MartinHafer For years there has been a half-truth among Hollywood lore that Howard Hughes "discovered" Jean Harlow when he cast her to star in HELL'S ANGELS. While this may have been her first big role, she'd already appeared in quite a few shorts for the Hal Roach Studios. This film, in fact, was the second Laurel and Hardy film in which she appeared (the other being LIBERTY). While her role is not huge, it's very clear that this is Jean--though her 1930s trademark looks are not present in DOUBLE WHOOPEE.Aside from Jean, it's pretty much an average to below average Laurel and Hardy film. I think most of this is because while funny, the chemistry isn't quite right here, though it's hard to exactly put my finger on it. It just didn't seem quite like a Laurel and Hardy film--and by 1929 the style and format of their shorts was pretty much established.The boys play employees that are sent by an agency to work at a nice New York hotel. At the same time, a rich European prince arrives and the folks at the hotel mistake Stan and Ollie for the prince and his Prime Minister. After finally discovering the mistake, they put the boys to work.There are two main "big gags" in this film. The first involves a contrived bit involving an incredibly unsafe elevator. Through no fault of Stan and Ollie, the Prince keeps falling down the elevator shaft. This bit was a bit over-used and also had me wondering if they really made elevators like this. If so, then I am surprised that most Americans weren't killed! The second is a series of bit like you'd see in other Laurel and Hardy films such as TIT FOR TAT and TWO TARS. A small argument escalates and Ollie and a tough guy (Charles Hall--in a very typical role for him) start destroying each other's clothes--and Stan joining in for good measure. This bit is reprised later inside the hotel with the other hotel employees and soon everyone is fighting and destroying each other's outfits. Both gags are reasonably funny to watch but also seem amazingly contrived if not impossible--making the humor just a bit forced. Still, it's not a bad film at all, though one that is best remembered for a small part played by a young and relatively inexperienced Jean Harlow.

Michael_Elliott Double Whoopee (1929) *** (out of 4) Silent short has a Royal Prince showing up at a lavished New York City hotel just in time for Laurel and Hardy to start their first day on the job. This is a pretty good short that has a lot of great laughs, although the thing starts to wear out towards the end. The best gag is at the start of the movie when Laurel and Hardy are mistaken for the Prince himself, which leads to the boys welcoming their new fame even though they don't understand what it's all about. Another great gag involves Hardy's constant run ins with a cop (Tiny Sandford). A lot of fans won't watch these Laurel and Hardy silents, which is a real shame because the two were great comic actors even without the benefit of their voices. The two's chemistry is certainly easy to spot and the way the two have to use their facial gestures just adds more laughs. Jean Harlow has a important role towards the end of the film, although I guess it would be more fair to say she has important joke pulled on her when her dress gets caught up in the taxi door, which of course drives off leaving her in next to nothing.

