The Flying Deuces (1939)
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland

Film Review

The first Laurel and Hardy film not to be produced by Hal Roach marks the beginning of the decline in the duo's fortunes, although it would be some time yet before they reached the nadir that was the French-financed fiasco Atoll K (1951).  In contrast to Twentieth Century Fox, who clearly had no idea how to exploit the talents of these two comedy giants (evidenced by The Big Noise (1944)), RKO-backed Boris Morros Productions did a decent job of following the tried and tested Hal Roach formula: slapstick routines built around a credible central narrative.  Whilst not the best of Laurel and Hardy's features, The Flying Deuces has some great comedic moments and still has what it takes to reduce a mature adult audience to fits of infarctus-inducing hysterics.  The kids will love it too.

The Flying Deuces is essentially an extended version of L & H's previous short, Beau Hunks (1931), with Charles Middleton reprising the role of the tyrannical legion commandant.  It is arguably the darkest of the duo's films, the familiar boisterous slapstick garnished with some very black comedy.  In one scene, Stan and Ollie come tantalisingly close to committing suicide together; in another, they are actually killed, although both are then magically reincarnated for one of the film's best gags.  There is a real poignancy in the opening scenes in which Ollie's romantic dreams are shattered - a rare excursion into sentimentality.  Later, Mr Hardy has a fine opportunity to show off his vocal skills in a pleasing rendition of Shine On Harvest Moon, a number that was crowbarred into the film with absolutely no thought whatsoever but which you would hate to see removed.

Things drag just a smidgen towards the middle, when it becomes apparent that there is too much plot and too few jokes.  Fortunately, Stan's unerring inability to avoid walking into any solid object that comes within three hundred yards of him provides enough laughs to keep us choking on our popcorn.  Things pick up with a vengeance in the last two reels, with a constant stream of gags.  Of the comedic highlights on offer are Stan making an improvised harp out of his bedstead (allowing him to do his Harpo Marx impression) and the duo alternately pursuing and being pursued by a battalion of legionnaires - in an aeroplane.  The latter is the softening-up prelude to the film's main set-piece, an hilarious sequence in which our heroes try in vain to fly an aeroplane.  You will be hard pressed to find anything that is half as funny in any film made today.

Film Synopsis

During an enjoyable stay in Paris, Ollie falls in love with Georgette, an innkeeper's daughter.  So smitten is he by this object of supreme loveliness that Ollie has resolved to marry her, not knowing that she has fallen for a handsome legionnaire, François.  When he realises that his suit is useless, Ollie decides to drown himself in the Seine, taking his friend Stan with him.  At the crucial moment, François appears and persuades Ollie that a few weeks in the French Foreign Legion will be enough to make him forget all about Georgette.  Without a moment's delay, Stan and Ollie enlist and soon find themselves at a remote outpost in North Africa.  It soon becomes apparent that the mild-mannered duo are not cut out for military life and so, after various mishaps, they decide to desert.  Their commandant is incensed and once Stan and Ollie have been recaptured he tells them they will be shot at dawn...