Taxi Barons

Ben Blue and Billy Gilbert had appeared in a handful of "Taxi Boys" shorts before this one. Why did Billy have to use his "Dutch" dialect in this one? True, he impersonates a European baron in the middle of the film. But couldn't he have used the accent only during his impression? Couldn't he have played "himself" during the opening sequence in the taxi garage? Blue refers to him as "Bill" during the entire film and treats him as a regular American guy. The accent does nothing to improve the comedy in the first reel. Maybe Del Lord, the director, was trying to prevent Ben and Billy from being compared to Laurel and Hardy. But that was already being done! Hal Roach had advertised them as ANOTHER Laurel and Hardy, just as he had advertised Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts as the FEMALE Laurel and Hardy. It is well documented that even from the beginning, Hal Roach had difficulties with Stan Laurel. Was he using Ben and Billy as an insurance policy against Laurel? We can only speculate.