract to Broncho Billy Anderson in a series of cheapies, many of which were parodies of major Hollywood features. Most of Laurel's 'parody' films are only mildly funny, and even less funny for modern audiences who haven't seen the original movie which Laurel is parodying. Fortunately, 'Mud and Sand' lampoons a movie which is still well known: 'Blood and Sand', starring Rudolph Valentino. 'Blood and Sand' was released only nine weeks before this parody, giving you some idea of how quickly Broncho Billy's movies were ground out, edited and distributed.

Various sources (including IMDb) state that Stan Laurel's character in this film is named Rhubarb Vaselino, with a final 'o'. I've screened a print of 'Mud and Sand' with the original titles (in Hobo type font), so I report that Laurel's role is actually cried Rhubarb Vaseline, with an 'e'. But I agree that 'Vaselino' is funnier. Laurel copies the elaborate sideburns which Valentino wore in 'Blood and Sand' (he should've made them longer!), and there's a parody of Valentino's dressing scene from that movie, which made female movie-goers swoon in 1922. A señorita named Carmen in the original film is parodied here as Caramel (a girl I'd like to sink my teeth into).

This movie (like the original) apparently takes place in Spain, yet there's a Prohibition gag. Laurel uses a distinctive hat-tipping gesture here which could have become a trademark for him (like Hardy's distinctive necktie twiddle), but I've never spotted it in any other Laurel film. There's some amusing dialogue: Rhubarb Vaseline tells the other matadors to 'Save a bull for me.' When Vaseline becomes a successful toreador, a lackey tells him 'The bull is without, sir' ... which is funny, but I was disappointed that Laurel didn't reply 'Without WHAT?'.

There's one funny moment here which almost certainly wasn't planned, when Vaseline shows up for the bullfighter auditions. Laurel swaggers into the bullring, and -- before you can say 'corrida querida' -- he tosses a bull over the fence, where it lands with a thump near the other auditioners. The bull is obviously a fake, but the gag is funny anyway ... and, aye, there's a title card with a joke about 'throwing the bull'. The serendipitous moment occurs when Laurel repeats the gag, and Vaseline slings a second bull over the fence. This one lands on its butt, and balances upright for just an instant before toppling. VERY funny! If somebody planned that gag in this quickie comedy, I salute the unknown gagsmith ... and the tech man who rigged the bull to land in that position. More likely it happened by luck, and the director and editor were smart enough to keep it in.

During the silent era, whenever Hollywood made a big-budget feature film which was set anyplace where the people don't speak English, it was a common cinematic device to show a piece of text or an inscription in the local lingo, then dissolve to a shot of the same text in English. I was surprised that this low-budget comedy spent the money to copy that device here: we see a notice-board outside the corrida with a message in Spanish, then it dissolves to the same text in English. Unfortunately, the photography in this cheapo movie is so dark that the effect is wasted.

The actresses in this movie are attractive ... including Broncho Billy's wife Leona Anderson and Stan Laurel's common-law wife Mae Dahlberg; the latter briefly does a pretty dance. (Mae had danced in Stan's vaudeville act.) I was surprised to spot Charlie Chaplin's half-brother Wheeler Dryden in a brief role, since Chaplin had nothing to do with this movie. In 'Mud and Sand', Laurel gives a funny performance that's quite unlike his later familiar Stanley character ... but this film is much less funny than his brilliant work with Oliver Hardy. My rating: just 3 out of 10. TRIVIA NOTE: Twenty-three years later, in Stan Laurel's very last American film -- 'The Bullfighters' (1945) -- he again played a Spanish bullfighter (with his Spanish voice post-dubbed). Coincidentally, that film used stock footage from 'Blood and Sand': not Valentino's movie, but the Tyrone Power remake. 'Mud and Sand' is funnier than 'The Bullfighters', but not much.

This Stan Laurel flick was a parody of Rudolph Valentino's Blood and Sand, and so might be funnier if you're familiar with the original film. I've never seen it, so many of the gags here left me cold. A young Stan Laurel tries manfully to make a go of it but doesn't yet possess the necessary star quality to pull this one off and flounders amidst a wealth of unfunny scenes.

