By the late 1920s, Hal Roach had struck a lucrative distribution deal with MGM, resulting in expanded theatrical exposure, better music soundtracks and a lion roaring silently in the opening credit sequence. (Actually this version of the MGM lion is a rather sullen one, who seems to be grumbling about something–possibly the lack of sound). The synchronized music (with some sound effects thrown in) was a step toward the slow march into converting from silent film to sound–a sort of toe in the water to see if the sounds of a woman laughing actually improved a scene which remained silent when people spoke. Honestly, it’s hard to understand some of the thinking of this period in film history, but there is a lovely antique quality to the odd mixture of sound and music in ‘We Faw Down’, by far one of my favorite silent L&H’s.

The original music tracks were thought to be lost and for years cobbled together versions of other Roach cues were used on what few prints of the film stlll circulated. But in the 1990s they were rediscovered and re-sychronized to picture when this masterful restoration was made for the first of several DVD sets of silent L&Hs. The film is the first fully directed by Leo McCarey, who previously took a ‘supervised by’ credit, with the director credit going to someone else–presumably who was being supervised by McCarey. The role of supervisor sounds suspiciously like ‘showrunner’ and perhaps McCarey tired of calling the shots but not yet being thought of as a fully fledged director. There was also the matter of Stan Laurel’s input, which was extensive and oftentimes more controlling of content and execution than most people now realize. The iconic final shot of the movie–one of the greatest silent comedy moments ever staged–feels like pure McCarey to me. Or who knows? Another genius filmmaker-in-training, George Stevens, was the photographer. That’s a lot of talent–and hence probably a lot of ego–on the set of one little two-reel comedy.