Pass the Gravy

Schultz is a chicken breeder with a prize-winning show rooster. Davidson, his neighbour, raises flowers. And hell breaks loose when Schultz's prize chickens, led by the rooster, dig up Davidson's flowerbeds. But the young ones are in love, and it is time to make it up. Best to do it at the celebratory lunch. That is, if Davidson’s simple-minded son Ignatz hadn’t secretly procured the prize the main course. This energetic 1928 silent grotesque about one hell of a roast balances on the edge of black comedy with even horror hints. The film was co-directed by Fred Guiol, who went on to make Laurel and Hardy’s first short films, and Leo McCarey, the director of the brilliant 1933 Marx Brothers sound comedy Duck Soup.