Back in the '90s, I managed to buy a VHS tape of this Laurel & Hardy thrill comedy directed by the soon-to-be-legendary Leo McCarey. I laughed plenty at it then as I just did now when seeing it again on Hulu as linked from IMDb. In this one, Stan & Ollie are escaped convicts who find themselves in the wrong pants but they keep getting interrupted whenever they try to change. Not only that, but a crab managed to get into one of the clothes and they somehow end up high a construction gilder...Yes, the boys actually are up there suffering for their art and our enjoyment not unlike former fellow Hal Roach employee Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! Very funny from beginning to end especially whenever Stan or Ollie feel the pinch from that crustacean or they keep having near slip-ups. So on that note, Liberty is well worth seeing. P.S. A woman who's startled when Stan & Ollie emerge, half-dressed, from a taxi is played by Jean Harlow before her stardom. P.S. On YouTube, this is put in the middle of their last short, We Faw Down, as most of their scenes here were originally part of that one but were cut for time constraints. Update-9/24/11: This was the last of the three L & H shorts, with the others being Big Business and The Battle of the Century respectively, that I rewatched at an outdoor screening at the Baton Rouge Gallery with nice contemporary musical stylings by The Incense Merchants providing live accompaniment. At least one female audience member laughed as loud as I did. She must be an appreciative L & H fan like yours truly.
