The Music Box: Torment Without End
Image: IMDb
Writing about the Greek legend of Sisyphus, Albert Camus remarked that, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Camus was comparing the absurdity of man's life – devoid of meaning but marked by the continual search for meaning – with the fate of Sisyphus. Seeking to challenge death, and the natural order of things, Zeus had condemned him to the eternal punishment of rolling a boulder up a mountain in the depths of Hades, only to see it roll down again.
You wonder if Laurel and Hardy had the myth of Sisyphus in mind when they made their classic short The Music Box.
Stoicism amidst despair
The film is an absolute joy. Thirty minutes of pure, timeless, comic mayhem as they try – and repeatedly fail – to manoeuvre a pianola in a crate up an unfeasibly long flight of steps to a hilltop home.
It’s their first job in their new incarnation as a transport company. You know you’re in for a treat when you see the sign on the side of their cart advertising the company as ‘foundered in 1931’.
It’s a one-joke movie. But the simple gag is endlessly repeated and developed as they encounter a succession of obstacles and unhelpful passersby, including the short-tempered Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen, the unwitting recipient of the piano. And the music box keeps rolling down the steps.
It’s almost painful to watch as Laurel and Hardy demonstrate their talent for making a bad situation worse. But they endure. And eventually the piano is delivered. Though this only leads to further chaos as the irascible Professor proceeds to destroy the piano, not realising that it was a surprise birthday present from his wife.
Laurel and Hardy were at the top of their game at this point. And the improvisation they brought to the script makes the film really stand out. It duly won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) in 1932.
A comedy of frustration
Analysing comedy is a perilous business. As E. B. and Katharine White once said, “Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process.”
But I think it’s a shame that Laurel and Hardy don’t get the sort of critical acclaim given to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Despite the obstacles they encounter, they never give up. Like Sisyphus, they keep rolling the rock up the mountain. They have understood that by acknowledging the futility of their task they are able to embrace freedom.
The film was made at the time of the Great Depression. And it can be read as a reflection on the devastating impact of the economic crisis on ordinary Americans. The arrogance of the wealthy home-owner is in sharp contrast to the penurious circumstances and simple demeanour of Laurel and Hardy.
Their very incompetence becomes a mechanism for surviving adversity and challenging the way things are. They invite us to share their ordeal and confront an unreasonable world.
Stan Laurel said the duo were ‘two minds without a single thought.’
But there was an underlying subtlety to their best films which bears further consideration. They were also extremely funny!
Watch the film below: