From Soup to Nuts

Laurel and Hardy as waiters who have no business being waiters, hired for a society dinner that exists only to be destroyed. Stan cannot serve soup; Ollie cannot remain upright; the guest of honor is a mountain of dignity waiting to be soup-stained. Directed by Edgar Kennedy (yes, that Edgar Kennedy) for Hal Roach, released 1928, two reels. It is the dinner-party film they would keep remaking in spirit for a decade, already complete: the slow burn, the look to camera, the sense that the room itself has chosen a side. Anita Garvin's slow-burn as a guest is a third comic engine.