I love this movie so much

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Blistering performances.

Stan Laurel (himself), Oliver Hardy (himself), Charley Chase (himself), Mae Busch (Mrs Lottie Chase Hardy), Dorothy Christy (Mrs Betty Laurel), Lucien Littlefield (Dr Horace Meddick, veterinary), John Elliott (Exalted Exhausted Ruler), Charley Young, John Merton, William Gillespie, Charles McAvoy, Robert Burns, Al Thompson, Eddie Baker, Jimmy Aubrey, Chet Brandenberg, Don Brodie (Sons of the Desert coterie), Philo McCullough (Assistant Exhausted Ruler), Charita (lead hula dancer), Harry Bernard (bartender/police officer), Sam Lufkin, Ernie Alexander, Charlie Hall (waiters), Baldwin Cooke (man who introduces steamship official/extra at the Sons convention), Max Wagner, Stanley Blystone (brawny speakeasy managers), Pat Harmon (doorman), Ty Parvis (singer at Sons convention), Blade Stanhope Conway (also known as Bob Cummings) (crowd extra during steamship radiogram scene), The Hollywood American Legion Post (Sons Oasis "13" crowd dress extras), The Santa Monica Lodge of Elks (people parading in the newsreel footage), Billy Gilbert (voice-over as Mr. Ruttledge).Director: WILLIAM A. SEITER. Story: Frank Craven. Story continuity: Byron Morgan. Additional dialogue: Frank Terry. Gag-men: Stan Laurel, Charley Chase, Glenn Tryon. Photography: Kenneth Peach. Film editor: Bert Jordan. Associate director: Lloyd French. Titles editor: Nat Hoffberg. Dance director: Dave Bennett. Song, "Honolulu Baby" (Parvis, Charita), by Marvin Hatley. Song, "Sons of the Desert" (chorus) by Frank Terry (lyrics), Marvin Hatley, William Axt, George M. Cohan, O'Donnell-Heath, Marquardt, and Le Roy Shield (music). Sound recording: Harry Baker. Producer: Hal Roach. A Hal Roach Production.Copyright 27 December 1933 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Rialto: 11 January 1934. U.S. release: 29 December 1933. U.K. release: 12 May 1934. 7 reels. 68 minutes. (Available on a Hallmark DVD. I've not seen this, but I can vouch for the excellent VHS tape).U.K. release title: FRATERNALLY YOURS.Alternate titles: SONS OF THE LEGION, CONVENTION CITY.SYNOPSIS: Stan and Ollie are sworn to attend a fraternal convention, but the wives have other ideas. Pretending sickness, Oliver has a doctor order him on a long sea voyage, with Stan in attendance. The ruse works, and they are off to the convention. The very day that they return, however, word is received that "their" ship has been wrecked. Grief=stricken, and to pass the time while waiting for news, the wives go to a movie — where they see a newsreel in which their husbands...NOTES: One of the ten top-grossing movie releases at the domestic box-office in 1934. The movie did far less business in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand where the Depression was starting to bite and movies like "Sons of the Desert" were not regarded as fit for adult entertainment anyway, but were formatted strictly for kids. It was not until Abbott and Costello arrived on the scene in the 1940s, that Laurel and Hardy enjoyed a mite of reflected glory! COMMENT: Many critics regard this entry as the best of the team's sound features, and I'm tempted to agree. For once, L&H had a reasonably classy director, and just look at that cast!

Most aficionados of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy seem to rate Sons Of The Desert as their best feature film. I would be hard put to disagree and I find this the most flawless of their comedies, taking full advantage of the characters that Stan and Ollie have created and what movie fans have come to expect from them.Although for the life of me I can't figure out why Dorothy Christy and Mae Busch as the wives of Stan and Ollie respectively would rather their husbands vacation in Hawaii together as opposed to going to Chicago for their Lodge Convention. It doesn't make rational sense if the idea is that they're ignoring their wives. But I suppose in their world they just hated that Sons Of The Desert Lodge so much that even a vacation in Hawaii with just Stan and Ollie is preferable. And the fact that Ollie preferred Stan's company to Mrs. Hardy says volumes in and of itself.So the boys decide to say they were going to Hawaii, but two things happen. The ocean liner sinks that was supposed to take Stan and Ollie to Hawaii and the wives are in a panic. But not for long as the wives decide to kill time at a movie and happen to spot their husbands hamming it up for a newsreel cameraman who was covering the Sons Of The Desert convention. What happens afterward is sheer laugh bliss.Best series of gags involve Stan, Ollie, and Mae Busch with a tub full of water as Ollie is trying to pretend he's ill. They all get wet every which way imaginable. Next best series of gags is the boys in joint attic of their two homes trying to get some sleep and hide from the wives who come home unexpectedly. Let's just say they're both in for a lot more water on that cold and rainy night.Fellow Hal Roach comedian Charley Chase pops up at the convention scenes as a particularly obnoxious reveling conventioneer. And Lucian Littlefield plays a veterinarian who is called as Stan is blissfully unaware of his specialty. When Ollie asks why Stan called a veterinarian, Stan innocently replies that he didn't think the man's religion should have any bearing. A great line and Laurel is so preciously innocent delivering it, but I would have expected a gag like that to have been in an Abbott&Costello film.Gags and lines are flawlessly executed in Sons Of The Desert. And we do learn that honesty is the best politics.

