Dois Birutas na Legião Estrangeira

After seeing ATOLL K and feeling that it's perhaps slightly better than its terrible reputation I decided to track down any Laurel and Hardy short just to remind myself if they were anywhere as good as I remembered them from childhood and the nearest one to hand was BEAU CHUMPS . After seeing it there was no doubt that ATOLL K was a weak film even though the comedy genius of Stan and Ollie shone through . Here they were on superlative form

The opening sequence is one of the funniest things I have ever seen and in the hands of anyone else it would have been either silly or embarrassing . Here however it had this slightly cynical viewer laughing out loud as Ollie tries to explain what levity means when the door knocks

Stan ( picking up phone ) Hello

Ollie: What are you doing ?

Stan: Someone's knocking on the phone

Ollie: See that's levity Stan: Hello - Mister Levity

Okay it might not sound laugh out loud funny on the printed page but you'll laugh your socks off as it plays out on screen

After this comedy escapade the duo depart to the French foreign legion in order to make Ollie forget a broken love affair . Why he needed to take Stan with him is never explained but we wouldn't have a story if he didn't and the laughs continue .Imagine if we had a present day film with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson where they joined the USMC and got sent to Afghanistan . It makes you appreciate Stan and Ollie the greatest comedy duo there has or ever will be

Can you even call this a comedy short? The movie is nearly 40 minutes long and it actually features a plot line. Anyway, short or long feature, this movie is a well written and directing one which makes this movie a very enjoyable and comical great movie.

After once again being letdown in love, Oliver Hardy signs up with the Foreign Legion to forget his problems. Of course he drags Stan Laurel along with him. Once joined, they get into the middle of a battle between the Foreign Legion troops and a tribe of Arabs. This plot line doesn't sound unfamiliar for the Laurel & Hardy fans, since this theme is used in a dozen of other Laurel & Hardy pictures. Still "Beau Hunks" is a original movie on its own, mainly because its a well written and directed one.

The movie has some really great and comical dialog. It doesn't rely so much on its slapstick humor but that doesn't mean this movie is any less fun than other Laurel & Hardy comedy shorts.

Also its action and scale is quite nice which helps to make this movie one of the most impressively good looking shorts.

The acting is great. Of course Laurel & Hardy are great as ever and so is the impressing Charles Middleton, who still is best known for playing Emperor Ming in the Flash Gordon movies from the '30's. Also fun was to see Jean Harlow as the woman in the picture, who is a important returning element in the movie. It's nice to see the boys paying homage to the then already famous Jean Harlow, with who they worked together in the silent comedy short "Double Whoopee". Director James W. Horne also plays a small part in the movie. The only Laurel & Hardy movie in which he appears as an actor. The movie is further more filled with a whole bunch of Laurel & Hardy regulars in bit parts such as Baldwin Cooke, Charlie Hall, Jack Hill, among others.

A very well made that also is fun to watch as well. Highly recommendable!

8/10

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If as another reviewer says that Beau Hunks was Hal Roach's personal favorite of the many Laurel&Hardy shorts he produced, it certainly is a very good choice. Roach must have liked it because he expanded it later on in the decade to a full length feature film, Flying Deuces.

Poor Ollie is pining over his lost love because his Jeanie Weanie is getting married so to forget his troubles he joins the Foreign Legion, dragging along poor Stanley behind him. Of course as it turns out Jeanie Weanie is Jean Harlow who's sent these loving autographed pictures all over the world as we see when they settle into the barracks of the Foreign Legion.

The film is a satire of Beau Geste and of The Desert Song which only two years earlier had come to the screen. The enemy are the Riffraffs and a deadly bunch they are. Of course they haven't come up against Laurel and Hardy.

Two best bits in the film are the boys getting lost in a sand storm on the desert and then actually arriving at the fort ahead of the rest of the troop. Second is when Laurel the dunce is asked by Hardy why he's not carrying any equipment for the march and he innocently replies that he packed his stuff with Ollie's. This is Stanley's innocence at its finest.

One thing that is eerie about Beau Hunks is that the marriage Jean Harlow was to have the following year was to Paul Bern and we all know what a tragedy that turned out to be. She might have been better off marrying Ollie or one of the other Legionaires.

Beau Hunks is a choice sample of Stan and Ollie's comedy which is absolutely eternal.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

Suffering from a failed love affair, Ollie drags Stan off to join the French Foreign Legion. Once in the desert, their merry mix ups cause much mayhem. The BEAU HUNKS are soon sent to relieve an isolated fort, but arrive just in time to endure a fierce Arab attack...

A bit longer & more elaborate than most of the Boys' short subjects. Stan & Ollie were excellent at this kind of farce; they provide lots of laughs as they try to act like competent Legionaries. As an added treat, Ollie gets to sing 'I Love You' in that wonderfully nostalgic high tenor voice of his.

This is another one of Laurel and Hardy's films that are crammed with memorable moments, and it's a measure of their worth that, even though the routines are familiar after repeated viewings, they still manage to raise a chuckle (or at least a smile).

Stan and Ollie join the French foreign legion in this one after Ollie's heart is broken by his 'Jeanie-Weanie,' a true vamp if ever there was one who looks suspiciously like Jean Harlow. Naturally, the boys get on the wrong side of the camp commandant the moment they arrive at the fort, which is a cue for the usual chaos and gags. Only Laurel and Hardy can make the simple act of picking up a hat or soothing one's feet so funny and fraught with difficulty.

If you've had a hard day I can guarantee that there is no better solution to your woes than to sit back, relax, open a beer and watch one of Laurel & Hardy's timeless films...