Sons of the Desert (1933)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
(William A. Seiter, US 1933, 68 min., 35mm)
UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s fourth feature-length comedy, Sons of the Desert, begins at a secret meeting of the boys' eponymously titled fraternal lodge. Amid secret handshakes and tarbooshes, the “exhausted ruler” swears attendance at the lodge’s 87th annual convention in Chicago. When their wives forbid them to go, Hardy comes up with a ruse. Stan and Ollie sneak off to Chicago to eat, drink, and make merry with their lodge brothers until a maritime disaster and an incriminating newsreel expose the charade, culminating in a last act that is perhaps the funniest of Laurel and Hardy’s career. The movie was one of the top ten films of the year grossing over $1 million worldwide upon its original release. In 2012, it was named to the National Film Registry. Preservation funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and the Film Foundation.
Preceded by Berth Marks (Lewis R. Foster, US 1929, 19 min., 35mm), in which Stan and Ollie share an upper berth in a sleeping car. Funding provided by the Packard Humanities Institute.