The Music Box

The Music Box
The Music Box
	Lobby card, 1932
Directed by	James Parrott
Written by	H.M. Walker
Produced by	Hal Roach
Starring	Stan Laurel; Oliver Hardy
Cinematography	Len Powers; Walter Lundin
Edited by	Richard C. Currier
Music by	Harry Graham; Marvin Hatley; Leroy Shield
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	April 16, 1932 (US);
Running time	29:16
Country	United States
Language	English

The Music Box is a Laurel and Hardy short film comedy released in 1932. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, which depicts the pair attempting to move a piano up a long flight of steps, won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) in 1932.^[1]^[2] In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[3]^[4]^[5] The film is widely seen as the most iconic Laurel and Hardy short, with the featured stairs becoming a popular tourist attraction.

Plot

In a music store, a woman arranges for the purchase and delivery of a player piano as a birthday surprise for her husband. Upon disclosing her address at 1127 Walnut Avenue to the store manager, the Laurel and Hardy Transfer Company is enlisted to transport the instrument using their horse-drawn freight wagon.

Encountering a formidable challenge in the form of a lengthy stairway leading to the residence, the duo attempts to navigate the piano up the steps. Amidst their arduous efforts, they inadvertently cause the instrument to descend the stairs multiple times, resulting in a series of mishaps and encounters with various individuals, including a nursemaid, a cop, and the imposing Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen. Persisting against mounting odds, Laurel and Hardy eventually succeed in reaching the top, only to face further misfortune as the piano rolls back down, dragging Ollie along. After realizing a simpler route was available, they relocate the piano, encountering additional setbacks and ultimately damaging the instrument while attempting to maneuver it through a balcony.

Their struggles culminate in a confrontation with the irate Professor, who, upon learning of the piano's intended recipient, regrets his actions and agrees to sign for the delivery. However, a final mishap involving an ink-spraying pen prompts the Professor to lose his temper once more, prompting Laurel and Hardy to hastily depart.

Cast

Stan Laurel as Stan
Oliver Hardy as Ollie

Uncredited cast

Billy Gilbert as Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen, M.D., A.D., D.D.S., F.L.D., F.F.F.und F.
Hazel Howell as Mrs. von Schwartzenhoffen^[6]
Sam Lufkin as police officer
Lilyan Irene as nursemaid
Charlie Hall as postman
William Gillespie as piano salesman

Location

The steps, 133 with multiple landings,^[7] which are the focal point of The Music Box, still exist in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, near the Laurel and Hardy Park. The steps are a public staircase that connects Vendome Street (at the base of the hill) with Descanso Drive (at the top of the hill),^[8] and are located at 923-925 North Vendome Street near the intersection of Del Monte Drive. A plaque commemorating the film was set into one of the lower steps.^[9]

The steps can also be seen in the Charley Chase silent comedy Isn't Life Terrible? (1925), during a scene in which Chase is trying to sell fountain pens to Fay Wray. The steps are also used, for a gag similar to Hats Off and The Music Box, in Ice Cold Cocos (1926), a Billy Bevan comedy short directed by Del Lord.^[10] The steps are also referenced in The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair, a short story by Ray Bradbury, as the meeting place of the couple in the story, who call each other Ollie and Stan in homage to the comedic duo.

Although similar in appearance, the staircase is not the same one used by The Three Stooges in their 1941 film An Ache in Every Stake. Those stairs (147 steps in length) are approximately two miles northeast, located at 2212 Edendale Place in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles.^[11]^[12]

Reception

The short was popular with audiences in 1932 and generally well received by critics. After previewing The Music Box in late February that year, the New York trade paper The Film Daily assured theater owners that the comedy "is up to the Laurel-Hardy standard, and should score easily."^[13] Motion Picture Herald, after previewing the film in March, described it as "great fun" and noted, "Unusually long for a comedy [short], it is well worth the extra length."^[14] The Chicago-based movie magazine Motion Picture is even more enthusiastic about the comedy in its June 1932 issue:

