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For years it was believed that the four minute pie fight sequence from the end of the second reel was all that remained of The Battle of the Century. Robert Youngson had preserved parts of that segment by including it in his 1957 film, "The Golden Age of Comedy." In the monumental filmography, "Laurel and Hardy," by Messieurs McCabe, Kilgore and Barr, the authors report that "Only the pie-fight sequence of The Battle of the Century is extant." Then, in 1979, Leonard Maltin found an intact print of reel one while doing film research at the Museum of Modern Art. With this new material, some still photographs from the missing segments, and the 1927 shooting schedule, Richard W. Barr reconstructed the middle section for Blackhawk Films to create a representative version of The Battle of the Century. In the fight sequence of the first reel Stan, the world's worse boxer, must contend with Thunder-clap Callahan (Noah Young). Quite by accident, Stan knocks out Callahan. But, the referee (Sam Lufkin) manages to delay the count until the bell. In 1927 this was an obvious allusion to the famous "long count" of the Demsey-Tunney fight of the same year. But, in the next round, Callahan recovers and wreaks havoc with Stan. Ringside in this sequence you may spot a young Lou Costello. In the missing part at the beginning of the second reel, Ollie has concluded that Stan's ineptitude could yield a profit. An insurance agent (Eugene Pallette) sells Ollie an insurance policy on Stan for the grand sum of $5. He gets the money from Stan's pocket, then borrows Stan's pen to sign the policy. The faulty pen showers Ollie with ink. They finally succeed in signing the policy by dipping the pen into the ink on Ollie's nose. Ollie then deliberately tries to inflict injury upon Stan to collect insurance money. He plants a booby-trap banana peel in Stan's way, but it is a pie vendor (Charlie Hall) who falls victim. Spotting Ollie as the obvious culprit, Hall throws one of his pies at Ollie, but misses and hits an innocent bystander (Dorothy Coburn). This initiates the most spectacular pie fight in film history. Hal Roach authorized the purchase of the entire day's output of the Los Angeles Pie Company, over 3,000 pies. The whole neighborhood eventually fell victim to pie-throwing hysteria; a dignified matron (Ellinor Van Der Veer), a postman, a dentist's patient (Dick Sutherland), a sewer worker (Dick Gilbert), a shoe-shine customer, and others. Stan and Ollie finally decide it may be expedient to beat a hasty retreat. Stan drops his last pie. A passing pedestrian (Anita Garvin), who is apparently unaware of the carnage around the corner, slips and sits on Stan's pie, causing extreme embarrassment. There are still several missing pieces. The entire middle section in which Ollie buys the insurance policy can only be seen in a few still pictures, the negatives of which have also decomposed. Robert Youngson did not retain all the shots from the original print, and thus some of the pie-throwing sequences are also missing. It is doubtful if a complete print of the entire movie exists, but we can hope. >>Top of Page | Return to Films Index
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