Shortly before world-famous comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy produced their first talkie in 1929 with UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE, the duo created two silent comedy classics with BIG BUSINESS and LIBERTY (both 1929). The two productions each take a central schema of slapstick comedy to extremes, with harmless awkwardness and misunderstandings setting off an unstoppable chain reaction until the situation escalates completely. In BIG BUSINESS, Laurel and Hardy, as Christmas tree salesmen, engage in a bitter battle with a homeowner during the summer. Laurel’s clumsiness eventually leads to an orgy of destruction on the principle of “tit for tat”, in which the car of the two businessmen and the bungalow of the harassed man are affected. In LIBERTY, the comedian duo acts at a height of 70 metres on the steel scaffolding of a skyscraper under construction. With numerous stunts, the film is modelled on the spectacular productions with Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, especially SAFETY LAST (1923).
Jens Troester’s music for both films is arranged for a smaller orchestra formation with predominantly simple wind instruments and an extended percussion section and is stylistically oriented towards historical silent film music practice. Doorbells, horns and bursting balloons provide illustrative moments, while the use of lilting waltz passages, habanero rhythms or fast-paced chase music spans longer arcs over individual sections of the action.
