From Soup to Nuts

1928 film

"From soup to nuts" is also a common phrase referring to the courses of a meal; having a soup course before the salad and a nut plate after dessert indicates "the complete treatment," above and beyond the ordinary.

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From Soup to Nuts

Directed by| E. Livingston Kennedy
Written by| Leo McCarey
H.M. Walker
Produced by| Hal Roach
Starring| Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Dorothy Coburn
Buddy the Dog
Otto Fries
Anita Garvin
Sam Lufkin
Edna Marion
Gene Morgan
Tiny Sandford
Ellinor Vanderveer
Cinematography| Len Powers
Edited by| Richard C. Currier
Distributed by| Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Release date

* March 24, 1928 (1928-03-24)

Running time

| 18 minutes
Country| United States
Languages| Silent film
English (Original intertitles)

From Soup to Nuts is a silent short subject directed by E. Livingston Kennedy starring comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. It was released on March 24, 1928, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

## Plot[edit]

Stan and Ollie are hired as waiters at an upper class dinner party, with Ollie taking charge before entering the property. The maid shows them inside, where Stan puts their personal card on table with a collection of others. Visible on their card is the slogan, “All we ask is a chance”. A small fight breaks out between Ollie and Stan as a result of Ollie trying to keep Stan from putting his hat on inside the house.

After the wife of the household inspects them she gets shown a notice apologizing that the only available waiters were the duo, where it is revealed on the paper that their previous experience in waiting was at railroad eating houses. Ollie comments to the wife's husband that she is “some wiggler!” and naturally, the husband is not impressed.

The pair get ready to start work in the kitchen where Stan tells the chef (who is busy cooking) not to wear his hat. Stan takes it off him several times but the chef proceeds to keep putting it back on. Stan soon loses his cool and throws the chef's hat away. The chef retaliates by grabbing the nearest plate and smashing it over Stan's head. Stan does the same back to the chef and they carry on using plates as weapons until Ollie calms things down by stopping Stan from destroying a large, expensive looking plate. However, as Ollie walks off, he trips on the kitchen floor and smashes the plate, causing him to be embarrassed by the onlooking maid.

Meanwhile, the party goes on, oblivious to the impending disaster awaiting them. The wife of the household isn't having an easy time either, as she struggles to eat her fruit cocktail with the cutlery provided. Her predicament carries on throughout the film. Stan and Ollie come into the room as they are about to start serving food. Stan manages to pour, what looks like soup, onto Ollie's foot while he counts the guests. Ollie begins carrying a very large cake to the table but slips on a banana skin left by the family dog and lands head first into the cake. Ollie manages to do this more than once in the film, much to the bemusement of the guests, and of Stan, who accuses him of falling over on purpose at one point.

The pair spend most of the film falling down while trying to serve the food, much to the anger of the husband of the household. This is one of the first films to show Stan getting cross for once, as he loses his temper with Ollie's incompetence and with the guests.

The wife then asks Ollie to serve the salad “undressed”. Ollie tells Stan to do this who, confused, heads to the kitchen to tell the maid what he has to do. The maid says, “I always serve it that way...”. Stan can't believe this but goes ahead and dresses down to his underwear to serve the salad. The film ends with the husband and wife discovering Stan undressed, and after a futile attempt by Ollie to put a jacket on Stan and ask, “How's that - perfect?”, Ollie gets hit by the wife and falls into yet another cake.

## Cast[edit]

* Stan Laurel \- Mr. Laurel
* Oliver Hardy \- Mr. Hardy
* Anita Garvin \- Mrs. Culpepper
* Tiny Sandford \- Mr. Culpepper
* Otto Fries \- Chef
* Edna Marion \- Agnes the Maid
* Dorothy Coburn \- Dinner Guest
* Sam Lufkin \- Dinner Guest
* Gene Morgan \- Dinner Guest
* Ellinor Vanderveer Dinner Guest

## Production notes[edit]

From Soup to Nuts was remade as the first 20 minutes of Laurel & Hardy's 1940 feature film A Chump at Oxford.

