Twins

Stan Laurel was dropped by Hal Roach as a solo performer in 1924. He was having a difficult time financially then, and was taken in by an old friend, Percy Pembroke, who had connections with stuntman/actor-turned-producer Joe Rock. This led to Laurel being signed to Rock’s production company (you can read an interesting account of this period in Fred Guiles’ biography of Stan), and he made about a dozen films for Rock in 1924 and 1925, before going back to work with Roach again. TWINS fell midway during Laurel’s period with Joe Rock, and it is a wonderful vehicle for Stan, who plays a hen-pecked husband who is about to go to Seattle on business. As he leaves town, his twin shows up at the train station, and the twin is engaged to be married to a friend of Stan’s wife! Stan tells the twin to go to his house, where he can stay while in town. Of course, the twin is assumed to be Stan by all, and this causes the mix-up that fills the majority of the film. The twin has never been married, yet there is this woman claiming to be his wife! No great analysis needed here–just an opportunity to see a comic master in fine form. My copy of this is a bit blurry, as if the print was a duplicate of a duplicate–hopefully, there are better copies out there. Still worth watching, though…