Sons of the Desert (1933)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Laurel & Hardy have sworn an oath to their brotherhood, the Sons of the Desert to attend their convention in Chicago. The trouble is their wives are against the idea so they need to find an excuse.Hardy pretends to be ill and Laurel gets a vet who tells Mrs Hardy that he needs a sea voyage to Honolulu.Once they arrive in Chicago they get involved in all sorts of pranks courtesy by an obnoxious funster who turns out to be Hardy's long lost brother in law.Our duo have failed to keep themselves inconspicuous in Chicago as the Sons of the Desert march has been filmed and unbeknown to them their return ship from Honolulu has sunk and their wives worried that they are lost at sea. Laurel & Hardy are in trouble when they return home and do not realise that honesty is the best politics.Lots of fun here as Hardy boasts that he rules the roost in his house when we know he does not. Charley Chase pops up at the convention scenes as an obnoxious reveller with Hardy always falling for his pranks. A memorable song with Honolulu Baby and a great one line response delivered by Laurel when questioned why he got a veterinarian over. 'I didn't think the man's religion should have any bearing.'

For me, this is the funniest of the Laurel & Hardy films. In this one, the boys, who belong to a lodge, are expected as members to attend a convention in Hawaii. This is quite an exploit but Stan's wife is OK. Ollie, on the other hand, as is always the case, has the shrew for a wife and nothing will deter her. So what happens is that Ollie feigns illness and gets a doctor (a veterinarian) to say he needs time away. They decide to go to Honolulu, but it is a ruse to get them to Chicago. They go, have a great time, and return with leis around their necks, thinking they are in the clear. Unfortunately for them, the girls have gone to a movie and see a newsreel about the convention and see the two idiots waving to the camera. To make matters worse, the ship the boys supposedly were on sinks on its way to Hawaii. Well, the girls are loaded for bear and the fun really starts. This is one hilarious film by any standard.

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.

Arguably the funniest of Laurel and Hardy's feature-length movies, Sons of the Desert is simply crammed with gags, most of which are as funny as anything you're likely to see from 30s Hollywood. Much has been written about why the advent of sound spelled the beginning of the end for such giants of the silent comedy as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd – and, to an extent, Charles Chaplin, who didn't make a sound film until 1941 and whose output came to a near standstill once sound was established. There seemed to be no place for the physical comedy of the greats, and they seemed incapable of using words to win laughs. The likes of the Marx Brothers and Eddie Cantor were an entirely different breed of comedian from those who had reigned just a few years before their rise, and the plot was suddenly more important than the physical antics on-screen.And yet, there were Laurel & Hardy, already a successful double act in silent days, effortlessly and seamlessly gliding into the world of sound with perfect voices for their characters and builds. They possessed none of the physical brilliance of Keaton or the graceful dexterity of Chaplin or Lloyd but they had something indefinable that left them unscathed while all about them were falling by the wayside.Perhaps the key to their success was the fact that they combined both verbal and physical dexterity. Stan can get laughs both times that he mistakenly calls the Sons of the Desert's Exalted Leader their 'exhausted' leader while big Ollie can make tripping over a case look like child's play (have a try at it sometime and see how convincing you feel you were…). Laurel & Hardy also play characters who aren't too bright, which somehow made them more lovable than Chaplin's tramp and Lloyd's go-getting spectacles character. Sons of the Desert plays on the fact that Stan and Ollie aren't as smart as they try to be – and are definitely no match for their formidable wives. They hatch a plan to enable them to attend the Sons of the Desert convention in Chicago by pretending to go to Honolulu for Ollie's health while their wives go hunting bear in the mountains. With typical bad luck, the liner they would have caught home from Honolulu sinks in a storm and the boys have to hide in their own attic so that the wives don't catch on. Of course, even this simple ruse goes wrong and they find themselves falling into both a barrel full of water and the waiting arms of the law… The laughs come thick and fast in Sons of the Desert, interrupted only by Honolulu Baby, a musical number featuring the rare sight of a belly dancer with no belly button.