VIDEO REWIND : Laurel and Hardy Humor Is Perfectly Tuned in ‘Music Box’

Ask 10 people to name the funniest Laurel and Hardy film ever made, and most of them will probably be able to articulate the plot, but not the title.

Something like: “Oh, definitely the one where they keep pushing that piano up the stairs. Oh, you know. . . .”

But no one does. Stan and Ollie shoving that upright right up those stairs (which still exist in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles) is as much a part of American lore as John Henry and his hammer, but the name of the actual film always seems to escape us.

So let’s plug a great cultural void and commit this to memory: It’s called “The Music Box,” and it’s one of the most hilarious one-reelers made during the Golden Age of film comedy.

What sets this gem apart from so many other worthy Stan-and-Ollie debacles is their adversaries. This time, they’re not beset by shrewish wives, bellowing bosses or martinet military types. No, on this outing they have to contend only with a musical instrument in a box and the highly reliable force of gravity.

To be sure, that is more than enough to do them in. Stan could find a way to put Ollie in the hospital with a feather duster, never mind a piano.

And it doesn’t seem to matter one jot that nearly every gag in this Sisyphean tableau is telegraphed. See that fountain beneath the upstairs window? Is there the slightest doubt that The Boys and the piano are all going to end up in there?

Does it matter? No. The expectation of disaster is one of the elements that made Laurel and Hardy comedies the hits they were. The question was never whether the house would be wrecked--it was always how quickly would it happen, and how thoroughly.

Which brings us to the second classic short feature on this all-Hal Roach video, “Helpmates.” The scenario: Ollie arises, massively hung over from a wild party he’s just thrown in his wife’s absence. He orders Stan over to help him clean up the enormous mess his pals have made of the house before she returns. The result: . . . Well, you know.

This is the sort of stuff that Norman Cousins lapped up and that he credited with helping him defeat his mysterious disease by “laughing it out” of his body. And at about $10 for the video, it’s cheaper than a big jar of Advil.

“The Music Box” (1932), directed by James Parrott. 30 minutes. “Helpmates” (1932). 20 minutes. Not rated.