He plays a character called Rhubarb Vaseline (think about it…), and we are first introduced to him as he strolls down a lane hand in hand with his bullfighting friend. Hmmm, definitely something effeminate about our Rhubarb – I can't imagine what point the writers were trying to make. There are a few good sight gags – the dance scene is probably the funniest – and an endless play on the word 'bull' before the end credits roll after nearly forty minutes, but overall this one isn't very good.

Stan Laurel, it's been noted, first made a real name for himself by appearing in short parodies of popular feature films in the 1920s. He certainly demonstrates himself to be an excellent comic actor and performer here in "Mud and Sand" (a parody of Rudolph Valntino's "Blood and Sand"), but I think a film like this really works not because Laurel was a great satirist but because it allows the audience to jump into the comedy already familiar with the situation and scenes. Laurel can then let loose with his inspired gags without either having to create context or to do without it. I watched this the day after watching "Blood and Sand" itself; it certainly enhanced the experience to know what was being parodied and where.

The scene where Laurel's character (Rhubarb Vaseline if you believe the title cards, or Rhubarb Vaselino if you believe how his name gets written on the chalk board) bilks his mother out of money with a two-for-you, two-for-me trick is funny on its own because it's a great gag, but it's extra funny if the viewer is aware how it is taking the air out of Valentino's extravagant and melodramatic promises to give his mother any luxuries she desires.

This is the best Stan Laurel solo work I've seen. It's just plain funny -- even more so if you have had a chance to see the source material.

This is based on the version that is 26 and a half minutes long. This was part of a 3-DVD box-set, and this disc came with Just Ramblin' Along, Oranges and Lemons, The Tree in a Test Tube and the two Three Stooges ones, Brideless Groom and Sing a Song of Six Pants; it also came with Malice in the Palace, and the features Atoll K(or Utopia) and Flying Deuces. I will review them all on their separate pages. Since I haven't watched the original that this is a parody of, I cannot really compare the two. I can, however, tell you that this is very funny. Low on plot(and what there is can best be described as simplistic), this moves to the next bit whenever it's out of the often clever gags that it can derive from the current sequence. If you enjoy slapstick(and I seldom do, but this was so good), wordplay and such, the way Laurel did them, this should entertain you. There are surprises, and it's easy to follow. It is silent and black and white, of course. The quality of the picture(the audio is fine) leads me to believe this hasn't been restored. Still, you can see what's going on, and it's not straining for the eyes. Other than the whole matador, man against bull, life or death, thing, this is inoffensive. I recommend this to anyone who can imagine laughing at it. 7/10

Rhubarb Vaseline (Stan Laurel) comes from a small village. He enters a contest to be a bullfighter. This is Laurel before Hardy. He is spoofing matinee idol Rudolph Valentino. He certainly reminds me of Buster Keaton. I'm sure that's who he's shooting for when he's doing the stunts. There is one scene which almost kills him. This has to be the earliest that I've seen him. The print is not the greatest and I have trouble seeing the details of his facial expressions at the longer distances. Also it's too dark and the black tends to melt together. Maybe they'll do some restoration. Otherwise, I like it.

When I saw this movie for the first time I didn't believe my own eyes. In front of me there was a great -and well done- parody of Valentino... see Stan Laurel bullfight that way is like to see an excellent fencer in action! It's a very good parody, rich of ideas, with a clever and charming Stan... old and good like whiskey. (or the booze-up after that)

Stan as a bullfighter, and a good one, is quite a surprise. Usually overshadowed by Oliver Hardy, this silent short allows him to take the lead, and the limelight.

One can only draw the conclusion that his character "Rhubarb Vaselino" was a parody of the many Rudolph Valentino movies of this era.

Be prepared to laugh yourself silly at some of the dialog, and keep an eye on the special effects.

I viewed this on DVD in a Vol.1 & 2 collection.

This movie has all the qualities to be good, Stan -singing (?), dancing, falling- is very funny, I think he handled his character in the best way possible. it's a parody and very well done, maybe times can change, there's another audience, but if you want to laugh, come on, see it!