Honolulu baby, Where'd you get those eyes?It's one of their better feature-length efforts. The plot outline is familiar enough. Laurel and Hardy live next door to one another and both are married to domineering wives. L&H belong to an organization, The Sons of the Desert, that is holding its national convention in Chicago, but Hardy's wife is intent on taking him along on a vacation to the mountains. They contrive to convince the wives that Hardy is ill and must spend some time in Honolulu, with Laurel as his companion.Instead of going to Hawaii, L&H go to the convention, leaving their wives at home. They have a riotous good time in Chicago, drinking in night clubs, playing practical jokes, prancing along in a parade. Meanwhile the wives ponder the situation. Could the boys, somehow, have been up to something. Laurel's wife looks straight into the camera and declares in a steely voice, "Stan would never lie to me. I hate to think of what might happen -- if he ever did." The two wives discover that the ship on which their husbands are returning has sunk in a typhoon. They're frantic with worry. Then, in a newsreel, they watch a film of the convention in Chicago. There on the screen are Laurel and Hardy, making faces, tipping their hats, blowing kisses at the camera, dancing joyously in the streets.Some of the monkey business is less funny than the rest. Laurel is so stupid in a childlike way that he can't tell his own doorway from that of his neighbor. The childishness extends to the acting. Laurel breaks into his familiar cries when he finally confesses. Hardy appears to mask his terror by running his chubby fingers nervously over the table top, as if it were a piano.It's one of their best.

097: Sons of the Desert (1933) - released 12/29/1933, viewed 6/28/07.DOUG: We've kept up on some of the Laurel & Hardy shorts, both silent and sound, leading up to this, 'Sons of the Desert,' their first full-length feature. Can't remember who's who? It's easy: Ollie is the one with the head shaped like an "O." Ollie is basically the dumb guy who thinks he's smart, while Stan is the dumber guy who doesn't know the difference but is a lot nicer for it. Their routine was quite different from the Marx Brothers, who relied on both physical comedy and verbal sparring; this duo sticks mostly with the physical stuff (going back to their silent roots), although there are a few choice bits of dialogue. Also, while the Marx boys took situations and MADE them crazy, these two try to be normal, and crazy things end up happening TO them (not to mention the situations they cause with their own idiocy). Just one thing bugged me: we never really learn anything about the secret society that Stan and Ollie are a part of. What is their purpose? What is the meeting for? How do Stan & Ollie's silly antics in the movie affect them, if at all? They never really play a big role in the story other than setting up our guys for the comedy situations. All the same, very good laughs, definitely recommended for fans of classic comedy.KEVIN: The first feature-length Laurel & Hardy adventure on the list is sheer delight. The pair is a few years behind the Marx Brothers when it comes to features, but Stan and Oliver manage to make a much more impressive debut. The comedic beats are some of the best from the pair, and even though I felt that they were drawing it out sometimes, I still laughed. The story is slightly above average, centering around the pair trying to weasel out of their marital obligations in order to attend an annual fraternity convention. The crud hits the fan when the two idiots must explain why they weren't on a cruise to Honolulu that was hit by a typhoon (while they lied to their ladies and went to the convention). Stan's character, who struck me as somewhat inept and nonchalant in past shorts, here seems functionally retarded. To me, the real stars are the wives, played by Dorothy Christy and Mae Busch. What they do and say in putting up with their moronic hubbies (especially Busch) is inspired.Last film: Queen Christina (1933). Next film: Design for Living (1933).