Perfect Day

“Perfect Day” was Laurel and Hardy’s fourth sound film and their fifth appearance in a talking movie. Despite the fact that many film directors and actors were still learning how to deal with the new technology, Laurel and Hardy mastered the new form quite early; the overall excellence and high reputation of “Perfect Day” among comedy fans and contemporary audiences alike bear testimony to the team’s fruitful use of the new medium. Using sound effects to punctuate and underscore a visual gag — what the Three Stooges would later take to another level — was still in its infancy in 1929; Laurel and Hardy employ what must have been among the very first in this short, when Stan gets beaned with the clutch and a loud clang, as of a tolling bell, rings out. One 1929 reviewer termed this effect “the funniest effect so far heard in a comedy.” Laurel and Hardy were judicious with this use of sound; more commonly found in their films is the use of offscreen sounds to suggest comic possibilities, seen in this film when we hear, not see, Stan wresting the clutch from the car, and in the auto klaxon which surprises Ollie after he’s been blown into the road by an explosion. —wikipedia