Our Relations

Our Relations is a 1936 feature film starring Laurel and Hardy, produced by Stan Laurel for Hal Roach Studios. This is the third of three films in which the boys each play a dual role: the first is Brats and the second is Twice Two. The story is based on the short story "The Money Box" by W.W. Jacobs, author of "The Monkey's Paw".[1]

Our Relations
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Harry Lachman
Produced by	Stan Laurel Hal Roach
Written by	Felix Adler Richard Connell
Based on	The Money Box 1931 short story by William Wymark Jacobs
Starring	Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy
Music by	Leroy Shield
Cinematography	Rudolph Maté
Edited by	Bert Jordan
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	October 30, 1936 (1936-10-30)
Running time	72' 58"
Country	United States
Language	English

Premise

Laurel and Hardy star as both their famous Stan and Ollie characters and as Stan and Ollie's twin brothers Alf and Bert.

Cast

• Stan Laurel as Stan/Alf Laurel
• Oliver Hardy as Ollie/Bert Hardy
• Alan Hale as Joe Grogan, innkeeper
• Sidney Toler as Captain of SS Periwinkle
• James Finlayson as Finn
• Daphne Pollard as Mrs. Daphne Hardy
• Betty Healy as Mrs. Betty Laurel
• Iris Adrian as Alice
• Lona Andre as Lily
• Arthur Housman as the Drunk
• Ralf Harolde as the Gangster boss
• Noel Madison as the Second gangster
• Dell Henderson as the Night Court Judge
• James C. Morton as Grogan's barkeeper
• Harry Bernard as the confused policeman

Production

In most of the Laurel and Hardy films, their usual Stan and Ollie characters are a pair of hopeless but likable dimwits, often just barely able to earn a living. In Our Relations, Stan and Ollie are respectable citizens with wives and steady employment. It is their seafaring twin brothers, Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy, who are dim-witted incompetent sailors aboard the S.S Periwinkle.

On board, Alf and Bert wear seafaring garb. Once ashore, they dress in "civilian" clothes—down to the traditional derbies—making them nearly indistinguishable from their brothers. Stan always wore a bow-tie, while Oliver wore the more conventional type. This is reversed for the brothers, with Alf wearing the usual style and Bert wearing the bowtie. Music cues also help differentiate between the twins; Laurel & Hardy's theme song, "Dance of the Cuckoos", plays when Stan and Ollie appear; the tunes "Sailing, Sailing over the Bounding Main" or "Sailor's Hornpipe", play when Alf and Bert are onscreen.

The film is distinguished by the camera work of successful dramatic cinematographer Rudolph Maté (The Passion of Joan of Arc). The film was based on the story The Money Box by W.W. Jacobs. The story was adapted by Jack Jevne and Charley Rogers and the film written by Felix Adler and Richard Connell.

Legacy

In 2000, the Dutch revivalist orchestra The Beau Hunks collaborated with the Metropole Orchestra to re-create composer Leroy Shield's soundtrack to Our Relations from original sheet music that had been discovered in a Los Angeles archive in 1994 and 1995.

References

1. Alan Goble (1 January 1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 898. ISBN 978-3-11-095194-3.

External links

• Our Relations on IMDb
• Our Relations at the TCM Movie Database
• Our Relations at AllMovie
• Our Relations at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Our Relations at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Money Box Text of the short story which was the basis for the film.