Laurel & Hardy in THE STOLEN JOOLS (1932) – An all-star comedy

The Stolen Jools is one of those old-fashioned, all-star extravaganzas that used to take only two reels before some Hollywood mogul realized they could make the same thing last for two-and-a-half hours and make more money from it. It was funded by Chesterfield Cigarettes as a benefit for the N.V.A. tuberculosis sanitarium (insert your own irony here).

The vague plot, involving the title subject, is a flimsy excuse to parade some stars on-screen. Stan and Ollie’s appearance is brief but memorable. Stan drives their car up to a mansion, pulls a lever on the car, and the whole thing falls to pieces. Ollie sneers at him, “I you not to make that last payment!”

The short isn’t a golden treasure but is fun if you happen to run across it. You might even have seen L&H’s clip already, even if you don’t remember it. It has appeared in countless tributes to the team, the most recent of which (at least as nearly as I can recall) was in a montage of an episode of the 1980’s TV series”Moonlighting,” as an example of one of the beautiful images this Earth can produce. Enough said.