Below Zero (1930 film)
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| Below Zero | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | James Parrott |
| Written by | H.M. Walker |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Starring | Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy |
| Cinematography | George Stevens |
| Edited by | Richard C. Currier |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 20:28 (English) 27:04 (Spanish) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Below Zero is a 1930 short film starring Laurel and Hardy, directed by James Parrott and produced by Hal Roach.
Note
Cast
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Stan Laurel | Stan |
| Oliver Hardy | Ollie |
| Uncredited | |
| Bobby Burns | 'Blind' man / deadbeat diner |
| Baldwin Cooke | Man at window |
| Kay Deslys | Woman at window |
| Charlie Hall | Annoyed shopkeeper throwing snowball |
| Jack Hill | Busboy |
| Frank Holliday | Policeman |
| Charles McMurphy | Extra at restaurant |
| Bob O'Connor | Extra at restaurant |
| Retta Palmer | Woman leaving window |
| Blanche Payson | Formidable woman |
| Tiny Sandford | Pete |
| Charles Sullivan | Extra at restaurant |
| Lyle Tayo | Woman at window tossing Stan and Ollie a dollar |
| Leo Willis | Crook |
Production
The film was "made three months after Night Owls."[1]
Reception
Below Zero "demonstrates the team’s skill in presenting situation comedy through visual means", according to The Laurel & Hardy encyclopedia.[2]
The same book recalls that the short "contains very little dialogue, but what there is tends to be quoted frequently. When a lady enquires how much the boys earn per street (so that she can pay them to move two streets away), she calls Ollie ‘Mr Whiteman’, a direct reference to the famous bandleader and Hardy lookalike, Paul Whiteman (the similarity may be inspected in Whiteman’s 1930 film King of Jazz). The computer-colour edition issued on both sides of the Atlantic omits this sequence, as does the British Super-8 sound version released in the late 1970s".[2]
Comparing Berth Marks to this short, William Everson praised the latter over the first, stating "One of the few really poor comedies that the team made, this is a misfire all down the line. The blame cannot be laid entirely on its paucity of plot, since single situations often stood them in good stead, and a similarly simple exercise in frustration, Below Zero, had a great deal of merit."[3]
The short is said to reflect the historical context of its production: "It's the Great Depression of 1929, and Laurel and Hardy are about as depressed as you can get ..."[4] It was also described as "a curious, bizarre, almost surrealist comedy".[5]