During the 1930s and 40s, conventional Hollywood wisdom said that if you had a comedy team in a full-length movie, you MUST provide some musical interludes to make the audiences happy. Well, conventional wisdom was WRONG!!! In most cases, comedy teams like Stan and Ollie, The Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello lost all their momentum due to pointless singing. And to make things worse, in the case of Laurel and Hardy, they were often placed in movies with opera-style warbling!! Who in their right mind would think that low-brow comedy (this isn't meant as an insult) and high-brow music (this isn't meant as a compliment) belong together?! As musicals, these movies stank and as comedies they left a lot to be desired.
In this film, just like THE ROGUE SONG, we find Stan and Ollie in an operatic nightmare! Fortunately, the awful songs hit hard early on--after that it's a true Laurel and Hardy film until about 47 minutes into the film--when the yecchy music strikes again! True fans of the duo will no doubt feel annoyed that there is no momentum and the songs are so gosh-darn awful. Generally, Irving Thalberg was thought of as a great genius at MGM, but one of the mistakes he made was pushing for music in both Laurel and Hardy as well as Marx Brothers films. Sure, I loved A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, but none of this film's better moments consisted of the awful singing of the musical leads!
THE BOHEMIAN GIRL features Stan and Ollie as gypsies who steal and get into little mix-ups--none of which are among their better work. Ollie is married to a cheating harpy who eventually leaves him for another man. In the process, she leaves a stolen child with Ollie who somehow thinks this 3 or 4 year-old kid is his--even though they just met! Was wife Mae Busch keeping her in a closet or drawer up until then? How else could Ollie justify that this is his daughter?! No one is THAT stupid!! Then, at about 57 minutes into the film, some more pointless music. Following this, Ollies daughter (12 years later) is caught be her REAL biological father and he plans on beating her within an inch of her life because she has the nerve to be a gypsy! So, it's up to Stan and Ollie to rescue her. Well, things kind of work out--except for Stan and Ollie--who we see in a funny final scene that probably will provide a good chuckle.
Unfortunately, while the non-singing parts are pretty good, it is still far from the team's best work. The biggest problem is that apart from the funny moments involving Mae Busch, the rest of the stuff just isn't all that funny. My advice, then, is do not watch this film unless you have seen most everything by the team. Instead, in the same amount of time it takes to see this, you can see three of their shorts. You'll have a lot more laughs and will have a much better idea of the genius of Laurel and Hardy.
FYI--the little girl who plays Ollie's daughter is the same one who later played Darla in the Little Rascals films.
In this film, just like THE ROGUE SONG, we find Stan and Ollie in an operatic nightmare! Fortunately, the awful songs hit hard early on--after that it's a true Laurel and Hardy film until about 47 minutes into the film--when the yecchy music strikes again! True fans of the duo will no doubt feel annoyed that there is no momentum and the songs are so gosh-darn awful. Generally, Irving Thalberg was thought of as a great genius at MGM, but one of the mistakes he made was pushing for music in both Laurel and Hardy as well as Marx Brothers films. Sure, I loved A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, but none of this film's better moments consisted of the awful singing of the musical leads!
THE BOHEMIAN GIRL features Stan and Ollie as gypsies who steal and get into little mix-ups--none of which are among their better work. Ollie is married to a cheating harpy who eventually leaves him for another man. In the process, she leaves a stolen child with Ollie who somehow thinks this 3 or 4 year-old kid is his--even though they just met! Was wife Mae Busch keeping her in a closet or drawer up until then? How else could Ollie justify that this is his daughter?! No one is THAT stupid!! Then, at about 57 minutes into the film, some more pointless music. Following this, Ollies daughter (12 years later) is caught be her REAL biological father and he plans on beating her within an inch of her life because she has the nerve to be a gypsy! So, it's up to Stan and Ollie to rescue her. Well, things kind of work out--except for Stan and Ollie--who we see in a funny final scene that probably will provide a good chuckle.
Unfortunately, while the non-singing parts are pretty good, it is still far from the team's best work. The biggest problem is that apart from the funny moments involving Mae Busch, the rest of the stuff just isn't all that funny. My advice, then, is do not watch this film unless you have seen most everything by the team. Instead, in the same amount of time it takes to see this, you can see three of their shorts. You'll have a lot more laughs and will have a much better idea of the genius of Laurel and Hardy.
FYI--the little girl who plays Ollie's daughter is the same one who later played Darla in the Little Rascals films.