Customer Reviews

Golden Age of Comedy Vol.6 The Flying Deuces(1939) [VHS]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I see the word RESTORED, I think WOW! This will be the best ever!!!!!In this case....WRONG. This is simply an improvement over previous releases but not a major improvement. The bar has been set so high on previous classic film restorations, some examples of which are SINGIN IN THE RAIN, ROBIN HOOD and the CHAPLIN COLLECTIONS, that we expect an image that looks like it was filmed yesterday. The film opens with the Astor pictures re-release titles, not the original R.K.O. titles. Strike one. In fact the titles look like they were from a 16mm dupe, not the 35mm Nitrate print that they boast of. There are wear lines that could have been removed by simple digital cleanup. Strike two. Notice that THE END appears and the screen goes black but the music continues. That is because instead of black there should be the cast listed. Strike Three. While I complain, the extras are nothing special either. THE STOLEN JOOLS is an o.k. transfer. It looks much better on one of the LAUREL AND HARDY THE LOST EPISODES dvd. THIS IS YOUR LIFE is from a kinescope dupe. TREE IN A TEST TUBE.dupe. Laurel and Hardy on tour in the 30's just o.k. visuals but not even a music score! *sigh* The real crime of all of this? The original negative to FLYING DEUCES is in the possession of TURNER/Warner Bros. C'mon guys put this out in pristine form!

This is a superb version of the delightful Flying Deuces. Transferred from a nitrate 35 mm negative recently discovered in France and restored by Lobster Films, Paris who also worked on the great `Lost Films` series.

The sound has also been digitally cleaned and restored.

As usual a Kino Distribution is a hallmark of a quality release in itself and there is a wonderful goodie bag of extras including the `Tree in a Testube` colour educational short (shot on 16mm), 16mm footage of the boys` trip to the UK in 1932, `This is your life`(1955) and the fantastic charity short `Stolen Jools` with Buster Keaton, Edward G, Gary Cooper and many stars.

Overall: Excellent quality dvd transfer with an exciting tray of extras. Superb value for money and the only version of this quality available anywhere in the world (apart from France - but that is the same version) 100% recommendation for Laurel and Hardy fans!!

Incidentally, for once, this is one that is not available here in the UK in a better version. So to coin a long lost short it is "Hats Off" to KINO and LOBSTER.

This is the second video with the "Madacy" label that posed extreme viewing and quality problems. The print itself is only fair, but the video stopped functioning at several points and needed to be advanced manually. The synchronization of lip movement and sound was constantly poor. Needless to say, our young Laurel and Hardy fan was extremely disappointed.

It is a shame that a company like Madacy, which seems to have so little regard for video quality or the quality of their product, is putting out movies on DVD.

"The Flying Dueces" has always gotten a bit of a short shrift over the years from critics and fans alike but I have always thought it deserved better praise than it has gotten.
And finally KINO has released the best print of this movie I think I've ever seen to date.The French company Lobster films from whose archives this release comes from (and many other titles from Kino;check out their 'Slapstick Emporium' series!) obtained a very good 35mm negative in Europe and through some remastering in picture and sound have released this picture as close to its' original look as I think any of us has seen since its' debut in /39.The sound is improved and the contrast has been totally restored.It is not the washed out thing we've been used to seeing ad nauseum on release after wretched release on video and DVD here in North America.
Also included with this is a couple of short reels of their English /32 trip,the "This is Your Life" show from /54,The "Stolen Jools" from /31 and "Tree in a Test Tube" from /45.All this material is from better than average to good prints.I thought they could have done alot more with them considering the technology now but they are at least better than I have seen any of them previously.
Also included is a brief statement about "Flying Deuces" from the president and co-founder of Lobster films.And the original French trailer and various pictures of the North American and European posters for it.
In conclusion I recommend this DVD very highly.It has alot of extras but the main attraction hands down is the print itself.A revelation.

I think I may have seen one other Laurel and Hardy film in my life before this one, though of course theses two men are such an integral part of comedy film history that somehow you feel like you've seen them a hundred times, and you're familiar with their schtick (Ollie's tie wiggling, Stan's head scratching and warbling) even when it's only because you've seen them imitated by countless later comedians.

