Review of Stick Around

On the Platinum DVD Laurel and Hardy collection that I found this short in, Stick Around is called Paper Hangers Helper. Similar to The Music Box in which Laurel and Hardy try to install a piano, this short has Hardy and a now forgotten fellow named Bobby Ray trying to paint and put wallpapers inside a sanitarium. Actually, Ray does most of the attempts at painting and wallpapering while Hardy either orders him around or sleeps in. Many of the gags involve Ray accidentally wallpapering Hardy with a lion's head or himself with a skeleton (with a black worker getting scared each time, how racist!), Ray accidentally painting other people (shades of The Second Hundred Years) and Hardy accidentally spilling paint on other people. There's also a scene of a man with a long beard that Ray cuts because it's stuck with paste! Hardy and Ray act so much like a team that it takes a while to realize Laurel is not here since the copy I saw had no credits (except for home movie distributor Castle Films). Stick Around/Paper Hangers Helper is funny enough and has many touches that Hardy would eventually share with Laurel but is no classic. Worth seeing, however. By the way, this was produced by Billy West, an actor who once performed with Hardy.