A classic short film by
Laurel and Hardy for which they won their only
Academy Award (although Laurel was given a lifetime achievement award by the
Academy years later).
In the film, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are delivery men who have been tasked with delivering a player piano to a private residence. They take the piano into the neighborhood where they think the house is on their horse drawn cart. Upon reaching the neighborhood, they ask the mailman who is walking by precisely where the house is. The mailman points up to the top of a very high hill that features a long staircase that seems to stretch into the very heavens.
Needless to say, the player piano is neither small nor light weight. So, from here on in much trouble ensues. First, Hardy gets down on all fours behind the cart and instructs Laurel to unload the piano onto his back. Even the horse seems to know this is a bad idea as he looks back over his shoulder at Hardy. As Laurel grabs on to the piano and prepares to slide it out, the horse walks forward leaving nothing under the piano save for poor Hardy.
The boys then proceed to make several trips up the stairs, trying various approaches to lift the massive piano. These all end up with the piano (often with Hardy in unvoluntary tow) back at the bottom of the hill.
Finally, the boys are given a much needed respite when the mailman shows up again and points out that they could have simply driven their cart to the top of the hill via a side road. Once they do finally get the piano all the way up, however, victory is not theirs. They arrive to find no one home. Rather than just leaving the piano at the doorstep, they decide it would be a good idea to get it inside by hoisting it up to the second story balcony. By the time they do, Hardy has taken several headers into the fountain below the balcony, and the boys have succeeded in wrecking the home. This does not please the home's owner, who returns to find the boys proudly displaying their handiwork and who claims he did not order the piano. He is understandably enraged. The boys are only saved when the man's wife returns home and reveals that the piano was her surprise gift to her husband for his birthday.