Going Bye-Bye!

Released June 23, 1934 (Sound – two reels).

Plot: (by Andrew Cobby) This one features Walter ‘Butch’ Long and the ever-popular Mae Busch. Walter plays a criminal who is condemned on the testimony of Laurel and Hardy.

A nicely coloured image from Going Bye-Bye

He is sentenced to imprisonment, prompting Stan to ask the judge ‘Aren’t you going to hang him?’ Butch swears vengeance, vowing to catch up with the pair, break off their legs and wrap them around their necks.

Stan and Ollie wisely decide to get out of town and advertise for a travelling companion to share expenses. The film benefits from some inspired dialogue. ‘Excuse me, please. My ear is full of milk’, says Ollie as he attempts to speak to Mae over the phone. It’s true, too. His ear is full of milk.

Mae Busch plays Stan and Ollie’s travelling companion, who also happens to be Butch’s girlfriend. Butch escapes from jail, makes for Mae’s apartment and hides out in a trunk. Stan and Ollie arrive with some flowers that they somehow never manage to give to Mae. If this were an episode of Friends it would be called The One Where They Never Let Go of the Flowers.

A lobby card / poster for Going Bye-Bye!

Mae explains to Stan and Ollie that her friend was packing and he accidentally fell in. ‘It could happen’, reasons Stan. He’s right, if only because anything could happen in the world of a man who eats wax fruit and smokes his own thumb.

Butch breaks free, sees Stan and Ollie and shows that his bite is worse than his bark. The last scene has Laurel and Hardy sitting on a sofa with their legs tied around their necks. Walter Long was a fearsome protagonist for Stan and Ollie. You should see what he does to them at the end of The Live Ghost, made in the same year as this.

Fun Facts: Going Bye-Bye! features one of the occasionally used bizarre endings often precipitated by Walter Long – see The Live Ghost for example.

This drew on the then-current manhunt for ‘public enemy number one’, John Dillinger.

This is the first time that the “Well, here’s another nice mess…” line is used as a climactic punchline.

Classic Dialogue:

This contains one of the funniest, most surreal, often repeated (and misquoted) lines in any Laurel and Hardy film: Ollie on the phone to Mae Busch:

As well as Stan’s naïve line to the Judge: “Aren’t you gonna hang him?” 

We loved these thoughts from honorary Chump, Phyllis from Delaware, and just had to share them: “Oliver Hardy ‘steals the show’ in this one. You have to watch him very closely to catch the subtle hilarity he gives to his performances. He twiddles his tie over the phone, tips his hat to passengers on a bus as he has a reckless ride in a car on a ladder, and includes the audience in his frustration by breaking the fourth wall with his marvellous facial expressions. Oliver Hardy. A master of comedy.” Perfectly said Phyllis, and thanks! 😊

We hope that you have enjoyed our brief look at the movie, and if you have any questions or thoughts you would like to share, please leave them on the box below. We’d love to hear from you and you will receive a response on this page.