The pie fight in Laurel And Hardy’s 1927 film The Battle Of The Century began in the most perfect slapstick comedy way: with someone slipping on a banana peel. For the next several minutes, no one was safe as pies flew in banks and barbershops across town.
In total, 3000 pies are thrown in this short, which was intended to be the best pie fight of all time. As Stan Laurel said at the time, “Let’s give them so many pies that there never will be room for any more pie pictures in the whole history of the movies.”
But until now, there was no way to see how the film ended. The only known copy of the second reel had long since disintegrated, so anyone watching the film in recent memory, was left with this ending:
Reading this title screen rather than actually being able to see this shot itself is a lot like hearing a third-hand description of a funny Vine that someone saw once.
Luckily, the second reel was unearthed last week, when a film collector going through four tons of inherited reels realized he was seeing unfamiliar footage. He determined it was in fact the missing second reel of The Battle Of The Century, and is now a hero in film and comedy community. Once this footage becomes available to more than that one lucky collector, everyone will will be able to see that cop hit in the face with that pie.