Anyway, this one was fun and had a lot of great bits...I even enjoyed the little muscial/dance number they threw into the middle of a chase scene. This film also exemplified a "theory of comedy" aphorism I've heard of the years...something along the lines of 'the best comedy teeters on being a tragedy' and this one, does just that: A man defeated love attempts suicide, then, in an effort to forget his sorrow, enroles in the living Hell of the Foreign Legion and struggles to escape. Doesn't sound like a comedy when described that way does it?? But, thank goodness, it is a comedy and an innovative laugh-and-snort fest at that.

Enjoy it just for the fun of it all and then watch it again to study the genius of these two men.

Actually, I would rate this as a 4 star film, but I'm yet to find a copy of it without some major flaws in the print quality. So I figure, if you take a 4 star film, with 2 star picture quality, you get a 3 star film.

This is probably the only non Hal Roach film that L&H did that comes close to the standards they set so many years earlier. Actually, this film is better than some of the weaker Roach efforts. (Swiss Miss comes to mind) It's fast paced, has a good staple of classic L&H supporting actors, and is sure to be lots of fun if you're a fan of the boys.

Most L & H fans are by now familiar with this classic tale of Stan & Ollie in the French Foreign Legion so I will not discuss the merits of the plot line and focus instead upon the quality of this restored edition. On the whole, the images are crisp and the sound is consistently clear. There are occassional scratch and dirt marks but these are so infrequent and occur so quickly that they do not detract in any way from the viewing of this film. These elements, combined with some of the extras included on the CD make it an excellent value and a worthwhile addition to any collection of classic Laurel and Hardy films.

'The Flying Deuces' plumbs depths of despair that almost reach the tragic pitch of a Buster Keaton. From the opening sequence, where a lovestruck Ollie has his marriage proposal turned down by a French waitress who laughs at him with her friends behind his back, the comedy is soured by very real pain. The rest of the film sees the pair trying to drown Ollie's sorrows, so, appropriately, images of water humorously recur. This is especially ironic in that the action's bulk is set in the Moroccan desert, with Laurel and Hardy joining the Foreign Legion, only for the duration needed, they think, for Ollie to 'forget'.

Perhaps the desert suggests the emotional barrenness searing Ollie's soul; perhaps the film is merely having a laugh at the contemporary FL hit 'Beau Geste'. In support of the former conjecture is the film's best sequence, which takes place just before they leave for Africa. Stan flippantly asks his miserable friend why he doesn't just drown himself. Ollie takes him up on the idea, but insists Stan join him - how could he live without his old comrade, people staring at him without Ollie there to 'explain'. The business with the Sisyphean rock-weight to which they are both tied; the intrusions of an escaped monster-shark; the discussions about reincarnation (Ollie wants to come back as a horse); and the prolonged leavetaking, all make it difficult to tell where comedy ends and tragedy begins.

The film is full of brilliantly resonant sequences and images like this, such as the laundry episode, Stan wandering through an endless vineyard of clotheslines, and ending up on a mountian full of dirty linen; or the boys trying to rest only to be barked at by guards who are precursors to Beckett's malevolently unseen authorities. The gloriously inappropriate musical interludes, such as a choreographed 'Shine On Harvest Moon' at the height of a chase sequence, includes Stan playing harp on the eve of their execution for desertion, the instrument ominously looking like a gallows with numerous 'strings'/nooses.

It's a shame the humour isn't up to the ideas (the script was co-written by Harry Langdon) - the sparse funny moments bejewel long stretches of tedium, and the film climaxes with an interminable action sequence that is neither exciting nor witty. Worse, the print's quality, even on supposedly 'restored' DVD, is atrocious and presumably irredeemable, full of scratches, black-outs and missing shots - anything longer than a mid-shot is an impenetrable blur. Yet even this flaw can add inadvertant eerieness to the film - when the boys are arrested, their faces disappear against the desert bleach, like a strange surrealist tableau, or a James Whale fantasy.