## References[edit]

## External links[edit]

* From Soup to Nuts at IMDb
* From Soup to Nuts is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
* From Soup to Nuts at AllMovie
* From Soup to Nuts at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Filmography of Laurel and Hardy

* Stan Laurel
* Oliver Hardy

Short films|

| Silent|

* The Lucky Dog (1921)
* 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926)
* Duck Soup (1927)
* Slipping Wives (1927)
* Love 'em and Weep (1927)
* Why Girls Love Sailors (1927)
* With Love and Hisses (1927)
* Sugar Daddies (1927)
* Sailors, Beware! (1927)
* The Second Hundred Years (1927)
* Hats Off (1927)
* Do Detectives Think? (1927)
* Putting Pants on Philip (1927)
* The Battle of the Century (1927)
* Leave 'Em Laughing (1928)
* Flying Elephants (1928)
* The Finishing Touch (1928)
* From Soup to Nuts (1928)
* You're Darn Tootin' (1928)
* Their Purple Moment (1928)
* Should Married Men Go Home? (1928)
* Early to Bed (1928)
* Two Tars (1928)
* Habeas Corpus (1928)
* We Faw Down (1928)
* Liberty (1929)
* Wrong Again (1929)
* That's My Wife (1929)
* Big Business (1929)
* Double Whoopee (1929)
* Bacon Grabbers (1929)
* Angora Love (1929)

|

Talking|

* Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)
* Berth Marks (1929)
* Men O' War (1929)
* Perfect Day (1929)
* They Go Boom (1929)
* The Hoose-Gow (1929)
* Night Owls (1930)
* Blotto (1930)
* Brats (1930)
* Below Zero (1930)
* Hog Wild (1930)
* The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)
* Another Fine Mess (1930)
* Be Big! (1931)
* Chickens Come Home (1931)
* Laughing Gravy (1931)
* Our Wife (1931)
* Come Clean (1931)
* One Good Turn (1931)
* Beau Hunks (1931)
* Helpmates (1932)
* Any Old Port! (1932)
* The Music Box (1932)
* The Chimp (1932)
* County Hospital (1932)
* Scram! (1932)
* Their First Mistake (1932)
* Towed in a Hole (1932)
* Twice Two (1933)
* Me and My Pal (1933)
* The Midnight Patrol (1933)
* Busy Bodies (1933)
* Dirty Work (1933)
* Oliver the Eighth (1934)
* Going Bye-Bye! (1934)
* Them Thar Hills (1934)
* The Live Ghost (1934)
* Tit for Tat (1935)
* The Fixer Uppers (1935)
* Thicker than Water (1935)
* Galaxy of Stars (1936 promotional)

Feature films|

* Pardon Us (1931)
* Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)
* Fra Diavolo / The Devil's Brother / Bogus Bandits (1933)
* Sons of the Desert (1933)
* Babes in Toyland (1934)
* Bonnie Scotland (1935)
* The Bohemian Girl (1936)
* Our Relations (1936)
* Way Out West (1937)
* Swiss Miss (1938)
* Block-Heads (1938)
* The Flying Deuces (1939)
* A Chump at Oxford (1940)
* Saps at Sea (1940)
* Great Guns (1941)
* A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)
* Air Raid Wardens (1943)
* Jitterbugs (1943)
* The Dancing Masters (1943)
* The Big Noise (1944)
* Nothing But Trouble (1944)
* The Bullfighters (1945)
* Atoll K / Utopia (1951)

Related|

* Combined filmography
* Stan Laurel filmography
* Oliver Hardy filmography
* Laurel and Hardy (animated TV series)
* The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in For Love or Mummy (1999)
* Stan & Ollie (2018)
* Music
* The Sons of the Desert

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