The Music Box

The Music Box is a Laurel & Hardy sound short film released 16 April 1932. 
== Summary ==
In a music store, a woman (Hazel Howell) orders a player piano as a surprise birthday gift for her husband. She tells the manager (William Gillespie) her address—1127 Walnut Avenue—and he hires the Laurel and Hardy Transfer Company, recently founded by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, to deliver the piano in their horse-drawn freight wagon.
The duo soon learn from a postman (Charlie Hall) that the home is at the top of an incredibly long stairway. Trying to heave the box up the steps, they encounter a nursemaid (Lilyan Irene) pushing a baby carriage down the steps; in trying to let her pass, they knock the piano back down the stairs. After the woman laughs at them, Stan angrily kicks her in the rear, causing her to punch him back and hit Ollie over the head with a milk bottle. As Stan and Ollie try to heft the piano back up the stairs, the woman reports them to a cop (Sam Lufkin), but words it such that the cop believes Oliver sexually harassed her. The cop confronts the hapless duo at the bottom of the stairs, and when they go down to talk with him, the piano rolls back down the steps and over Ollie. The cop then hits both of them as a lesson and departs.
The two doggedly persist in carrying the piano up the stairs for a third time. Halfway up, they encounter the short-tempered, pompous, and egotistical Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen (Billy Gilbert), M.D., A.D., D.D.S., F.L.D., F-F-F, and F. He haughtily demands they move the piano out of his way for him to pass, but when the exhausted and frustrated Ollie suggests he walk around, the Professor flies in a rage and begins angrily pushing them and the piano. In retaliation, Stan knocks the Professor's top hat down the stairs and into the street, where it is crushed by a passing vehicle. The outraged professor leaves, loudly threatening to have the two arrested.
Finally, Stan and Ollie get the piano to the top, where Stan accidentally pushes Ollie into a fountain. As they ring the bell, the piano (soaked by the fountain) rolls back down to the street again; Ollie grabs a hold of it, and the piano drags him all the way down. That afternoon, they wearily get it back up the stairs and meet the postman by the house, only for him to reveal they did not have to lift the piano up the stairs; they could have taken it up a road that scales the hill and stopped in front of the house. In frustration, Stan and Ollie promptly carry the piano back down the stairs and scale the hill.
Finding no one home but eager to complete their job and leave, they decide to use a ladder and pulley to take the piano inside via the balcony then move it downstairs. As they get the piano to the balcony, Stan drops the pulley onto Ollie, knocking him and the ladder down and busting the door open. After a series of mishaps involving them mixing up each other's bowler hats, they begin moving the piano downstairs, only for Ollie to lose his footing and fall out a window with the piano into the fountain. Blaming Stan, he angrily throws his hat at them, and when Stan tries throwing it back, he falls into the fountain as well. They eventually take the piano through the open front door, but make shambles of the living room while unpacking it, as the wood falls everywhere and the water from the fountain leaks all over the carpet.
Once the piano is out, they begin cleaning up the mess while dancing to music coming from the piano. Meanwhile, the owner of the house (and the woman's husband) is revealed to be the Professor, who returns from talking with the same cop and is outraged at the mess. In a rage, he claims he detests pianos, making Stan and Ollie think they have the wrong address. They try to take the piano and leave, but still angered at the mess, the Professor instead takes an axe and proceeds to chop the piano to pieces (only briefly stopping when the piano plays "The Star-Spangled Banner"). His wife then comes home and tearfully reveals that the piano was a gift. This makes him regret his actions, even claiming he loves pianos. To apologize for his actions, the Professor agrees to sign the delivery receipt, but Stan and Ollie—still frustrated by the whole debacle—vindictively give him a prank pen that squirts ink over his face. The Professor again loses his temper as Stan and Ollie finally flee.
== Cast ==
* Stan Laurel as Stan
* Oliver Hardy as Ollie
* Billy Gilbert as Professor Theodore von Schwarzenhoffen
* Gladys Gale as Mrs. von Schwarzenhoffen
* Sam Lufkin as Police officer
* Lilyan Irene as Nursemaid
* Charlie Hall as Postman
* William Gillespie as Piano salesman
== Trivia ==
* It won the first Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (Comedy) in 1932. 
* The film is a partial remake of Hats Off!
* The steps still exist in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, near Laurel and Hardy Park. A plaque commemorating the film was set into one of the lower steps in the 1990s at 34°4′59″N 118°16′30.50″W.
** The steps are referenced in "The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair", a short story by Ray Bradbury, as the meeting place of the couple in the story, who call each other Ollie and Stan.
 
Category:Films
Category:Laurel & Hardy films
Category:A nice mess