Stierkämpfer wider Willen

Mexico, Detectives Laurel and Hardy are on the trail of the evil Larceny Nell, but they get distracted by the usual assortment of Fox Studio gangsters. One of the gangsters notices Stan's remarkable resemblence to Don Sebastian, the great bullfighter. A lightbulb goes off in his head. Wackiness ensues.

Standard Laurel and Hardy film which is enjoyable from start to finish. There's plenty of slapstick; the egg smashing scene in the bar had me in stitches. Laurel & Hardy were visibly ageing but they still had the comic timing to pull it off. There's an energetic dance sequence by Diosa Costello and a pant splitting one.

Ironic this became the last film Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy made in Hollywood-and for 20th Century-Fox-as it was a definite improvement to those other post-Hal Roach movies from the previous five years. No longer do they have to deal with gangsters or spies, certainly what a relief to no longer have to also support any romantic couples, that's for sure! No, Stan & Ollie are once again left to their own devices in dealing with a cruel world. They're detectives here in Mexico where they're attempting to snag a woman while someone else they earlier prosecuted has threatened to skin them alive if he sees them again! It's only because of a fast-talking go-between man named Hotshot Coleman (Richard Lane who has great chemistry with Stan & Ollie) that the boys mostly manage to avoid Richard K. Muldoon (Ralph Sanford). In this one, Stan plays both himself and a bullfighter named Don Sebastian. Also appearing were Carol Andrews-the woman L & H are looking for-who participates in perhaps one of the funniest sequences in the movie, a reprise of the boys' "egg battle" sequence they previously did with Lupe Velez in Hollywood Party, and Hispanic bombshell Diosa Costello who performs her sexy song-and-dance act here. She was previously a partner with one Desi Arnaz before he met Lucille Ball. One more supporting player worth mentioning is Edward Gargan who is active in another "tit for tat" sequence involving Hardy. I initially saw this movie 25 years ago on VHS and I enjoyed it then and still do now especially since the DVD version I just watched also had a fine commentary track by Scott MacGillivray, author of the book-"Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward".

yes, their final for the USA, and too bad it is far from their "average" feature for the great Hal Roach (1927-1940).

on the other hand, along with THE DANCING MASTERS, this hangs together as a *comedy* and the Director thankfully does not bog them down as the naïve but lovable dummies who spend all their time helping the young lovers.

some genuine laughs are delivered...and this cannot be said of most of their post-Roach stuff in the '40s. some great opportunities are lost, as usual in this Fox effort, but the picture has the right look and the comedy flows, like the '43 flick mentioned above.

Way back in the day before Laurel teamed with Hardy, Stanley was quite the comic silent screen star and many of his short subjects were satires of current big screen productions. One of the best of them was Mud And Sand where Stan Laurel did a spoof of Rudolph Valentino and his role in Blood And Sand. 20th Century Fox also now owned the rights to Blood And Sand because of the great Tyrone Power sound version that had come out a few years earlier.

So in their farewell film before the disastrous comeback with Utopia, Stan and Ollie did The Bullfighters where Laurel got to be a bullfighter again. And he plays a dual role the great Don Sebastian of Spain and just plain Mr. Laurel who with Mr. Hardy are a pair of private eyes from Peoria.

Now if you can wrap your minds around the concept of ANYBODY hiring these two as detectives, The Bullfighters is an amusing enough film though not up to the standards of their Hal Roach work. They're in Mexico on an extradition job to bring back Carol Andrews and of course in their usual fashion make a holy hash of that.

But promoter Richard Lane notices Stan's resemblance to Don Sebastian and since this guy whom he has brought over and promoted is being held up at the border. They've got a problem however in Ralph Sanford who got sent up the river on the mistaken testimony of these two lugnuts and threatens to skin them alive.

The Bullfighters is amusing, especially in that last sequence when both of Laurels personas show up in the bullring with the PI from Peoria getting well fortified for the occasion. I can't blame Stan it's the only way I would go in a bull ring.

You'll have to see The Bullfighters to see if Sanford makes good on his threat.

THE BULLFIGHTERS (1945)

This was the last movie the aging Laurel and Hardy made for Twentieth Century-Fox, and it's another fun and underrated one at that, even if it doesn't quite measure up to the classic shorts they made a decade earlier. They really manage to inject a lot of old tried and true gags into the proceedings, thanks in part to the fact that Stan Laurel is reported to have co-directed, and so the team had more input with regard to their jokes and material. Here, the "boys" are in Mexico where Stan is mistaken for a famous bullfighter. Many laughs ensue, and this one's a winner.

*** out of ****