A Pair of Tights (1929) User Reviews

Two ladies show they can take it like men

[imogensara_smith · 7/10 · 28 April 2008]

In The Silent Clowns (a book it is difficult to refer to without the adjective "magisterial"), Walter Kerr suggests that there were no important comediennes in the silent era because actresses were handicapped by the requirement that they be pretty, which, he suggests, prevented them from being really funny. Maybe Kerr never saw A PAIR OF TIGHTS. Anita Garvin and Marion Byron, in their third pairing, take their share of pratfalls without sacrificing their allure. The teaming of tall, statuesque, sultry Anita with tiny, cute-as-a-bug Marion was Hal Roach's attempt to create a distaff Laurel and Hardy, with Anita as the bossy Ollie and Marion as the hapless Stan. Their first effort, FEED 'EM AND WEEP, borrowed heavily from L&H's FROM SOUP TO NUTS (in which Anita has one of her finest moments as the nouveau-riche hostess defeated by a wobbly tiara and an elusive cherry), with everyone falling face-first into trays of food and Marion waiting tables in her underwear. The girls' gameness is impressive—and they really were girls, Marion just 17 and Anita all of 21—but the material is pretty shopworn.

A PAIR OF TIGHTS takes a different and much more promising tack. Instead of trying to be Laurel and Hardy, the girls play themselves, and deal with uniquely feminine problems like lousy dates. Here they are ravenous roommates stuck with a couple of tightwads (see the title) who don't want to take them out to dinner. When the men arrive, Marion canoodles with boyfriend Stu Erwin while Anita subjects Edgar Kennedy to a withering deadpan glare. In a long, long, long take, Kennedy squirms and fidgets under Anita's stony, disgusted gaze, before finally managing to open with, "So, how are you?" This is a perfect example of how total inaction can be funnier than people falling on their butts—which is exactly what Anita does when Kennedy gets up off his end of the piano bench where they're sitting.

The four set out for a drive, and Kennedy agrees to spring for ice cream cones. The rest of the film follows Marion's efforts to carry four cones through a set of swinging doors—she is hit from behind, from the front, attacked by a dog, and finally tormented by a horrid freckle-faced boy—while the three in the car get into a dispute with a cop who forces them to drive around and around the block, with Anita still glowering at her date. The film concludes with one of those escalating street battles that were a specialty of the Roach lot, following the exponential spread of quid pro quo as pedestrians start ripping each others' pants off or pasting each other with pies.

Anita and Marion never made another film together, which is a shame because they're both delightful and deserved to be in the spotlight. Anita Garvin will always be remembered by Laurel and Hardy fans for her menacing, vampy performances, while Marion "Peanuts" Byron is best known as Buster Keaton's leading lady in STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.

One last thought: just what WAS that stuff that passed for ice-cream, pie filling and pretty much any other foodstuff in silent comedies? I sure hope it was good for the complexion.

Not Stan and Ollie - Peanuts and Anita

[Grendel1950 · 9/10 · 28 March 2013]

I realize this very funny picture was produced by Hal Roach and starred a comedy team, but I don't see how anyone can believe that Kennedy and Erwin played roles intended for Laurel and Hardy. The two men do little more than drive around the block for more than half the picture while Peanuts Byron gets all the gags. If anything, Stan and Ollie would have played the girls' parts and would have been more of a team than Peanuts and Anita were. The ice cream routines with Spec O'Donnell are highlights, as is the final "reciprocal destruction" scene, but it's unfair to compare this delightful short with a true Laurel and Hardy picture. Forget The Boys, watch The Girls; they're funny, too.

Anita and Marion take pratfalls with the best of em!

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 23 February 2016]

It can be difficult to be a silent film fan. You have to deal with so many silly misconceptions, like the idea that every woman in silent cinema was a damsel lashed to the rail road tracks. Pure bunk! Another silly misconception is that there were no female comedians during this period either, that they were too concerned with physical beauty to be able to do anything goofy on film. Also bunk. There were a number of comediennes during the silent era, the most beloved nowadays being Mabel Normand and Marion Davies.

A Pair of Tights (1929) is a late silent short which features a female comedy pairing: Anita Garvin and Marion Byron (best remembered for working with Buster Keaton in his last independent feature, Steamboat Bill Jr). Garvin's imposing physique and tough attitude pair wonderfully with Byron's petite frame and girlish disposition. In this short, the two are hungry and hope their dates will take them out to dinner. Unfortunately, their male consorts are tightwads, only willing to get them ice cream cones. Of course, being a Hal Roach film, you know this won't end well: fate itself seems to conspire to make sure nobody gets a single lick off those cones as Marion finds them constantly knocked out of her hands in increasingly silly ways.

It's a cute short, full of personality and relate-able situations for anyone who's ever been on a crummy date. However, it does get a little repetitious in the last five minutes. I also prefer the quieter first half with more character-based gags than the hectic second, complete with cops and obnoxious preteen boys, but it's still so much fun. If only Garvin and Byron had been allowed to do more shorts than the few collaborations they managed!

