The Second Hundred Years (film)

20 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The Second Hundred Years (a.k.a. The Second 100 Years) is a 1927 American silent comedy short film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy prior to their official billing as the duo Laurel and Hardy. The team appeared in a total of 107 films between 1921 and 1951.

Stan and Ollie are two inmates sharing a prison cell. Together, they devise a plan to escape by digging a tunnel. However, their escape attempt takes an unexpected turn when they accidentally emerge through the floor of the warden's office. After a brief pursuit, they are apprehended and returned to their cell.

Undeterred, Stan and Ollie disguise themselves as painters and exit the prison during a meal break, posing as members of a painting crew. As they paint everything in sight, including a parked car and a passerby, they attract the attention of a vigilant policeman. In a bid to evade capture, they hijack a limousine and don the evening attire of its occupants, who happen to be French prison officials visiting the governor.

Mistaken for the French dignitaries, Stan and Ollie attend a banquet hosted by the governor. Amidst comical mishaps, such as Stan's struggle with a wayward cherry, they manage to maintain their charade until they are recognized by their fellow inmates and the real French officials. A chase ensues, leading to their eventual return to prison.

• Laurel and Hardy's heads were shaved for their appearance in this film; their hair had not yet grown back in their roles in Max Davidson's Call Of The Cuckoo (1927), released a week after The Second Hundred Years.
• The Three Stooges would paint their prison uniforms black in 1941's So Long Mr. Chumps.^[1]

Chapters of The Sons of the Desert, the international Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society, called "Tents", all take their names from Laurel and Hardy films; there is a The Second Hundred Years Tent on Long Island, New York.

• The Second Hundred Years at IMDb
• The Second Hundred Years at Rotten Tomatoes
• Synopsis at AllMovie