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Where does this famous "what time is it" Laurel and Hardy scene appear

posted 8 years ago by jaures1 (29)
23 replies | jump to latest

I remember a scene where Laurel is sitting to Hardy's right, at a large, circular dining table.

A couple of times during the meal, as Hardy is drinking from his glass with his right hand, Laurel innocently asks him "what time is it," and Hardy unthinkingly spills his drink onto his lap because his watch is on his right hand.

At an opportune moment, Hardy sees Laurel drinking with his left hand, onto which is strapped his own watch and, with a mischievous gleam in his eye, asks him what time it is.

Unfortunately for Hardy, Laurel's watch face is on the underside of his wrist instead, and when he turns it away from him to see the time he spills his own drink onto Hardy's lap also.

I would think this scene is a classic, but I rarely see it mentioned online, and didn't find it in the film someone else thought it was in (Great Guns.) Any ideas?

[–] lennonforever (2453) 8 years ago

http://www.steve-p.org/misc/detailedfilmography.pdf

try this

[–] jaures1 (29) 8 years ago

I'll watch them all if I have to... ;-)

[–] lennonforever (2453) 8 years ago

Good luck 👍

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Jaures1, were you the person who also asked the question here (http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/home/message/message-2014-00.html)?

I'm a bit of a L&H buff, but I've never seen, or even heard, of this sequence. I'll do some checking for you, though.

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

There is this sequence, done on the Dick van Dyke show, with Dick as Stanley and Henry Calvin (who had played Ollie's part in Disney's remake of "Babes in Toyland") as Ollie.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2z60xc
Your scene starts at about 4:07.

Is that it?

I can't find an authentic L&H scene from which it was taken.

[–] jaures1 (29) 8 years ago

No, it wasn't me who wrote that, and I can't find the thread where I saw Great Guns given as an answer (which would then make it the second time someone mysteriously said this is where it first appeared - or maybe the second person did some searching when this question was asked in one of the other threads and mistakenly accepted the first person's wrong answer when he found it.)

I do now remember Dick van Dyke doing this skit and over the years could easily have turned this into a false memory of L&H having done it the way I described.

I just found this third reference to L&H doing it (although any idiot could have mistakenly "recalled" it, as I may have):

https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Beverage_Spill

Before I posted my question I did click through GG once a minute to see if it contained such a scene. Did I miss it?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=great+guns+laurel+and+hardy

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

I just looked through "Great Guns" too (I hadn't seen it before--it's one of the Boys' weakest of the later features, with a plot obviously taken from Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates" and very little comedy), and I can't find it either in there.

There's an early one, I remember, where they go to a cafe and there's a joke a bit like the "dollar routine" in the Dick van Dyke sketch, so I'll see if that one also has the time joke.

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Nope, just checked; the one I was thinking of ("Men O' War") doesn't have that scene either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFQk3mXQtbg

I'll check some more, though. If nothing turns up, I'll send an e-mail to some friends who know everything about the Boys, and if they don't know anything, I'd guess it's probably the Dick van Dyke sketch.

[–] jaures1 (29) 8 years ago

When I saw the DVD skit I was also reminded of the one where L&H go into a bar and try to impress two pretty girls by buying everyone a soda, only to realize that they only have enough for one of them, after paying for the girls. H tells L to refuse to order when asked, after which they were going to share their one drink. After a few screw-ups in ordering, L finally answers correctly, but ends up drinking it all, explaining that his half was on the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMoSu6e1IZ0

It's probably part of my false memory, but I thought I remembered very clearly seeing a watch with a thin band on Laurel's left arm when he was checking the time, where in the DVD skit you only see it from 20 feet away. We'd better check them all to make sure. :)

I also wonder if it's more likely that DVD and Henry Calvin would have come up with something entirely new for the skit, or if they would have thought it would have been better to honor L&H by redoing or adapting parts of theirs, as was done with the rest of it.

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Lee Siegel includes a reference to this scene in "Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence."

https://books.google.com/books?id=5Nc_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=laurel+and+hardy+what+time+is+it+watch+spill+water&source=bl&ots=wC8dTaAuCP&sig=DF45ukaVukhkiPYiGuzcgjTxYjE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii9YWUssXTAhXqy4MKHbQyBMsQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=laurel%20and%20hardy%20what%20time%20is%20it%20watch%20spill%20water&f=false

Still can't find the scene itself, though. Still looking.

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Here, too.

http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/2011/10/24/1141/

Lots of people remember this, apparently.

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

This is very strange.

I found a reference to the scene in the June 29, 1941, copy of the Chicago Tribune.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1941/07/29/page/11/article/looking-at-hollywood

The movie they're referencing? "Great Guns." Yup. I'm trying to think of how.