theowinthrop "Double Whoopie" is recalled because it was one of two films where Jean Harlow and Laurel & Hardy crossed paths (the other was "Bacon Grabbers"). It was only one sequence but it is done so perfectly that it remains memorable to this day. We are at a great city hotel, and they are expecting a leading European prince and his party. They are also expecting a new doorman and groom. Enter Ollie, grandly dressed in his doorman's uniform (which is, of course, identical to a royal prince's uniform). He is treated like the great man he has always seen himself as - although he does not deserve to be a great man. Ollie only reveals his real identity when he signs the guest book (his hand exercise in the air is similar to what Art Carney would do years later on "The Honeymooners" when limbering up). Quickly disabused of their error, Ollie and Stan are told to go to their posts.Most people looking at "Double Whoopie" today see the spoofing (by Hans Joby) of Von Stroheim's persona in "Foolish Wives", complete with mile long cigarette holder and monocle. They fail to see that Hardy's doorman is also based on another character: Emil Jannings doorman in "The Last Laugh", who is treated with respect because of his uniform, and is stripped of his self-dignity when he is demoted and loses his uniform. Ollie is not stripped, but he certainly is put in his subservient place quickly.Joby arrives, and has a series of increasingly aggravating mishaps concerning his use of the elevator, which Stan or Ollie take over causing Joby to fall again and again into the shaft (dirtying all of his fine apparel. This gradually leads him to threaten war! But he is not the only one who crosses the boys. There is Charlie Hall, one of their best perennial foes. Charlie is a cab driver, and several times Stan blows Ollie's cab signaling whistle, causing Charlie to pull into the hotel's driveway, and putting on his cab meter. Of course, when Ollie tries to explain it wasn't him, Charlie does not believe it, and increasing threatens to break his neck. A limo pulls up, and out steps the beautiful Harlean Carpenter (a.k.a. Jean Harlow). As this is a silent short film, her plebeian, nasal voice is not evident. We can fully believe her a socialite. Snobby, she fully accepts Ollie's grand manner of welcoming her and accompanying her to the front desk. Neither is aware (nor are the people in the lobby) that Stan, in shutting the car door, causes it to close on her gown, so she is walking in her slip. Eventually she is aware of what has happened, and runs out. By the way, that is the total sequence of Harlow in the film - about a minute and a half.Others get pulled into the increasing crescendo of errors and blunders, including one unfortunate gentleman whose shirt is ripped off by Stan, and who subsequently also has a mustard plaster ripped off painfully by Stan. By the time the film is over there are people chasing people (including policeman Tiny Sandford after a frightened Charlie Hall) throughout the lobby - just as the boys leave, looking thoroughly disappointed at the behavior of everyone around them.It is a wonderful little comedy or ever increasing disaster on disaster. If Harlow does not get as much time as one wants, while unfortunate, it is just as well that her footage is so good.Ironically, although MGM did have distribution rights to Laurel & Hardy's work with Hal Roach (and they did appear in some MGM performances in the 1930s), they never made a sound film with Harlow. But they almost did. In 1934 Laurel & Hardy appeared in the film "Hollywood Party", where they had a memorable sequence with Lupe Velez regarding breaking eggs. The film had originally been planned to have a musical score by Rodgers and Hart, and was to have many first rank stars in it, including Harlow as a telephone operator in a movie studio who dreams of becoming a star. But the plans were dropped, and the final movie was not what at all like the original idea. Still Harlow never fully left the boys' film world. In "Beau Hunks", Hardy joins the French Foreign Legion to forget the woman he loves (Jean Harlow). He looks sadly at her photograph several times. Imagine his chagrin when he finds that most of the other legionnaires also joined to forget her...and that the leader of the Riffs also has a sad crush on Harlow!

sweetnlowdown2 When I first saw this short to be truthful I didn't like. It's not that I don't like Laurel & Hardy's comedy style, I think they are the greatest comedy team in history, but, something about the material didn't seem correct to me. It didn't play off as well as other Laurel & Hardy shorts. Right now I'm thinking of "The Music Box", "Brats", "Going Bye-Bye!" & "County Hospital". I also felt that the timing was missing. Well, I watched it one more time. I now feel I made a misjudgment. I can see now that there does seem to be some chemistry. The next short after this one would be "Berth Marks". I felt that "Marks" was sort of the one that "seal the deal". When the team became the two guys we expect them to be. "Double Whoopee" has "the boys" working in a hotel as a doorman and a footman. It just so happens that a prince is coming to the hotel that same day. A lot of mishaps happen. And the piece does have some laughs. I do not feel this is their best effort. But, is nice to add to one's collection of Laurel & Hardy movies. I would mostly recommend this to people who are already fans. "Double Whoopee" is noted for having a young Jean Harlow in it. And even she gets the Laurel & Hardy treatment. I managed to see this on the dvd "The Lost Films Of Laurel & Hardy Vol. 7" the version shown on there is not silent. It has been dubbed. Laurel & Hardy's voices ARE NOT heard on it. Many may find this to be annoying. But, if you can endure it I think you'll be pleased with it. Also of note is the fact that this was the last obscure Laurel & Hardy piece. After this one everything the team made is one all of their fans have seen. *** out of ****