Wich2 wrote:
I love the Talkies, but I think the very best of the Silents actually trump them - as Films. Sure, the Stan & Ollie-ness quotient of the Talkies is higher, as the act had refined & matured - but that's not exactly the same thing.
I love both the sound and silents too, but in their weaker talkies I think Stan becomes a little more of a feeble-minded "straight man," while Ollie occasionally lapses too easily into namby-pamby bitching. In the silents their characters both have a little more teeth, and are a little more unpredictable.