OK it's not really a big mess. Actually the picture & sound quality are better than any vhs or dvd edition I've seen. But I wonder why this was released with the Astor titles at the beginning of the movie & with the cast credits chopped off at the end? Doesn't make sense. Thankfully nothing else was cut. According to another reviewer The Turner Corp. from Atlanta Georgia owns a real nice clean print that's uncut. Will we see it on dvd someday? Hope so! The extras on the Kino disc was my main reason for wanting it. The footage of Stan & Ollie on tour in the 1930's is a welcome treat! The photo/poster gallery was highly enjoyable since I haven't seen these before. And the French trailer was great! Do any American trailers still exist today? If so maybe we'll see them on a future Flying Deuces dvd! This Is Your Life was a sensational bonus too because this is something else I haven't seen! This is one of the boys final films before Ollie's health started failing in 1956. It's also nice to see Tree In A Test Tube their only color film. But let the buyer beware as we say. Only the 1st half of the 10 minute short is used with Stan & Ollie. The complete uncut film is included as a bonus feature on The Laurel & Hardy Collection Volume 2 dvd set released by 20th Century Fox in 2006. No this edition of Flying Deuces isn't as bad as my title indicates. In fact it's the best one now available. Hope you think so too!

Well, it would seem that Amazon, in its infinite wisdom, included every review of this film all into one mixed bag with different versions of the VHS and indeed the CD represented here. The version I am reviewing here is a Goodtimes Home Video Corp. release. It is in VHS format with no extras. The old RKO logo is included in the introductions. This practice is a bit of a pity; a flaw that not only is true for restored movies, but with different editions of various books too. But that being said....

Flying Deuces was released in 1939 and of course stars Stan laurel and Oliver Hardy. Also included in the cast are Jean Parker, Reginald Gardiner, Charles Middleton and James Finalayson. The movie is in black and white and the version I am reviewing here is of pretty good quality when all is said and done.

The plot of this offering is pretty well known so briefly stated; Ollie has fallen deeply in love with an Innkeeper's daughter while he and Stan are in Paris, apparently on vacation from their job in a fish market in Iowa. As luck would have it, the girl, played wonderfully by Jean Parker, is already married which breaks Ollie's heart. He decides to end it all through drowning himself in the Seine. This "drowning episode" brings about one of the best routines in the movie which is funny, whimsical and sad at the same time. He talks Stan into joining him in a watery death and their dialog is one that needs to be listened to quite closely. As Ollie tells Stan of the difficulties of life without him, i.e. Ollie, he says to Stan "people would stare at you and wonder what you are, and I wouldn't e here to tell them." This is thoughtful stuff folks and to be honest, sort of got to me. Our two heroes are interrupted in their plans and instead join the French Foreign Legion in order for Ollie to forget. There troubles truly begin at this point.

Now I fully agree with several other reviewers that this is not the best work these two turned out over the years. I personally though watch each of these old movies as complete stand alones, and pretty well try to ignore work that has preceded the film I am watching and any that will appear later. As a stand along film, I enjoyed this one tremendously. Stan is a master at driving you completely nuts. He is able to take a simple task and trough his repetitive attention to the most minor detail cause you to want to reach through the screen and complete the task for him. This is rare art and a rare gift. The physical aspect of their comedy is perfectly timed.

Of all the comedy teams that have been here and gone, these two are in my opinion one of the best, if not the best. Even in some of their work that is not top notch, their timing is perfect and lets face it, in comedy timing is everything! From facial expressions to misused words they have it completely nailed. Their complete cluelessness is done so well that it actually seems quite natural and you forget that they are actually acting. And what makes it even better is that some of the illogical conclusions that Stan often comes to actually sound and appear logical when he explains himself. They are masters at breaking down complex problems and simplifying them to the point of absurdity, yet making them appear believable.

The supporting cast in this film, and in all of the L&H films, the rest of the cast is indeed always supporting, does a fine job. Jean Parker is looking her best and is quite convincing in her part and Reginald Gardiner was simply made for his role in this film.

I have watched this film several times over the years (actually I saw it the first time not many years after its release), and really never tire of it. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend around 70 minutes.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks