SONS OF THE DESERT (1933)

Beginning in 1931, and continuing for much of the decade, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy alternated a few two (or three)-reel comedy shorts against the occasional six-reeler.  The short form made the better fit*, but boss Hal Roach (and distributor M-G-M) knew higher rentals on features paid the bills.  Still, coming up with an hour & change running time meant adding filler.  General rule: less filler =  better film.  SONS with only about five minutes of filler (a nightclub song-and-dance) possibly the best of the features.  Best in other ways, too.  Also easy to remember: it’s the one that’s a near template for Jackie Gleason’s THE HONEYMOONERS as the boys fib to the wives, saying they’re off to Honolulu for health reasons before heading to their secret lodge convention in Chicago.   Loaded with wonderfully funny, deliberately paced bits, high-pitched wails from Stan, confidential looks straight at us from Ollie; and with the boys still limber enough to handle real physical shtick.  What keeps it from being definitive, frustratingly so, is not having one those signature slow-burn/escalating tit-for-tat routines.  Guess we can’t expect utility-director William Seiter to have spoken up.  But how did Laurel, who largely ran things creatively, miss it?*  Oh well, guess we’ll just have to watch more titles till we find the best iteration of that classic comedy trope.  (Note, options for Laurel & Hardy are lousy with worn, dupey editions.  Try UCLA restorations.)

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Touching perfection the year before in THE MUSIC BOX/’32.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/music-box-1932.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Or maybe Frank Craven.  Credited as co-writer here, but famous as the original Stage Manager character in Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN, B’way and the undervalued 1940 film version which is fine till a cop-out at the very end.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  In latter/lesser films, Stan & Ollie continued with their childish ways, but crucially didn’t bring us down as participants to their infantile level, now merely viewers.