Yes, SONS OF THE DESERT is the first Laurel and Hardy feature to feel like a natural Laurel and Hardy feature, and the best of their first four features (yes, I even prefer it to PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES, even though I still think that film is very underrated). It’s interesting, though, because SONS OF THE DESERT actually reuses a lot more material than the previous three features, with the story itself essentially being a reworking of WE FAW DOWN, with elements of BE BIG! thrown in there. The reason it works so well is because SONS OF THE DESERT is the rare film that reuses material and actually attempts to improve on it.
Take for example the sickness scene. Yeah, it was pretty funny in BE BIG!, but it was so rushed that it makes you question how easily the wives fall for it. Here, it’s clearly moved to another day and is more elaborate, with Laurel and Hardy going as far as hiring a medical professional to help in their scheme (even if Laurel hired the wrong one). So not only does it make more sense, but because of the longer running time, Laurel and Hardy get to take as much advantage of the concept as possible, with Hardy and Mae Busch doing quite a lot of physical comedy.
Mae Busch and Dorothy Christy are great in this too. Yeah, they can get violent, and Dorothy Christy’s “I hate to think what would happen” in response to the idea of Laurel lying to her is actually kind of chilling, especially when watching for the first time and not knowing what’s going to happen. What I especially like about them, though, is that they actually seem to be caring wives. This was an idea I’d briefly talked about in the past and looking at the laurelandhardycentral.com review, it seems at least one of them agrees with me. While they can come across as cold when they need to, it’s clear that they actually do care about their husbands, and not just when they think they’re dead. When Mrs. Hardy thinks her husband is sick, she does her best to make him comfortable, and even when we’re first introduced to her, she and Ollie act genuinely nice to each other. Heck, considering Hardy’s nature of trying to sneak things by her all the time, her anger is understandable. I know this may not seem that important to Laurel and Hardy fans, but I think it says a lot when you can see a sometimes happy couple in a domestic comedy like this.
I’ve read that William Seiter had more control than most Laurel and Hardy directors, which might be why the story actually flows so well. Of course, though, it’s the comedy that Laurel and Hardy fans most expect and this film really delivers. Laurel has a lot of funny cases of word misusage (“Betty said that honesty was the best politics”) and him eating the wax fruit works very well too. It’s strange, because like the egg scene in COUNTY HOSPITAL, it goes on for quite a while and shouldn’t be as funny as it is, but Laurel’s movements and expressions somehow make it work.
A similar thing can be said about Charley Chase. Normally I hate these kinds of characters, but Chase is so energetic and happy that, honestly, I can’t help feeling the same way just watching him. Everything he does is in good fun and there’s never a time where any of his actions actually seem malicious. It’s a shame that he didn’t have more supporting roles in features.
It is Hardy, though, who really deserves the most praise of any actor in this film. The reactions he has in this film are perfect. There’s one I love in particular, when Stan is ratting him out and he’s just sitting on the table, staring into the camera as though he’s regretting every life choice he’s ever made. That one reaction shot alone, in my opinion, makes the film worth watching.
SONS OF THE DESERT isn’t my favorite Laurel and Hardy film, but it is definitely up there and I see zero reason to argue against the classic status it has received through all these years.
10 out of 10
