The Second Hundred Years is a 1927 short comedy silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 starring Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

 as convicts making an escape from prison. Their heads were shaved for their appearance in this film, and their hair had not yet grown back in their roles in Max Davidson

Max Davidson

Max Davidson was a German film actor known for his comedic Jewish persona during the silent film era. With a career spanning over thirty years, Davidson appeared in over 180 films.-Career:...

's Call Of The Cuckoo (1927), released a week after this film.

Plot

Two convicts (Laurel & Hardy) dig a tunnel to escape from prison, but end up in the warden's office, after making a detour around a burst water pipe. They then disguise themselves as painters and walk out through the front gates. They later climb into a limousine carrying two visiting French police chiefs, steal their suits and throw the two men out of the car. The two convicts, now disguised as dignitaries, are then driven back to the prison to have dinner with the warden. Later, while visiting the cells, they are recognised and marched back to their own cell.

Cast

Charlie Hall 

Jimmy Finlayson

Jimmy Finlayson

James Henderson "Jimmy" Finlayson was a Scottish actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Bald, with a fake moustache, Finlayson had many trademark comic mannerisms and is famous for his squinting, outraged, "double take and fade away" head reaction, and characteristic expression...

 

Otto Fries

Otto Fries

Otto Fries was an American film actor. He appeared in 129 films between 1920 and 1938.-Career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Fries became a dapper-looking supporting comic with a varied background in medicine shows and vaudeville. He easily transitioned to film in the early 1910s...

 

Rosemary Theby

Rosemary Theby

Rosemary Theby was an American film actress. She appeared in some 250 films between 1911 and 1940.-Early life and career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Theby studied at Sargent's School in New York...

 

Ellinor Vanderveer

Ellinor Vanderveer

Ellinor Vanderveer , was an American actress who usually played dowagers, high class society matrons or party guests...

 

Dorothy Coburn

Dorothy Coburn

Dorothy Coburn was a dark-haired actress, who appeared in a number of the early Laurel and Hardy silents. She was niece of author Walt Coburn, and granddaughter of Robert Coburn Sr., founder of the famous Circle C Ranch in Montana.Raised in Prescott, Arizona, Coburn was born to cowboy-poet and...

 

Tiny Sandford

Tiny Sandford

Stanley J. "Tiny" Sandford was a tall, burly actor who is best remembered for his roles in Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin films. He was usually cast as a comic heavy, and often played policemen, doormen, prizefighters, or bullies.Sandford was born in Osage, Iowa. After working in stock...

 

William Gillespie

William Gillespie (actor)

William Gillespie was a Scottish actor who started in Hollywood films from the silent era. Born in Aberdeen, he supported such comedians as Charlie Chaplin, Charley Chase and Laurel and Hardy, but was most prolific supporting Harold Lloyd in over 50 films.-Selected filmography:* The Cure * Easy...

 

Frank Brownlee

Frank Brownlee

Frank Brownlee was an American film actor. He appeared in 114 films between 1911 and 1943.He was born in Dallas, Texas and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Sold for Marriage...

 

Edgar Dearing

Edgar Dearing

Edgar Dearing was an American actor who became heavily type cast as a motorcycle cop in Hollywood films. He started in silent comedy shorts for Hal Roach, including several with Laurel and Hardy, notably in their classic Two Tars, probably his best ever screen role...

 

Charles A. Bachman

Charles A. Bachman

Charles A. Bachman was an American film comedy actor. He appeared in 29 films between 1923 to 1940 for the Hal Roach Studio, primarily in Our Gang shorts and Laurel and Hardy comedies.-Selected filmography:* Saps at Sea...

 

Bob O'Connor

Bob O'Connor (actor)

Bob O'Connor , was an American actor. He appeared in 31 films between 1926 and 1948.-External links:...

 

Eugene Pallette

Eugene Pallette

Eugene William Pallette was an American actor. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946....

The Sons of the Desert

Chapters — called Tents — of The Sons of the Desert

The Sons of the Desert

The Sons of the Desert is an international fraternal organization devoted to lives and films of comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The group takes its name from a lodge that Laurel and Hardy belonged to in the 1933 movie Sons of the Desert....

, the international Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society, all take their names from L&H films; there is a The Second Hundred Years Tent on Long Island, New York.