The Second 100 Years

In The Second 100 Years, convicts Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy paint their way out of prison, paint everything in sight, and then …

The Second 100 Years (1927) starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy

A very funny Laurel and Hardy comedy. A silent short, with the comedy duo at the top of their game. It begins with the boys trying to tunnel their way out of prison:

So, it’s back to prison life:

So, with their next escape attempt, they try to paint their way out of prison! And then, paint everything in sight, to “prove” that they’re legitimate paints to the cops that they keep running into.

And then, they find themselves back in the prison! Mistaken for French dignitaries, and then ruining a fancy dinner party!

Stan’s characteristic hair-scratching first occurred after filming The Second 100 Years in which Laurel and Hardy portrayed convicts, complete with shaven heads. As it grew back in, it itched, and he scratched it, getting laughs from the people on the set — so he added that to “Stan’s” repertoire.

Cast of characters

• Stan Laurel (The Bohemian Girl) … Little Goofy
• Oliver Hardy (Pack Up Your Troubles) … Big Goofy
• James Finlayson … Governor Browne Van Dyke
• Tiny Sandford (Come Clean) … Prison Guard (as Stanley Sandford)

Additional Cast

• Frank Brownlee (Do Detectives Think?) … Prison Warden (uncredited)
• Evelyn Burns … Party Guest (uncredited)
• Dorothy Coburn (Should Married Men Go Home?) … Flapper (uncredited)
• Edgar Dearing (The Midnight Patrol) … Police Officer (uncredited)
• Budd Fine … Police Officer (uncredited)
• Alfred Fisher … Police Officer (uncredited)
• Otto Fries … Lecoque (uncredited)
• William Gillespie (The Cure) … Minor Role (uncredited)
• F.F. Guenste … Butler (uncredited)
• Charlie Hall (Tit for Tat) … Convict (uncredited)
• Jack Herrick … Convict (uncredited)
• Bob O’Connor (Below Zero) … Voitrex (uncredited)
• Eugene Pallette (My Man Godfrey) … Dinner Host (uncredited)
• Hayes E. Robertson (The Battle of the Century) … Well Dressed Customer (uncredited)
• Rosemary Theby … Dinner Guest (uncredited)
• Ellinor Vanderveer (The Hoose-Gow) … Countess de Cognac (uncredited)

Trivia

• Laurel and Hardy’s heads were shaved for their appearance in this film; their hair had not yet grown back in their roles in Max Davidson’s Call Of The Cuckoo (1927), released a week after The Second Hundred Years.
• The Three Stooges would paint their prison uniforms black in 1941’s So Long Mr. Chumps.