A Man About Town

While I am a lover of Laurel and Hardy films, I'll be the first to admit that many of Stan Laurel's films before the teaming were pretty lame. While a few of his films, such as DR. PYCKLE and MUD AND SAND, stand up well over time, many, many more certainly do not. I have seen perhaps as many as 40 or 50 of these films and can thankfully say that A MAN ABOUT TOWN is surprisingly good--and is a film that stacks up well with other silent shorts of the era.

The film begins with Stan on a street car. When he asks how to transfer to another car, the conductor tells him to follow the lady sitting across from him, as she's doing the same. Naturally, Stan loses the lady and begins following the wrong one. This actually happens several times and in the process, an undercover detective (James Finlayson) suspects he's up to no good and follows. This leads to a very funny conclusion.

All in all, funny, well-paced and fortunately pretty timeless. It's definitely worth a look.