Forget Stan and Ollie - Peanuts and Anita Carry the Picture

[Grendel1950 · 9/10 · 11 December 2018]

Anyone who says Laurel and Hardy were intended for the parts played by Kennedy and Erwin has never seen this picture. Ed and Stu do very little other than drive around looking for a place to park; the majority of the comedy is handled by Peanuts Byron with some support from Anita Garvin, especially in the first reel. Her attempts at getting ice cream cones. continually thwarted by bratty Spec O'Donnell, provide the highlight of the movie. A good "tit for tat" sequence at the end may reinforce the L&H theory, but remember this is a Roach product, with Roach gag men. All else aside, this is a very funny picture available on YouTube and worth your twenty minutes.

Stan and Ollie, where are you?

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 2 March 2002]

"A Pair of Tights" is a Laurel & Hardy movie without Laurel or Hardy. This short comedy was put into production by Hal Roach at the beginning of Laurel and Hardy's best period, but the stars of the film are Edgar Kennedy and Stu Erwin as a couple of tightwads ("tights"), cast in parts that were clearly written for Laurel (Erwin's role) and Hardy (Kennedy's role). Fortunately, Edgar and Stu had the sense to play the roles their own way, rather than imitating Stan and Ollie. Apparently Laurel and Hardy were so busy at this point, they didn't have time to appear in every movie that was planned for them. This movie even LOOKS like a Laurel and Hardy film, with various members of the Laurel & Hardy stock company (Charlie Hall, Anita Garvin, Kennedy himself) prominently featured. The good news is that it's pretty funny in its own right. I'll rate "A Pair of Tights" 8 out of 10.

A Pair of Tights was the final of three shorts starring the comedy team of Anita Garvin and Marion Byron

[tavm · 9/10 · 27 July 2023]

This is my review of the third and final short starring the comedy team of Anita Garvin and Marion "Peanuts" Byron. I had first seen parts of this one in one of Robert Youngson's silent comedy compilation films, When Comedy Was King. It seemed amusing enough. Now that I've watched the whole thing, it's even funnier than I anticipated, that's for sure! It seems the two women are very hungry so Marion mentions that her boyfriend (Stuart Erwin) is bringing his boss (Edgar Kennedy) over to their apartment and they may take them out to dinner. But when Edgar sees them, he doesn't want to spend so much money on them so when during a car ride, Marion suggests getting ice cream cones, Edgar gives her the suitable amount of change he has in his pocket. The main hilarity involves those ice cream in those cones that Marion keeps losing though there's also a cop trying to keep the car three of those four are in from being parked illegally to add to the fun as well as a teen boy and his father in the apartment above harassing them. It seemed to lose steam near the end but otherwise, A Pair of Tights was a near-perfect comedy in the usual Hal Roach style. After this one, Anita Garvin was back in supporting roles including in a few more Laurel & Hardy ones during the talkie era. One of her last appearances in film was in The Three Stooges' Coocoo Cavaliers before retiring to tend to her husband Clifford "Red" Stanley and their two kids. She'd eventually be honored by the Sons of the Desert society-which is dedicated to the celebration of Laurel & Hardy-during the late '70s and '80s. She died on July 7, 1994. Marion "Peanuts" Byron left Hal Roach after this and in subsequent years, found her parts getting smaller and smaller. Her last film appearance was in 1938's Five of a Kind which was co-written by her hubby Lou Breslow who'd subsequently write the first two of L & H's features at 20th Century-Fox. She and Lou had two sons and remained together until she died on July 5, 1985.

Sort of a "Bonus" for Laurel & Hardy fans.

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 18 June 2015]

THIS IS YET another entry into those which are fine examples of the nearly fully developed Hal Roach style of comedy. This short, produced and released during the last year of the Silents reign, seems so vaguely familiar to us, yet quite different.

THERE ARE SO many who would argue that this was a story that was intended to be another Laurel & Hardy; but was a sort of leftover, being that the required number of their films were already done. The solution was to do a little superficial and non-evasive surgery and make the two lovely ladies the central characters.

AND LOVELY they were; with the "team" of Anita Garvin and Marion Byron being cast as the two minor sort of gold-diggers. They were tough and predatory, looking for some likely chumps to provide them with dinner and an evening on the town. Enter Stuart Erwin & Edgar Kennedy, who did a commendable job of pinch-hitting.

AS IS THE "plot" is threadbare and is most basic. Two girls want to hustle a couple of guys for some steaks and maybe a stop at the local speakeasy. Stu Erwin is Marion's boyfriend and Edgar Kennedy is Stu's boss. Anita has no interest in him, but they do go out and decide to get some ice cream cones. Being double parked, the foursome gets at odds with beat cop, Edgar Dearing.

THIS ALL ENDS up with yet another variation on Roach Supervising Director, Leo McCarey's principle of "Reciprocal Destrution". In this one, the chain reaction tripping replaces the pie-fight in BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, the shin-kicking in YOU'RE DAEN TOOTIN' and the pants ripping in (title escapes me).

AS FOR A PERSONAL example of how this Hal Roach style is, both Schultz and myself always confuse this with TWO TARS (1928), which is a L & H silent involving a traffic jam, two gold diggers and some of that destructive mayhem. Coincidentally, it also co-stars Edgar Kennedy and features Edgar Dearing as a cop. Those "girlfriend" comedies were also produced by Hal Roach.

WE HAVE OUR own theory about this one and its importance. We theorize that it was A PAIR OF TIGHTS that inspired the creation of those shorts that paired Thelma Todd/Patsy Kelly/Zasu Pitts in a feminine counterpart to teams like Laurel & Hardy.

AS FOR OUR rating, Schultz & I agree it's ****+.