So apparently you and I both missed it, somehow?

I'll take a look again tonight.

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Well, guess what.

I did indeed find the first half of the scene (Stan's question and Ollie's spilling) in "Great Guns." It's a blink-and-you'll-miss it scene, so I'm not surprised either of couldn't find it, actually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anzXyWUkis

36:47

Two things that make me wary, though: it's not as you or anyone else remembers it (it's in an army tent, not at a restaurant or a table--Ollie's standing and Stan's sitting) and the whole second half of the scene--I couldn't find it. Looked all throughout "Great Guns," but I'll look again just in case.

[–] jaures1 (29) 8 years ago

Aha. So it very well could be that DVD and Calvin adapted this idea, as they seemed to with the last part of their skit. But then again, you'd think that this "blink-and-you'll-miss it" scene would have been seen as a highlight of GG to begin with, for the general idea to have been so well-remembered and seen as worthy of emulation, as is the much longer soda fountain sequence. So it could also still very well be that the "real thing" does exist somewhere else...

I think we need help from someone with an "ask me anything about L&H" reputation to really get to the bottom of this, although you're miles ahead of me already! Your handle seems Germanic; did you get to see some of these as "Dick und Doof"?

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Oh, Lord, no. :)

Handle just comes from changing around a few letters in my last name (I've got one of those "anagrammatic minds," as Ellery Queen would call it). It is a German name—I'm German on my father's side and Italian on my mother's, with English, Irish, and Polish all mixed in there as well. So, in the end—as American as apple pie!

As for the point at hand... I sent an e-mail to those people I know who know everything about the Boys, but they haven't got back to me yet. Will let you know when they do.

Found nothing else in GG, by the way.

[–] Abovethestars (21) 8 years ago

Oh! I have actually seen this, and many, h&l movies, so I hope that i can help you with this matter.
I will check it out this weekend and hopefully get back to you with an answer :)

[–] Abovethestars (21) 8 years ago

I cant, sadly, find it and I find it very Weird that I cant. I just saw it like a year ago, I think. I have fast forward almost every h&l movie i have seen, and I havent found it.

I will keep looking for it though, but in a slower pace. Maybe by watching every movie one by one when I got time, because now I am eager to find it (problebly just because i cant).

Good luck searching!

[–] salzmank (75) 8 years ago

Well, I mean, we did find a very similar scene in "Great Guns," but Jaures1 is of the opinion that the "real thing" exists, in full, elsewhere. (The other possibility, of course, is conflation of the two.) Thanks for searching, though!

[–] Abovethestars (21) 8 years ago

Yes, but it is not that scene.
And I know that I have seen that one jaures1 describes. One year ago I had kind of a marathon on l&h movies and i distincly remember this scene he describes in one of them. So I know that I will find it :)

[–] jaures1 (29) 7 years ago

Has anyone found anything out?

[–] Abovethestars (21) 7 years ago

Yeah, sort of actually.
First I thought, as you did, that stan and ollie was at a bar, and I did recognize the scene you described in your post, but memories have flaws. I know now that I have not seen the version you described because I have now watched almost every l&h movie there is, including every one of the l&h films that I have ever watched before, and thé scene you describe is not in any of them. Maybe there is a scene just as you described it, but I could not have seen it. Sorry.

As other People have mentioned it has to be great Guns (1941). The part where ollie spills the drink as stan ask for the time is at 37:00 in the movie.
The part where ollie try to trick stan into spillning his drink is at 43:40.

The movie is on Youtube. Check it out and tell me if you might have been wrong too.

[–] jaures1 (29) 7 years ago

I already found GG back then, because it was all anyone could think of, but only knew about the first scene, so thanks for pointing out the second one.

What probably happened with my apparently false memory was that there indeed was a scene in some movie where they're sitting at a large round restaurant table, but I must have then conflated it with the scene with DVD, who was indeed sitting at a table, but a small one. Since you've seen so many and nobody else mentions what I thought I remembered, it must have never existed as I thought it had.

For years I had also been looking for a hilarious scene with the Three Stooges, where one of them was getting smushed into a closet by a big bald guy and the other two were taking turns throwing billiard balls at his head. They would bounce off it with no effect and I remembered him rocking his head back each time and cackling. But most of this was just in my fevered mind, and you no doubt know where it came from also - another Laurel and Hardy movie, with a girl actually in the closet.

[–] jaures1 (29) 7 years ago

It looks like the old IMDB INTK board is back, but at a different site. I wonder if they can restore the old threads. I was there under the same handle and will reregister under it if I need to:

https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/categories/imdb_i_need_to_know
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/imdb-message-boards

Where does this famous &quot;what time is it&quot; Laurel and Hardy scene appear

Where does this famous "what time is it" Laurel and Hardy scene appear