45 Minutes from Hollywood

Starring: Glenn Tryon, Charlotte Mineau, Rube Clifford, Sally O'Neil, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel (uncredited)
Directed by: Fred Guiol
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Comedy, Short
Length: 22 minutes
1926

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young man (Glenn Tryon) visits Hollywood for the first time and gets caught up in a dangerous bank robbery.

Review:

Tim: I can't say I was much of a fan of 45 Minutes from Hollywood. It felt like the film tried to cram too much into its just short of 22 minute run time. The film does throw a lot up on the screen, but not a lot sticks.The basic story is about a young man visiting Hollywood and the crazy misadventure he gets caught up in. This gives the film ample opportunity to mine for laughs. Some definitely connect, while others are less effective.

Now, this being a silent film, I had to guess at some of the motivations of the cast, based on their facial expressions and body language. Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't care much for Orville. In his first scene in the film, he's depicted as being selfish, smug, and mean to the elderly. I'm not sure why that was done, because by not being a sympathetic character, I didn't care much what happened to him. I can't say I loved the performance of Glenn Tryon. It was fairly forgettable.

After the opening scene of a somewhat dysfunctional family, Orville, grandpa, and his sister all board a bike to ride to the train station. This sequence was fairly effective, as three people riding a bike made for one is ridiculous no matter the decade. The scenes with the cattle were particularly effective. The camera tricks used to pull that off were impressive. Grandpa doesn't catch the train, so brother and sister are off. This is where the film started to lose my attention a bit. They do a Hollywood tour, which makes sense, and then somehow get involved in a bank robbery that they think is part of a movie, but is actually a bank robber. One of the robbers is cross-dressing as a woman, I think as part of the heist. The robber and Orville run away from the police together, getting shot at. I'm not sure what happens to the sister. They run into a hotel where they meet the house detective (apparently there's such a thing?) who is Oliver Hardy. Hardy just has such an enjoyable screen presence, I just smile whenever I see him. He's pretty funny as a long suffering husband who gets caught up in the madness. There's some switching of clothing, a lot of mix-ups and confusion, and eventually they burst into Stan Laurel's room and fight on his bed. That sequence was fine, but the film just ends shortly after. I don't know, it was perfectly fine, but with 22 minutes in 1926, I expected a little more from the story.

Unless you're a diehard film fan, the biggest reason you might want to see this is it's the second time Laurel and Hardy were both in a movie together. Unlike the first time, they share no screen time, and they both just happened to be cast in the same movie. Other than that novelty, 45 Minutes from Hollywood is a decent short, but it's not overly exciting.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



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