Review of Stick Around

The specs for this film in the IMDb credits state that there are 24 and 12 minute versions, and one of the reviewers here comments on scenes I didn't see, so I have to limit my remarks to the shorter of the two. I've seen Bobby Ray in another short with 'Babe' Hardy, and his resemblance to Stan Laurel is rather uncanny. However the chemistry just isn't there between Ray and Hardy and one needn't wonder why this particular duo didn't go very far. However the picture itself crams a lot of slapstick into it's brief run time, and though I'm not that much of an early film short buff, this one has to be one of the first, if not THE first to make effective use of all those ladder and paint bucket pratfalls that comedy teams from Laurel and Hardy on down would get so much mileage out of. Even though many of these films aren't very good from a story telling or cinematic perspective, they're still worth catching for brief insights into the early days of film making and how early comedians came to develop their craft.