Laughing Gravy (1931) was a remake of a silent Laurel and Hardy short, Angora Love (1929), which featured the boys hiding a goat from their landlord. For the sound version, the goat became a cute pup with a curious name. In The Films of Laurel and Hardy, William K. Everson calls it "an exact re-working [which] repeats all of its best gags and extends its violence. Placing it all in a wintry setting, with much of the action taking place on the snow-covered roof in a howling storm, gives it a little more point and substance than the original, too. Everyone suffers spectacularly with the exception of the dog, Laughing Gravy, the cause of it all. ...Laughing Gravy offers a fine array of both typical and well-executed Laurel & Hardy material. There's little in it that they didn't do better somewhere else, but the sheer virtuosity of it all and the undistilled concentration on Laurel & Hardy (apart from [Charlie] Hall and a brief appearance by a drunk, there are no other characters in the film) make it one of the most enjoyable, if not one of the most notable, of all their shorts." Interestingly, the tightness of the film came about in a roundabout fashion; Laughing Gravy was shot as a three-reeler, but after test screenings with audiences reveled slow patches, it was decided to cut it down to the same two-reel length as Agora Love. Some of the gags and situations from Laughing Gravy later found their way into their three-reeler The Chimp (1932) as well.
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: James W. Horne
Screenplay: H.M. Walker
Cinematography: Art Lloyd
Art Direction: Richard C. Currier
Cast: Stan Laurel (Stanley), Oliver Hardy (Oliver), Harry Bernard (policeman), Charles Dorety (drunk), Laughing Gravy (the dog), Charlie Hall (landlord)
BW-20m.
