‘SONS OF THE DESERT’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the Sons of the Desert

For Stephen, my best mate from school.

♪ Honolulu baby, where’d you get those eyes, And that dark complexion, I just idolize… ♫

I enjoyed the ‘Sons of the Desert’ and Related Shorts’ DVD, since it contains one of the best ‘Laurel & Hardy’ films ever made. It’s a favourite of mine and it’s a favourite of Stephen’s – my best mate from school. I highly recommend checking out ‘Sons of the Desert’, as I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. You can’t beat good comedy like it. 🙂

The film is such a classic and Stan and Ollie are outrageously funny in every scene. On the DVD and presumably on Blu-ray, there are two versions of ‘Sons of the Desert’. There’s the original black-and-white version and there’s the colour version. I’ve enjoyed both versions of the film on VHS and DVD.

In the film, Stan and Ollie attend their club called the Sons of the Desert, which I believe happens to be a real-life club nowadays, perhaps spurned by the ‘Laurel & Hardy’ film. 😀 Stan and Ollie are looking forward to attending a convention in Chicago, but have to swear an oath to attend it, which can’t be broken.

Stan is reluctant to take the oath, since he feels his wife won’t let him go. It turns out Ollie’s wife won’t let him go either. Stan and Ollie find a way to get to the convention without their wives knowing. But of course, this all leads them into big trouble. Will they be honest with their wives about this?

I enjoyed the earliest scene where Stan and Ollie are trying to get into their houses. Ollie tries to call at Stan’s to let him know that his wife Betty has gone out duck-hunting. But Stan happens to be in Ollie’s house. Stan soon locks Ollie out and Stan soon locks himself out before he goes into Ollie’s house.

The word ‘convention’ is very familiar to me since I attend ‘Doctor Who’ conventions quite often. I found it funny when Ollie’s wife Lottie, played by Mae Busch, bickers with him, since she wants him to go the mountains with her whereas he wants to go to the convention. It’s quite an amusing situation.

I greatly enjoyed Stan and Ollie’s journey in this film. They’re very keen to attend the Sons of the Desert convention and they have to find a way to get out of their commitments with their wives. I found the differences between Stan and Ollie’s characters interesting when watching the film from beginning to end.

Stan tries to be honest when he’s thinking about going to the convention and considers telling his wife about it. Ollie, on the other hand, attempts to be deceitful and he works on lies to get him and Stan to go to the convention without his wife knowing. It’s quite an intriguing way to develop their characters.

After an argument one night, Ollie tries to be very ill to deceive his wife. It was very funny when Ollie constantly groaned to feign how ill he was. It was extremely funny when Stan groaned too, and Ollie told him to stop. I laughed when Stan got Ollie the barometer instead of the thermometer to check his temperature.

When examined by a doctor, who turns out to be a vet (Stan arranged it, apparently), it’s suggested that Ollie should take a trip to Honolulu. Ollie’s scheme to deceive his wife works out well, and soon, he and Stan are off attending the convention in Chicago where they hope to have a really nice time.

But on their return trip home, Stan and Ollie discover that the ship that was to take them to Honolulu sunk through a typhoon. Once they’ve realised they’ve been found out, Stan and Ollie have to hide from their wives and they end up sleeping in the attic. I enjoyed the scenes where they were in the attic.

The film’s cast are brilliant. As well as Stan and Ollie, Charley Chase makes a guest appearance as one of the attendees at the Sons of the Desert convention. Charley can be funny, especially when he’s enjoying himself too much at the convention whilst Stan and Ollie are sharing a table with him. 😀

As I’ve said before, Mae Busch plays Lottie Hardy, Ollie’s wife, who he nicknames ‘Sugar’ in the film. Lottie can be aggressive, especially when she threatens Ollie to go to the mountains with her and not the convention. She goes berserk later on when she finds out that Ollie went to the convention after all.

There’s Dorothy Christy as Betty Laurel, Stan’s wife in the film. Betty is a calmer and more forgiving person compared to Ollie’s wife, though she does like to go duck-hunting and she carries a shot-gun with her. It was funny when Stan was well-treated by Betty after he admitted the truth about going to the convention.

A song is performed at the Sons of the Desert convention in the film and it’s called ‘Honolulu Baby’. It’s quite a catchy song. I found it funny when Stan and Ollie tried to sing the song to their wives once they got back home from the convention, but it turns out they’re not there and they’ve already gone out. 😀

‘Sons of the Desert’ is a brilliant ‘Laurel & Hardy’ film. I cherish very fond memories from watching it when I was a kid and I still enjoy it to this day. The reason why I like this film so much is because it’s so well-crafted and it features superb comedic performances by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy throughout.

The film is also a good example of how being a liar isn’t always necessarily a good thing. “Honesty is the best policy” is something that Betty says to Stan at the film’s end. Although Stan says it differently as he tells Ollie that “Honesty is the best politics”, which is very funny when you’re watching the film overall.

‘Sons of the Desert’ rating – 10/10

---

Return to Laurel & Hardy

Return to Comedy