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Gilbert PrattMud and Sand (1922)

'Mud and Sand' is a satire on the Rudolph Valentino Classic Blood and Sand..
Stan Laurel plays the Bullfighter (Rubharb Vaseline) who wants to make it to the top and win back the girl.


This movie is part of the collection: Comedy Films

Director: Gilbert Pratt
Producer: Gilbert M. Anderson
Production Company: Metro Picture Corperation
Sponsor: k-otic.com
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Keywords: Silent; Comedy; Stan Laurel
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Cat Lady - - October 30, 2007
Subject: We almost lost Stan in this one
It's in the scene where his last bull is loose in the street, before they get to the arena. The bull chases him down the street, and you can see something happens way back down there away from the camera, but you can't see what. I thought at the time, that stunt guy had a close call. Well, it wasn't a stunt man. Per a note at the IMDB, it was Stan Laurel, and he did almost get killed by the bull down there. Apparently the film crew told him the scene as bad and he'd have to reshoot it. They had very grotesque senses of humor back then.

The bull in the last scene is a Hereford, and I may be wrong, but I don't think these pretty, placid animals have ever numbered among the fighting bulls of Spain. America was more rural back then and quite familiar with cattle breeds; this was probably one of the gags in the film.

A lot of the movie echoes the film it is parodying, but there are a couple of classic Stan Laurel moments that rise above that: where he messes around with Vaseline and hair spikes, and then in the arena where he suddenly does a few slow-motion leaps in the air for no particular reason at all, except that it's funny (he's supposed to be high on ether at that point). I'd like to think some of the puns were Laurel's, too:, notably the one where he tells his mother that old Sap finally got his. You can just hear him saying something along the same lines to Ollie, later on, and he did write a lot of their material.

Good movie! Just gave it a 3 because it's a parody, not totally original.

Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - - August 3, 2005
Subject: Timeless Slapstick Classic
Before he was paired with Oliver Hardy in the late 1920s, Stan Laurel did solo shorts like this one, much in the style of Fatty Arbuckle or Buster Keaton. These days, Laurel's solo work is often forgotten or overlooked, but this parody is fine example.

As a parody of the Valentino silent "Blood and Sand," it follows humorous rise to fame of a small time matador from Spain. The gags (and surprising ly, the puns) in this film remain timeless, and you can see echos of these gags in Monty Python, Bugs Bunny or Woody Allen. There is also an unusual breaking of the fourth wall on occasion, which is make this film seem far ahead of its time in terms of comedy. Like many of the comedians of his era, Laurel is an incredible acrobat and performs the physically demanding stunts wonderfully. While not as daring as Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton (for example, there a couple cases where a dummy stands in briefly for Laurel), the timing and expressions are played to the hilt.

The condidtion of the print itself is a bit uneven, with some parts very dark, and the title cards done in a couple different styles (some probably original, and others from a later reissue in the 1940s?). For the most part, however, the film remains very watchable and most enjoyable.