Subtitles:

English, None

Extras:

• This is Your Life: Laurel and Hardy (29:31)
• Sons of the Desert rare Spanish trailer (2:32)

• The Paper Hanger's Helper (1925 Silent with Hardy - 8:52)

• Lucky Dog (1921 Silent with Laurel and Hardy - 16:49)

The Film:

In their first starring feature away from the Hal Roach studios, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play a couple of fish peddlers from Des Moines on a Cook's Tour of Paris. While stopping over at quaint suburban inn, Ollie falls in love with innkeeper's daughter Georgette (Jean Parker). At Stan's prodding, Ollie pops the question to Georgette, who gently refuses because there is Someone Else. Disconsolately, Ollie decides to commit suicide by jumping into the Seine, insisting that Stan join him in his plunge to oblivion. The boys are halted from this drastic action by the timely arrival of Francois (Reginald Gardiner), an officer in the French Foreign Legion. Francois convinces Stan and Ollie that they'll forget all about Ollie's lost love if they join the Legion, and within a few days our heroes are in uniform at an outpost in French Morocco, where they are promptly assigned to laundry detail. Alas, try as he might, Ollie can't forget his beloved Georgette-until Stan suggests that he pretend to forget so that they can get back in their own clothes and head home. This Ollie does, but not before accidentally setting fire to a mountain of laundry. After leaving behind a rather nasty letter of resignation for their scowling commandant (Charles Middleton), Stan and Ollie pack their bags and head for the airport-where Ollie is reunited with Georgette, who turns out to be the wife of their commanding officer Francois! Sentenced to death for desertion, the boys tunnel their way out of their jail cell and hide out in an airplane, which Stan accidentally sends into flight. After a wild and noisy ride, the plane crashes, leading to the flm's hilarious-and somehow touching--"freak" ending. Officially a remake of Les Aviateurs, a French vehicle for Fernandel and Toto, The Flying Deuces also owes a lot to the earlier Laurel & Hardy Foreign Legion farce Beau Hunks. Highlights include Stan and Ollie's impromptu soft-shoe rendition of "Shine on Harvest Moon", and Stan's lunatic excursion into Harpo Marx territory as he plays a bed-spring "harp". Produced by Boris Morros and released by RKO Radio, Flying Deuces is unquestionably the best of Laurel & Hardy's non-Hal Roach vehicles.

The happy reunion of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy after a characteristic interlude of reproachful squabbling may not be as handsomely celebrated by "The Flying Deuces" as it might be, but their new picture at the Rialto is reason enough for a glad-hand and a bit of hatchet-burying all around. Anything which contributes to the generation of laughter in the body politic is okay by this department, even though it be the oldest jokes. And since laughter is what our honored friends are able to provoke plenty of (even though it be with the oldest jokes), their latest effort is recommended.

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Audio :

Included as supplements are a, kind of sad, This is Your Life: Laurel and Hardy with Ralph Edwards hosting the 1/2 hour TV show from 1954. Stan and Oliver are rather docile throughout. We also get a, supposedly rare, Spanish trailer of Sons of the Desert and two silent films; The Paper Hanger's Helper from 1925 has Oliver Hardy and runs shy of 9-minutes and Lucky Dog from 1921 - in their first screen appearance together, Stan plays a penniless dog lover and Oliver plays a crook who tries to rob him and his new paramour. It runs almost 17-minutes.