Angora Love (1929) starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Charlie Hall
In Angora Love (1929) Stanley and Oliver are adopted by a runaway goat, whose noise and aroma in turn get the goat of their suspicious landlord. Attempts to bathe the smelly animal result in a waterlogged free-for-all
Review of Angora Love
Angora Love is a funny, silent Laurel and Hardy short. In fact, it’s their last silent film that they made for Hal Roach Studios. It’s frankly reminiscent of both The Chimp and Laughing Gravy, where they have to hide an animal (gorilla and dog, respectively) from their landlord. In fact, Laughing Gravy is a remake of Angora Love. Many of the comedy bits show up again in later films as well.
Having said that, Angora Love is a funny, quick-paced short comedy that I enjoyed very much.
Funny movie quotes from Angora Love
Oliver Hardy: You would spend out last dime for a pastry with a hole in it!
Stan Laurel: He likes me! [referring to Penelope the goat]
Title card: Two nights later — They lost the goat once — but it caught up with them in St. Paul —
Ollie: [to the landlord, after breaking a light] It thlipped.
Edgar Kennedy: Listen! You guys are gettin’ my goat!
Ollie: You better give that goat a bath! An’ if he don’t smell any better, you’ll both get out!
Edgar Kennedy: [on the telephone] Send a cop! There’s gonna be a murder!
Details about Angora Love
Angora Love begins simply enough. Penelope the goat eats through her leash, and runs away from her owner, a storekeeper named Mr. Caribou. He (wrongly) reports her as stolen. Stan and Ollie are down to their last dime, which Stan has spent on doughnuts. And he makes the mistake of feeding one to the wandering Penelope.
Penelope is now chasing Stan and Ollie, who are afraid that they’ll be accused of “kidnapping” the goat. Two days later, they give in to the inevitable, and take the goat to their hotel room, having snuck Penelope past their landlord. “He’s a killer!”
Some familiar slapstick follows, such as fighting over the clothes hook in the closet, and Ollie taking off Stan’s shoe and rubbing his foot (mistaking it for Ollie’s – repeated in Beau Hunks). And Penelope’s trying to eat their hotel room, which Stan tries to noisily fix. Which wakens their landlord, sleeping directly beneath their room.
The landlord comes to investigate the noise (as Stan, then Ollie, step on the same tack) as Penelope’s eating one of the chairs. So, in a slapstick moment, they hide the goat under their bed, get chewed out by the landlord, and go to bed.
Stan decides that he has to do his bedtime exercises – waking the landlord again. Ollie tries to demonstrate how to do it quietly, as the landlord comes in angrily. He’s more angry once he damages his own door, and leaves. All the while, Penelope’s eating the bed from underneath.
And, Penelope stinks like a goat. So, they try to bath her, in the noisiest, most spilling way possible. It’s a very funny bit, as Stan moves the tub as Ollie tries to fill it, etc.
Edgar Kennedy comes back up, interrupts the goat’s bath, and soon it’s a “pie fight” with buckets of water. Everyone gets soaked – Stan, Ollie, Edgar, Charlie Hall (a neighbor who wandered into the wrong room) and eventually, a police officer. The officer sees the goat, thinks that Edgar stole it, and takes goat & landlord into custody! But Penelope has left a little surprise …
Cast of characters
- Stan Laurel (Pack Up Your Troubles) … Stan
- Oliver Hardy (Sons of the Desert) … Ollie
- Harry Bernard (Perfect Day) … Policeman
- Charlie Hall (Tit for Tat) … Neighbor
- Edgar Kennedy (The Star Boarder) … Landlord
- Charley Young (Busy Bodies) … Mr. Caribeau
- Richard Belfield … Policeman (uncredited)
- Buddy Moore … Boy (uncredited)
- Ford West (Sherlock Jr.) … Pet Store Owner (uncredited)