The Flying Deuces (1939)

Still needs restoration work

For Laurel & Hardy collectors, Kino's "Restored Edition" is a case of good news-bad news. Good news: this is the best-looking version of the film currently available on DVD. Bad news: it still requires some work in order to qualify as being "fully" restored, primarily when it comes to the opening and closing credits. I don't get it. Other copies of THE FLYING DEUCES (available from other distributors) have the original opening title and closing cast credits, so why weren't they part of this edition? Couldn't they have made a composite utilizing this footage? Why not put in some extra effort to make this the definitive version?

As a Laurel & Hardy comedy, THE FLYING DEUCES has very funny sequences, although diehard fans tend to overrate this one way out of proportion. It's routinely cited as the team's best non-Hal Roach feature. And yet I think later efforts such as THE BIG NOISE (1944) and THE BULLFIGHTERS (1945) are much funnier and truer to their style of comedy.

Rabid admirers who despise the L&H films made by 20 Century Fox during the 1940s often throw bouquets at THE FLYING DEUCES, despite the fact that DEUCES shares the same the flaws found in most of the Fox movies: sloppy scripting, erratic pacing, and inconsistent characterizations. Stan and Ollie are always a joy to watch, but this is merely a pleasant time-killer, ranking well below their greatest achievements. In his book THE FILMS OF LAUREL AND HARDY (Citadel Press, 1967), historian William K. Everson summed it up best: "[THE FLYING DEUCES] just didn't jell and seemed to lack the old spontaneous camaraderie of the Roach films. Despite occasional good gags, it was mechanical stuff." September 1, 2008

Unbeatable surreality

To give this less than 5/5 would be downright mean. In a world where a mass-produced urinal is the most significant work of art of the century, and a paint-spattered piece of canvas is worth $140 million, this masterpiece has to be recognized as one of the greatest and most dramatic works in movie history. The story is sheer magic: tragic, touching, wistful, it has a meaning all of its own. It is an eloquent, elegant summary of the human condition. Where are we heading? And why? Who is there to help and guide us? And how will the fish factory in Des Moines carry on without us? A boy, a girl, unrequited love: the old, old story. Thank heaven there is always someone either less, or more, intelligent than ourselves, who either does, or doesn't, know the score. Who can remind us how to forget. The silhouettes of the legionnaires at sunset were downright poetic. The misfits of humanity, caught up among the squads of the regimented, are poignant, yet heroic, souls. The spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes. And what unfathomable genius did it take to dream up a horse with its moustache growing over and above its nose? Eat your heart out, Salvador Dali. Back off, Bunuel. When the sands of time run out, that harvest moon will still be shining over the desert. We shall not see its like again. PS. I laughed quite a lot. June 14, 2008

Gee that's swell photograpghy

Ah life does imitate art. Almost 60 years after this film was made, a suicidal young man joined the US Marines to forget his girl troubles. This film will always have a special place in my heart.

Ollie falls in love while in Paris, to an inn keepers daughter. His proposal is turned down amidst laughter at his expense. Stan thinks that the best thing to do is to go back to the fish market where they work, but Ollie had nobler ideas, he must drown himself along with his broken heart. Of course Ollie convinces Stan that he must die too, after all what would Stan do without Ollie, aside from having a wonderful and rewarding life at the fish market. But thanks to some friendly advice and a man-eating shark, the boys decide to live again and join the French Foreign Legion.

What a Legion it is, work and march from sunup until sundown for 2 cents a day. Ollie tells the commandant that they refuse to do that much work for 2 cents, so they are put on laundry detail. I have never in my life seen a pile of clothes that large. Well Ollie has a revelation and forgets about his heartache and decides it is time to go home. After all why clean a mountain of dirty drawers if you don't have too.

Well the boys do not understand the terms desertion, UA, or AWOL, so off they go, but not without wrting a nice letter to the Commandant and stealing his cigars. Well the letter was pretty insulting and maybe it is a good thing that Ollie cannot spell raspberries. So after a little chase and a nice rendition of 'Shine on Harvest Moon', the boys are captured and thrown into a cell to await the firing squad. However, an eternal mysterious hand throws them a letter through the bars. There is an escape hatch. Stan is not sure why they are crawling through an underground tunnel.

Ollie "We're making our escape"
Stan "Are we allowed to do that?"

Anyway they make their way to an airplane and get away from the chasing legionaires, only to crash. Ollie becomes a horse through the magic of movie reincarnation and Stan is doomed to walk the earth with people 'staring at him and wondering what he is'.

It's a good flick, I like it May 20, 2007

Two Laughs is Not Enough

I tried to hard to love this movie, but in all honesty, I thought it was painfully unfunny. I laughed twice - first when Ollie tells Stan that without him "people would stare at you and wonder what you are - and I wouldn't be here to tell them" and last at the very end when Ollie is reincarnated as a horse with a mustache and a hat. To be fair, I admit that I also smiled once to see Ollie's coy flirtation with the innkeeper's daughter.

Apart from that, the film was only interesting for its surprising bleakness at the beginning - there was something compelling about watching Ollie, suicidally depressed, decide that Stan too must die.

All in all, I was bored. The boys try hard to be funny but the material just isn't up to it. Two laughs is not enough. May 16, 2007

Deuces review

Most L & H fans are by now familiar with this classic tale of Stan & Ollie in the French Foreign Legion so I will not discuss the merits of the plot line and focus instead upon the quality of this restored edition. On the whole, the images are crisp and the sound is consistently clear. There are occassional scratch and dirt marks but these are so infrequent and occur so quickly that they do not detract in any way from the viewing of this film. These elements, combined with some of the extras included on the CD make it an excellent value and a worthwhile addition to any collection of classic Laurel and Hardy films. April 20, 2007

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