The Battle of the Century
The pie fight that broke the movies.
The Battle of the Century is a 1927 American silent short film starring comedy double act Laurel and Hardy, who appeared in 107 films between 1921 and 1951. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2023.
Quick Facts
- Competition
- Silent Short Film
- Season
- 1927
- Venue
- Various (studio sets)
- Opponent
- Thunderclap Callahan (boxing opponent)
- Result
- Stan Laurel (as 'Canvasback Clump') wins by knockout, then loses
Lore & Background
Facing financial hardship, Ollie orchestrates a boxing match between Stan and Thunderclap Callahan, offering a cash prize of $500 to the victor. Stan, fighting under the alias 'Canvasback Clump,' inadvertently knocks out Callahan in the initial round. However, Stan's refusal to return to his corner prevents the referee from completing the ten-count, allowing Callahan to recover and retaliate, ultimately overpowering Stan. Following the match's chaotic conclusion, a disillusioned Ollie encounters an insurance salesman who convinces him to invest the meager winnings in an insurance policy on Stan, with the stipulation that Stan must sustain an injury for Ollie to profit. In a misguided attempt to fulfill this requirement, Ollie orchestrates a scenario involving a banana peel on a sidewalk. However, the plan backfires when a pastry chef becomes the unintended victim of the slippery hazard, leading to a comical altercation involving pies that quickly escalates into a neighborhood-wide skirmish.
Reader's Guide
The Battle of the Century is renowned for its extensive use of cream pies, with estimates ranging from over 3,000 to potentially 10,000 pies utilized in the climactic pie fight. Initially, only a three-minute segment containing the pie fight was believed to have survived, as it had been incorporated into Robert Youngson's 1950s film documentaries. However, the complete second reel, including the pie fight scene, was rediscovered in 2015 and subsequently released to the public on DVD and Blu-ray disc as part of the Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations compilation in 2020. In recognition of its cultural significance, The Battle of the Century was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2020 as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.' Although officially billed as a Laurel and Hardy film, the characters had yet to fully embody their iconic personas; they are not referred to as Stan and Ollie, with Laurel portraying Canvasback Clump and Hardy's manager character remaining unnamed. Stan Laurel expressed his intention to inundate the film with so many pies that it would surpass any future pie-related cinema endeavors, saying 'Let’s give them so many pies that there never will be room for any more pie pictures in the whole history of the movies.' On September 22, 1927, Jack Dempsey had attempted to regain his heavyweight title from Gene Tunney, and due to a confusion over the recently changed rules relating to a fighter going to a neutral corner after knocking down an opponent, the referee delayed his count by five seconds, giving Tunney more time to recover, leading to his winning a controversial points victory (though he insisted he was ready to get up and resume fighting by the time the ref got to two). The Long Count Fight would have been a major point of contention at the time the film was made, with many saying Dempsey had stupidly thrown away a win, and the comically long count in the film intentionally exaggerates what really happened. Dempsey hit Tunney with a big left hand while scoring the knockdown, and it's Stan's lackadaisical left that accidentally floors his opponent.
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