Charlie Chaplin: The roller skating rink & Laurel and Hardy: The thing with the pants

The roller skating rink

director: Charlie Chaplin, USA 1916, 24 min, short film, comedy

Musical accompaniment:

Lily & Co: Sophie Vardigans (violin), Amy Vardigans (violin), Julia Vardigans (piano) & Lily Vardigans (drums)

Charlie works as a waiter in a restaurant. He’s really stirring up the place – which amuses him a lot. In the middle of the most beautiful confusion he goes for his lunch break, roller skating.

At the roller skating rink Charlie shows what he can do and as “Sir Cecil Seltzer” he tricks the annoying admirer of a girl. And then he is invited to a party at the girl’s parents’ house and makes a wonderful mess of the party too…

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Laurel and Hardy: The pants thing

director: Leo McCarey, USA 1929, 30 min, short film, comedy

Musical accompaniment:

Lily & Co: Sophie Vardigans (violin), Julia Vardigans (piano) & Lily Vardigans (drums)

Just escaped from prison, Stan and Ollie swap their prison suits for civilian clothes – but mix up the pants. On their escape from the police, they repeatedly fail to exchange their trousers because they are suspiciously watched by a policeman or disturbed by passers-by – hidden behind boxes or in the car with their trousers down.

During an experiment in the backyard of a fish store, a crab gets into Stan’s pants. Its pinching scissors and the resulting twitching of Stan’s pants put James Finlayson’s music store and his records in great danger…