1934 American short film by Charley Rogers
Them Thar Hills is a 1934 American comedy short film directed by Charley Rogers and starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.[1] The film was so well received by audiences that producer Hal Roach and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made a sequel, Tit for Tat, which was released five months later, in January 1935.[1]
Plot
At the behest of a medical practitioner, Stan and Ollie embark on a therapeutic retreat to the mountainous environs, with the aim of facilitating Ollie's convalescence from gout. Their sojourn leads them to a secluded site adjacent to an erstwhile abode of moonshiners, who, in a last-ditch effort to evade Prohibition authorities, disposed of their contraband by inundating a proximate well with copious quantities of illicit liquor. Unaware of the tainted nature of the water source, Stan and Ollie unwittingly incorporate it into their daily regimen, employing it for culinary purposes, most notably in the preparation of coffee.
Stan's discernment of an anomalous hue in the potable fluid elicits Ollie's dismissive ascription of its peculiarity to the purportedly endemic presence of iron in mountainous aquifers, ostensibly fortifying its therapeutic efficacy for the nervous system.
The narrative unfolds with the arrival of a stranded couple beset by vehicular misfortune, whose interaction with Stan and Ollie serves as a catalyst for ensuing entanglements. While the husband, characterized by a disposition of irascibility, ventures to procure fuel with Stan's assistance, his amiable spouse forms an affable rapport with the affable duo, finding solace in their genial company and libations of the potent "mountain water".
Upon the husband's return, the unforeseen inebriation of the trio precipitates a crescendo of discord, culminating in a sequence of retaliatory antics, emblematic of a "tit for tat" paradigm. The ensuing chaos is epitomized by the destruction of the travelers' domicile, the ignominious treatment of the aggrieved husband, and Ollie's inadvertent immersion in the well, catalyzing an explosive denouement.