[Laurel and Hardy's] latest "short" lasts thirty minutes. And it is a fast and funny half-hour. Perhaps they got their idea from Charlie Chaplin, who once was screamingly funny as a piano-mover's helper—but don't hold that against them. They have improved on Chaplin, which is no easy task. Not with a pair as absurdly, ridiculously, and insanely awkward as these two. The gags are almost as side-splitting as they are.^[15]

Not all contemporary reviews, however, were positive. Variety, the entertainment industry's leading paper in 1932, did not publish its review of The Music Box until November 22, over seven months after MGM officially released the short to theaters. The reviewer, Alfred Greason, wrote:

Less than average subject for this comedy pair, who depend on house wrecking for their laughs instead of upon the laughs within the situations themselves. Any pair of clowns can make haw-haws out of roughhouse; this pair have reached distinction by reason of a comic quality within themselves. Resort to house wrecking argues lack of resources in the 'script' department.^[16]

Remakes

The film is a partial remake of their lost silent short Hats Off! (1927), directed by Hal Yates, which utilized a washing machine instead of a piano, and was filmed at the same location and is today considered a lost film.^[17] Hats Off was itself remade by Edgar Kennedy in 1945 as It's Your Move (again directed by Yates), but utilizing a different staircase although located in the same vicinity where the "Music Box Steps" are in Silver Lake (known as the Descanso Stairs, they are situated at the intersection of Descanso and Larissa drives, specifically between the residences of 3217 Descanso Drive and 3200-3206 Larissa Drive, and one block from Sunset Boulevard, which can be seen in the background in several long shots).
Hal Roach Studios colorized The Music Box in 1986 with a remastered stereo soundtrack featuring the Hal Roach Studios incidental stock music score conducted by Ronnie Hazelhurst. The film was later released on VHS along with a colorized version of Helpmates.
The Music Box was also dubbed in Spanish, with the lengthy title No cualquiera aguanta un piano, mucho menos una pianola (the English translation being "Not anyone can load a piano, let alone a pianola").
With some aspects of the original script omitted, actor Jorge Arvizu and other actors have produced additional Spanish versions of The Music Box, as well as other remakes of Laurel and Hardy shorts and features.

References

^ "The 5th Academy Awards (1932) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, California. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
^ "Here Are Complete Academy Awards", Hollywood Filmograph, November 26, 1932, p. 9. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 13, 2019. The 1932 Academy Awards dinner and presentations were held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on November 18.
^ "Film Article: The Music Box", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Time Warner, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
^ "New to the National Film Registry (December 1997) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". www.loc.gov. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
^ "The Music Box at Another Nice Mess". Retrieved June 9, 2018.
^ "Climb the Music Box Steps ... without the piano". Los Angeles Times. October 17, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
^ Hutchinson, Pamela (March 3, 2020). "Silent witness: the Hollywood alley with the five-star reviews". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
^ "The Music Box Steps". Atlasobscura.com. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
^ SilentEra entry for Ice Cold Cocos. silentera.com
^ Robert Davidson. "ThreeStooges.net :: The Three Stooges Journal - Issue No. 98%20threestooges.net". threestooges.net.
^ Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. pp. 195–197. ISBN 0971186804.
^ "Laurel and Hardy in 'The Music Box'", review, The Film Daily (New York, N.Y.), February 28, 1932, p. 12. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
^ "SHORTS / The Music Box / (MGM)", review, Motion Picture Herald (New York, N.Y.), March 12, 1932, p. 57. Internet Archive. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
^ Reid, James Edwin (1932). "Featured Shorts / The Music Box", review, Motion Picture (Chicago, Illinois), June 1932, p. 68. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
^ "LAUREL AND HARDY / 'The Music Box' / Comedy / 15 Mins.", review, Variety, November 22, 1932, p. 16. Retrieved May 13, 2019. In his reviews for Variety, Alfred Rushton Greason used the pen name "Rush". A reference to that pen name is included in the headline of his obituary "ALFRED R. GREASON OF VARIETY IS DEAD: U.der Pen Name of 'Rush,' He Was Versatile Critlc of Theatrical Weekly", The New York Times, January 22, 1934, p. 15. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
^ Brennan, John V.; Larrabee, John (2012). "The Silents: Hats Off", Laurel and Hardy Central. Retrieved May 18, 2019.