Habeas Corpus

1928

Comedy

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 43% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 43%
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 1044 1K

cemetery black and white silent film short film

Director

Leo McCarey Photo
Leo McCarey

Top cast

Richard Carle Photo
Richard Carle as Professor Padilla
Oliver Hardy Photo
Oliver Hardy as Ollie
Stan Laurel Photo
Stan Laurel as Stan
Charley Rogers Photo
Charley Rogers as Ledoux - the Butler
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
195.64 MB
1280*958
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
12 hr 21 min
Seeds 4
363.58 MB
1434*1074
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
12 hr 21 min
Seeds 17

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by classicsoncall 7 / 10

"I think I can use you boys".

Reviewed by tavm 7 / 10

Habeas Corpus is a pretty funny scare comedy from Laurel & Hardy

When I first read about this Laurel & Hardy comedy in Randy Skretvedt's book "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies", it revealed that it was the first to have music and sound effects on disc, courtesy of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Skretvedt also mentioned that that disc was lost though according to this site, it's now been found. Maybe that music and sound effects I heard on the Hulu print as linked from IMDb were indeed from that disc. If that was it, then it was a pretty good choice to use for this film especially when what would become the theme for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was used. Okay, Stan & Ollie happen to stop at a house in which the owner there (Richard Carle) offers $500 if they dig up a dead body for him. They accept though Stan gets scared when he seems to have to do all the work. I'll stop there and just say this was quite a funny scare comedy though the unfilmed or deleted scenes Skretvedt mentions in his book might have made it even more funny. Certainly the sound effects contribute mightily to the atmosphere though I did notice some spots when they weren't used that could've used them. Besides Carle-who has an amusing bit concerning his pocket and what he feeds into it-there's also Charley Rogers as a butler/detective that adds immensely to the fun. So on that note, Habeas Corpus is another worthy L & H comedy.
Reviewed by BJJManchester 7 / 10

Not Burke and Hare

Laurel and Hardy's earliest foray into Horror comedy is by no means their best,with a rather awkward opening scene with a mad doctor(Richard Carle,his only known appearance with L & H)which leads to the boys' attempted grave-robbing.There's plenty of opportunities for much comic panic here,some of which is very funny but is occasionally over-prolonged and a trifle predictable.The scenes in the graveyard recall the previous year's DO DETECTIVES THINK(1927)which didn't take up as much running time as it does here.It is sometimes thanks to Stan and Ollie's sheer and unparallelled comic brilliance that such potentially obvious gags are made fresh and inventive;for many years,a synchronised soundtrack with music and sound effects to accompany the film was thought to be lost,but has turned up in recent years and is now available on DVD.The only L&H silent now known to have lost it's music and effects recording is WE FAW DOWN,made several months after HABEAS CORPUS.
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