The Battle of the Century
| Battle of the Century | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Clyde Bruckman |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Written by | Hal Roach H.M. Walker |
| Starring |
Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy |
| Music by | Leroy Shield |
| Cinematography | George Stevens |
| Edited by | Richard C. Currier |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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19 min.(2 minutes lost) |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
The Battle of the Century is a silent short film starring American comedy double act Laurel and Hardy. The team appeared in a total of 107 films between 1921 and 1951.
The film is famous for using over 3,000 cream pies (although an edition of the Guinness Book on film history quotes that as many as 10,000 pies may have been used) in the film's climactic pie fight; however, for many years, its second reel, containing the fight, only survived in three minutes of fragments used in the documentaries of Robert Youngson. The complete reel was rediscovered in 2015.
Hardy enrolls Laurel at a boxing competition. Laurel, however, is too weak, and loses. Hardy then seeks advice from an insurer on how to easily earn a lot of money: Laurel has to have an injury, so that Hardy can then pocket the insurance money. Hardy places a banana peel on a sidewalk, bringing Laurel there. But a pastry chef stumbles on the peel, and gets angry with Hardy, throwing a pie in his face. Hardy responds to the provocation, and soon the entire city block is involved in an epic battle of pies.
A customer sitting in a barber's chair inside a barber's shop receiving a faceful of pie whilst being shaved and; A drinker inside a saloon or cafe being hit by a pie. He then buys two pies from the owner of the saloon/cafe and leaves with them in order to take part in the pie battle being fought outside.
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Wikipedia