Even though he never received director's credit on any Laurel and Hardy film, Stan Laurel often times worked very closely with the director, and basically co-directed many of these films.Director Leo McCarey is the only person to take credit for teaming Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
During the making of The Time of Their Lives(1946), Lou Costello called director Charles Barton saying, he should play Bud Abbott's part. Barton said there was simply to much of the film already shot to do this. Costello didn't come to work for a little bit, but Barton called his bluff. When Lou Costello came back on set, he never mentioned this incident and continued the part originally written for him.
Buster Keaton was known for taking huge risks for the stunts of his films. In the scene of "Steamboat Bill Jr." in which the front of a building falls towards and he is safe because he stood where an open window was, he made a piratically big risk in fact many on the set feared for Keaton's life because if things went wrong he could have easily died. After years of being an independent filmmaker Buster Keaton moved to MGM mainly for finical reasons. However he soon found himself treated as just an actor, and was no longer able to direct his own films. He became very unhappy with many of the films he acted in, and would call this the worst decision he ever made. Interestingly though even though he acted in many sub-par films for MGM, his first film at MGM, The Cameraman, is in fact a masterpiece.
In the film A Day at the Races, Groucho Marx's character was originally named Dr. Quackenbush. However MGM's legal department found out that there were real doctors with that name so to avoid offending anyone the name Dr. Hackenbush was used instead. Groucho often called this character the best one he ever played.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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