Pardon Us is a 1930 film directed by James Parrott, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
It's a prison movie. Stan and Ollie get the bright idea to sell homemade beer during Prohibition, which winds up getting them tossed in the joint. They get put in a cell with "The Tiger", the meanest, toughest inmate in the jail, but the Tiger and Stan become friends.
Stan and Ollie have various misadventures, like an unfortunate stint in a classroom, followed by solitary confinement. They manage to escape and for a time hide out as cotton pickers on a farm, but they're eventually caught and sent back to jail. Finally, our heroes are caught up in a massive jailbreak.
Laurel and Hardy's first feature film, after several years of making comic shorts.
Tropes:
- Aside Glance: As usual, Ollie is shooting irritated looks at the camera whenever Stan does something particularly ridiculous.
- Blackface: Stan and Ollie, wanted for escaping from jail, are hiding from the cops by staying with a group of black laborers picking cotton. Stan and Ollie are both fully covered in blackface.
- Call-Back: After Stan and Ollie break out of jail, the warden sets bloodhounds loose after them. The warden is gleeful at the thought of what the dogs will do when they get ahold of our heroes. When the dogs are seen again, they've become Stan and Ollie's pets.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The warden is shown to have a pretty daughter who lives with her father. At the end, they save the daughter after the barracks building catches fire, which helps Stan and Ollie get a pardon.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Pay close attention to the small print briefly seen at the bottom of the wanted poster, when a man is nailing it to a tree. Stan as listed as five feet tall, which is clearly too short, and Ollie, who was taller than Stan, is listed as 4 1/2 feet tall!
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Stan and Ollie go to a class in the prison, which is the occasion for a series of lame puns. The cranky teacher, played by frequent Laurel and Hardy antagonist James Finlayson, asks "what is a comet?" One of the prisoners gives a satisfactory answer: "a star with a tail on it." The teacher then asks the class to name one, and Stanley says "Rin Tin Tin."
- Match Cut: Stan and Ollie get the bright idea to make and sell beer. They stride confidently through the front door of a "malt and hops" shop. Cut to Stan and Ollie being taken through the front gate of a prison.
- Parody: The whole film is a parody or loose comic remake of 1930 smash hit The Big House. It takes several story beats from that movie, like a scene where Stan and Ollie talk to each other while they're in solitary confinement cells, or a Naïve Newcomer (in this case both Stan and Ollie) getting put in a cell with a violent con, or a climax with a mass breakout that turns into a riot.
- Prison: Stan and Ollie spend some time in jail.
- Punishment Box: In a bit lifted directly from The Big House, Stan and Ollie get tossed into adjoining solitary confinement cells. They talk to each other for a while, as the camera remains static and trained on the doors to the cells.
- Running Gag: Stan has a loose tooth that keeps making a blowing-a-raspberry sound when he talks. Various guards and authority figures at the prison are pissed off by this. The Tiger is charmed into friendship by what he thinks is Stan's nerve. When an escaped Stan and Ollie run into the warden while they are disguised in blackface, they are betrayed when Stan's tooth blows just as the warden is about to leave.
- Slippery Skid: Stan and Ollie have dressed after taking a bath. (Bathtubs in jail?) There's a bar of soap on the floor. Stan carelessly tosses a towel which lands on the soap. Cue Ollie stepping on the towel, slipping, and falling fully clothed into the bath.
- "Wanted!" Poster: There's a $500 reward for the capture of Laurel and Hardy. Stan looks stupidly cheerful in his mug shot, while Ollie looks depressed in his.
