Customer Reviews

Laurel & Hardy: The Bullfighters [VHS]

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Most of Laurel & Hardy's later films had confining scripts that didn't give the team much room to do their stuff. "The Bullfighters" is a happy exception, with funny gags and familiar pantomime. Stan Laurel co-wrote and co-directed without screen credit, so fans are taking a second look (or even a first look) at this forgotten comedy. The boys' precision timing is as sharp as ever, and they're in practically every scene. The video transfer is excellent.

"The Bullfighters" (1945) was Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's best effort for 20th Century-Fox. It also marked the comedy team's premature farewell to Hollywood - not surprising, since the studio system offered Stan and Ollie little in the way of creative freedom. (By comparison, their final film, the 1951 French production "Atoll K," was a more adventurous enterprise.) Nevertheless, there are some inventive routines in this Mexican escapade, with a memorable closing shot that is a nostalgic throwback to the team's two-reelers at Hal Roach. Admittedly, "The Bullfighters" is not a classic, but it remains a vast improvement over the blandness of "Great Guns" and "Air Raid Wardens."

While the script is nothing to write home about, this is actually one of the best (if not THE best) of Laurel and Hardy's post-Hal Roach films. Stan and Babe contribute lots of funny bits of business, some new and some revived from earlier Laurel and Hardy films (a taxicab gag early in the movie derives from the closing gag of Stan's 1925 solo film A MANDARIN MIXUP!). Also, research has revealed that Stan directed parts of the movie without taking credit, as he essentially did on the Roach films. Richard Lane has the key supporting role in this movie and makes an excellent foil for Laurel and Hardy. There are also brief but nice moments from Carol Andrews, William Gargan and Hank Worden. In the final analysis, THE BULLFIGHTERS may not rank with the best of vintage Laurel and Hardy, but it's still more entertaining than a lot of what passes for comedy these days. Check it out, why doncha?

Although in no way can this film compare with their days at the Hal Roach studio, in every way "The Bullfighters" rises way above their other Fox efforts and is easily the best of their later films. The opening taxi scene, the inclusion of their reciprocal destruction formula in the water-fountain scene at the El Matador Hotel, Stan's doppelganger in Spanish bullfighter, Don Sebestian and the subsequent comic complications, the reprisal of the egg-breaking routine with Lupe Velez in 1934, their entaglement with Richard K. Muldoon as the innocent defendant, now released and planning to "skin the boys alive" (offering parallels with Walter Long in the 1930s) - all helps create the familiar ambiance of L&H of old. Even the bizarre ending is reminiscent of other Roach films such as "The Bohemian Girl" and "Thicker Than Water". Unlike the other TCF films, from the very opening scene, there are no lengthy, romantic subplots to intefere with the boys. The only other TCF film that comes close to this one is "Jitterbugs" where Ollie plays Colonel Watterson Bixby of Amadillo County, Texas reveling in his real-life, genteel Southern heritage while Stan, in drag once again and using the Lord Paddington accent from "A Chumb at Oxford", plays Vivian Blaine's aunt, Emily Cartwright, a Bostian dowager in love with Colonel Bixby. The charm and aplomb with which Stan delivers his lines is a sheer delight. Yet, "The Bullfighters" has the advantage of being the closest and most welcome throwback to the straight-forward comedy of the bygone Roach days.

By far the best film L&H made in the 40's is a pleasure to watch. Fans will recognize most of the routines, but will have lots of fun seeing the boys go through a plot that actually suits them. Certainly the best of a poor lot of films, fans and kids will love it!

Although in no way can this film compare with their days at the Hal Roach studio, in every way "The Bullfighters" rises way above their other Fox efforts and is easily the best of their later films. The opening taxi scene, the inclusion of their reciprocal destruction formula in the water-fountain scene at the El Matador Hotel, Stan's doppelganger in Spanish bullfighter, Don Sebestian and the subsequent comic complications, their entaglement with Richard K. Muldoon as the innocent defendant, now released and planning to "skin the boys alive" (offering parallels with Walter Long in the 1930s) - all helps create the old familiar ambiance of L&H of old. Even the bizarre ending is reminiscent of other Roach films such as "The Bohemian Girl" and "Thicker Than Water". Unlike the other TCF films, from the very opening scene, there are no lengthy, romantic subplots to intefere with the boys. The only other TCF film that comes close to this one is "Jitterbugs" where Ollie plays Colonel Watterson Bixby of Amadillo County, Texas reveling in his real-life Southern genteel heritage while Stan, in drag once again, plays Vivian Blaine's aunt, Emily Cartwright, a Bostian dowager in love with Colonel Bixby. The charm and aplomb with which Stan delivers his lines is a sheer delight. Yet, "The Bullfighters" has the advantage of being the closest and most welcome throwback to the straight-forward comedy of the bygone Roach days.

I'm sure many L & H fans will agree that it is a pleasure to watch Stan & Ollie, in the '40s, unencumbered by the Hollywood formula Goofy-Guys-Help-The-Lovers-And-Get-Into-Mischief, and really do their thing - to a certain extent. Although they look a little tired and the picture could have been much funnier, it remains a respectable later effort.

This is the best film of a sorry lot of L & H films made in the '40's. And the sorry isn't just Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's creativity being confined by the large movie studios, in this case 20th Century Fox. Stan looks old and tired. Ollie is no longer just a big guy, he is sloppily fat. Contrary to the prevailing Laurel and Hardy fan clubs party line this film (and the other '40's films) isn't just bad because of the nasty movie moguls imposing rigorous constraints on the boys; it' also bad because-sad to say-the boys are just going through the motions. It's easy to say that they should have quit instead of embarassing themselves but apparently the income was needed; I wish they had saved their money and had quit while on top.