Fra Diavolo

Of the three features L&H made based on operettas - The Devil's Brother (Auber's 'Fra Diavolo'), The Bohemian Girl (ibid, Balfe & Bunn), and Babes In Toyland (ibid, Sigmund Romberg) - I feel that this one shows off The Boys' comic abilities the best. James Finlayson, an L&H regular, is in his usual fine form, and Thelma Todd is marvelously coquettish. James C. Morton, who appeared so often as a policeman in so many of the L&H shorts, does a brilliant turn in the tiny part of the woodchopper. Best moment: Stan, ordered to hang Ollie, tightens the noose around his neck prior to hauling him up. "Stop that! You're choking me!" complains Ollie.

As someone else mentioned, when Laurel & Hardy ventured into feature length films, they often adapted operettas. This is the best of the lot, although "The Bohemian Girl" runs a close second. This is L&H at the top of their form. I've seen every L&H film still extant, and this definitely ranks in the top five.

The plot stays fairly close to the operetta in most major details, but adds genius bits of comic business for Stan & Ollie. The catchiest tune in the original, the "Romanze" (or Diablo's theme) is retained and used as a center piece for some of the funniest bits in the show.

For those who can appreciate Stan Laurel's sublime comedic genius (he was the brains and creative force of the duo), I can't recommend this highly enough.

Laurel & Hardy could very easily have slid into musical comedies, as could the Marx Brothers. Hardy had a tenor voice, put to good use in WAY OUT WEST, and Stan (while he was not as good a singer) could talk sing quite nicely (and was prepared to do comic singing - his change of voice in singing "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia" in WAY OUT WEST is an example). As a result a musical number will frequently pop up in their movies. In SONS OF THE DESERT it's the HONALULU, BABY! number. In SWISS MISS there were several (even a ditty, supposedly composed by Walter Woolf King, entitled "Crick, crick, crick goes the cricket"). Even in their earliest features numbers appear (in PARDON US we hear "MICHIGAN"). So it was not unexpected that Hal Roach and Stan Laurel would do full scale musicals. They turned to operettas (or spoofs of operas like FRA DIAVOLO) because the costumes and settings gave opportunities for Stan to come up with new pieces of business for himself and Babe Hardy.

The actual opera by Auber is more dramatic than this comedy. Fra Diavola dies at the end (he is, after all, a villain). But here there is a light hearted element that overcomes the original. Stan and Ollie (or Stanlio and Ollio) are robbed by brigands on the road and decide to turn brigand themselves. Naturally, Ollie decides that he will protect them from discovery by claiming to be the infamous Fra Diavalo. Their initial attempt at theft is hardly successful. They confront a man with a hard luck story, and end up giving him money. Then they seem to be more successful confronting a younger man, until Ollie brags that he is Fra Diavolo. The younger man demands proof. Diavolo always sings a theme song, and everyone knows his voice. Ollie starts singing the tune, and the man (you've guessed it - it's Dennis King) continues singing it. They almost get hanged for that, but King decides to use them as minions in a plot to rob an English mi-lord and his wife (James Finlayson and Thelma Todd*).

(*Finlayson's name, as a joke, is Lord Rocburg. In reality, the character in the opera was Lord Cockburn.)

The bulk of the film deals with King and the boys in the inn run by Henry Armetta, where Finlayson and Todd are residing on their trip. King is romancing the frivolous and bored Todd, and hoping to get her jewelry. Finlayson is suspicious of her activities, but is not swift enough to catch King in action (at one point, he is mistaken for King by Ollie and Stan, who lock him up after beating him, and start telling him off - they think of course he's King, who listens to them annoyed but amused).

The music is actually not overdone, and King (who had a fine trained voice) gets several opportunities to sing. He was not the first major Broadway star to work with the boys (Lawrence Tibbett had in ROGUE SONG) nor the last headliner to do so (Dante the Magician would in A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO). But he seems to work quite nicely with them, sharing screen time, and even showing elements of comic timing and reactions. In one song number, he even shudders and turns away from an ugly woman while addressing a romantic passage in the tune.

For an early example of their use of operetta, THE DEVIL'S BROTHER is (as Stan Laurel said) one of their best films. Of course, to most people, it will always be recalled as the film where Stan drives both Ollie and Henry Armetta to distraction with his "finger wiggle" and his "earsie - eyesie - nosie" games that he can handle with ease but the other two can't quite coordinate. It is fun to watch here, and would later be subject to a rare repeat comment: in BABES IN TOYLAND, when Ollie insists that anything Stan can do Ollie can, Stan smiles and shakes his head. He then does "earsie - eyesie - nosie", much to Ollie's annoyance.

Two of the funniest scenes in a movie. One where Laurel keeps drinking all the wine he's supposed to be putting in a vat. Soon he's sloshed and starts making a smack noise with his mouth, that gets funnier every time he does it. Soon after, they're both sitting at a table in a restaurant and Laurel can't stop laughing. Ollie tries to make him stop but he is quickly consumed by laughter as well and they are ramping up the laughter with every past moment they reminisce. You can't help yourself from laughing and I was laughing hard.

Everything else about this movie is damn good too. The support acting is ahead of it's time and the music is well placed, novel and catchy. And the main female lead is very easy to look at. Check it out, won't we?

With those words to live by, Oliver Hardy convinces Stan Laurel that this might be just the profession for them in 18th century France. Unfortunately the second guy they decide to rob is the famous bandit, Fra Diavolo, the Devil's Brother played by Broadway star Dennis King in his second feature film role. And to top it all off, these two decide to impersonate Fra Diavolo while doing the robbery.

King is justifiably angry about this and orders Stan to hang Ollie who he sizes up rather quickly as the brains of the outfit. But when Stan bungles the job in a most amusing manner, King decides these guys are worth having around for laughs.

King's on quest, to rob nobleman James Finlayson of a fortune in jewels and then to woo the lovely Thelma Todd. At that point the action of the film and for that matter the operetta it's based on takes place in an inn where all the principals are staying. These also include Arthur Pierson as the earnest, but rather dull young French officer who wants to capture the notorious Fra Diavolo and Lucille Browne, the barmaid who loves the lug.

Stan and Ollie give King cause to regret his choice of confederates on this job before the film is over. Let's just say the rotund Mr. Hardy is not built for swashbuckling and my favorite moment is seeing Ollie swinging from the balcony like the man on the flying trapeze. Best moment for Stan is him getting drunk in the wine cellar. There's a whole lot more.

The Devil's Brother was their second film where they have supporting roles in a classic operetta. The first was The Rogue Song where they support Lawrence Tibbett which has unfortunately been lost. Dennis King who primarily concentrated on the stage in his career delivers a far better screen performance in this than he did when he repeated his Broadway role of Francois Villon in The Vagabond King. Dennis King had a strong voice, it's a pity he did not do more musical films.

In the end their escape has to be seen to be believed. Let's just say that one of Stan's earlier gags came back to haunt the forces of law and order.

The Devil's Brother is Stan and Ollie at their finest with Hal Roach, don't miss it if you are fan of their's.