Sons of the Desert (1933)
“Every man should be the king in his own castle!”
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Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:
Response to Peary’s Review: … Stan and Ollie naively trying to convince their knowing wives that they’ve been in Honolulu: … Stan and Ollie attempting to sneak into their own houses: As noted in the New York Times’ original review, Laurel and Hardy are “a Quixote and Panza in a nightmare world, where even the act of opening a door is filled with hideous perils.” This harmless pair of stooges can’t seem to help landing in a heap of trouble — and it’s great fun watching them struggle to climb back out. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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One thought on “Sons of the Desert (1933)”
Not wholeheartedly so, but a must. There’s enough to recommend it as such, even if it isn’t as successful as one (i.e., I) would like.
It’s certainly better than the other L&H flicks I’ve posted on so far – at least this one isn’t painful to sit through. The main drawback here, though, is an emphasis on slapstick. There’s way too much of it. I wanna say that this comes from an era when slapstick was still relatively new (and, so, excuse it for that) – but the humor here that relies on it is mostly limp. (It’s not only surprising but bizarre to think that slapstick – esp. the least inspired of it – is, to this day, alive and ‘well’ in Hollywood. We’re talking 75 years on from when this film was made. Apparently it still cracks enough people up, but I’m years – and too many films that have used it – past appreciating the bulk of it.)
That said, I’ll get positive:
The overall structure of the script is fairly strong – and it boasts a handful of particularly successful sequences. I suppose my fave comes when Hardy feigns sickness in order to get his way and go to the convention with Laurel. But a few other lengthy bits are memorable as well – i.e., in Chicago, Hardy is handed a telephone receiver to talk to someone and doesn’t realize he’s talking to his own wife; the wives of L&H discover the truth about their husbands when they see a newsreel at the movies (L&H are, to me, at their best in this throwaway bit).
Fave visual: Hardy has just told Laurel he has to start wearing the pants in the family, then the scene switches to a shot of the nameplate in front of Laurel’s house, which reads “Mrs. & Mr. Stanley Laurel”.
FFs should, of course, know of L&H somehow. I’m still waiting to see if there’s something they did that I can recommend without reservation. But, overall, this is pleasant enough.