During Prohibition, Stan and Ollie are outside a malt-and-hops store offering ingredients for brewing. Ollie announces his intention to brew 15 gallons of beer, but Stan protests that they can't drink 15 gallons. Ollie says, "What we can't drink, we can sell." They walk into the shop side by side, and then walk into prison side by side (Stan having sold their home brew to a policeman).
Stan's loose tooth makes an involuntary razzberry sound, which angers the prison officials. Stan and Ollie are assigned to cell 14 alongside five other inmates, including the notorious "Tiger," the toughest prisoner. Stan's recurrent razzberry earns him unexpected respect and friendship from the intimidating Tiger. Laurel and Hardy's continued bungling ultimately lands them in solitary confinement.
During a riot, Stan and Ollie manage to escape. Their flight leads them to a cotton plantation, where they hide in blackface to evade detection. A musical interlude sees Ollie serenading the crowd with "Lazy Moon" while Stan dances. The warden, having car trouble nearby, fails to recognize them -- until Stan's razzberry gives them away, and back they go to jail.
Subsequent events see Ollie inadvertently undergoing dental treatment intended for Stan. They vow to go on a hunger strike, but wind up in the mess hall anyway. The prisoners are running guns under the tables, but Stan fires a machine gun in panic and quells the attempted riot.
The Tiger and his gang are determined to capture the guards and take control of the prison. Stan still has his machine gun, and frightens the advancing gang. The plot fails, earning them an official pardon from the grateful warden.
After the release of MGM's hit The Big House with Chester Morris and Wallace Beery, producer Hal Roach decided to feature Laurel and Hardy in a short comedy spoofing the current prison drama. Roach felt that since his product was being released through MGM, he would be able to borrow existing sets used in The Big House to keep costs down. MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer agreed to the idea, provided that Laurel & Hardy would appear in a feature film for MGM in exchange. Roach declined Mayer's terms and hired set designer Frank Durloff to build an exact replica of the needed prison sets.[1]
Pardon Us began production as The Rap in June 1930. To Roach's dismay, shooting went over schedule, with enough material for two prison-themed films. As a result, it was decided that The Rap be released as a full-length feature film, Laurel and Hardy's first as stars. Previewed in August 1930, the film ran 70 minutes, and was subject to lukewarm reviews, in which critics stated that the movie needed a bit of tightening. Stan Laurel, who was always involved in the editing of his films, suggested withdrawing Pardon Us, adding new scenes and deleting unnecessary ones. Leroy Shield's musical score was added (many songs already appearing in Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy short films), and the film was eventually released on August 15, 1931, a year after its first preview,[1] with a new running time of 55 minutes.
June Marlowe (who was simultaneously appearing as schoolmarm Miss Crabtree in the Our Gang series) appears only briefly in the film despite her receiving billing after Laurel and Hardy. An elaborate sequence was filmed, in which the convicts set the prison on fire as part of their escape plan, and the warden's daughter is seen screaming from her second-floor bedroom.[2] Stan Laurel did not find this sequence satisfactory, and staged the much simpler ending involving the boys holding the convicts at bay with a machine gun. In the released version, June Marlowe does not appear in this scene at all, but the scene is intact in the Spanish version of Pardon Us. This version has an alternate ending with Stan looking at their prison mugshots, much to the disgust of Ollie who rips them up. Pardon Us was released in the UK under the title Jailbirds in a four-reel, featurette length.[2]
During the early era of sound cinema, Hollywood studios frequently produced foreign-language versions of their films, using the same sets, costumes, and production elements. While many of these adaptations have been lost, the Spanish-language rendition of Pardon Us exists as De Bote en Bote ("From Cell to Cell").
In addition to the Spanish version, counterparts were created in other languages, including Italian (Muraglie), German (Hinter Schloss und Riegel), and French (Sous Les Verrous). Regrettably, the French and Italian iterations have been lost, though fragments of the German version were unearthed in 1999 and are accessible on DVD.
These foreign-language adaptations were filmed concurrently with the English version, featuring actors who were fluent in the respective languages. American actors assumed major roles, while local talent took on supporting characters. Boris Karloff portrayed "The Tiger" in the French version, prior to his iconic role in Frankenstein released in November 1931. Language coaches assisted the actors, while English-speaking performers relied on phonetically transcribed cue cards positioned just outside the camera's view. This method, predating modern dubbing techniques, allowed for seamless dialogue delivery but proved costly and labor-intensive. These customized, spoken-dialogue versions were very profitable for Hal Roach, but he was forced by MGM to stop making them, because they were hurting the sales of MGM's subtitled films.
Availability
Pardon Us exists in three versions of different length. The original-release version of 1931 and the reissue version of 1945 both run 55 minutes. This is the version that was reprinted for movie theaters, television, and home movies for four decades. A mid-1980s laserdisc release used the preview print of Pardon Us, running 64 minutes. It contained additional scenes with the warden, solitary confinement, and a second performance of "Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet Gabriel". This version has been shown several times on the cable network American Movie Classics. The 64-minute version also aired on the TCM cable network.
In 2004, Universal Studios issued the complete 1930 preview version on a European DVD, which includes added scenes taken from preview copies. This version, running at 70 minutes, was also released in 2011 as part of Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection. Originally, a music score was not added to the lost segment. This was resolved by adding Shield's music cues recreated by The Beau Hunks, a Dutchrevivalist music ensemble, on their 1994 CD The Beau Hunks Play the Original Little Rascals Music.
