The Flying Deuces

1939
Directed By A. Edward Sullivan


SYNOPSIS


Spurned by love in Paris, Ollie (Oliver Hardy) is inspired to join the Foreign Legion. He drags his buddy Stanley (Stan Laurel) into joining with him, but they don't realize it's an army until after they've signed up. Now they must try and escape.

MY THOUGHTS 

A silly and entertaining outing for the great comedy team of Laurel & Hardy.

This is my first experience with Laurel & Hardy with sound, having seen many of their silent shorts. I found their physical humor to still be top-notch... but the dialogue weak. They deliver the jokes well, with quite a few laughs... but the writing lacks the sharpness of The Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, or Abbot and Costello.

The film moves at the same fast pace as one of their older two-reeler shorts. It's about 70 minutes, so it is like 3 two-reelers back-to-back-to back. It's structured much that way as well: pre-Legion/Legion/escape. Much of Deuces seems familiar, so it would not surprise me that some of the material was recycled from earlier works, making it a 'greatest hits' of sorts.

Speaking of the Marx Brothers, Laurel does a parody musical number playing the harp, a la Harpo. Hardy also apes Greta Garbo, with an unexpected "I vant to be left alooone."

The ending is unique, bizarre and a bit unexpected... but it sets up one last silly visual gag.

The Flying Deuces is far from a masterpiece, but it's a lot of fun and would be a great introduction to the team for people put-off by silent films.