Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Flying Deuces Blu-ray Movie Review

Crash and burn.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 20, 2015

Laurel and Hardy were together on screen for an amazing nearly 30 years, churning out well over 100 films of various lengths, from the heyday of the silent era up until television had started to make inroads with the viewing populace. If 1939’s The Flying Deuces found the iconic comedy duo on the downhill side of their long careers, that perhaps makes the film’s overall ebullience and still laugh out loud hilarity all the more remarkable. Perhaps at least a little unexpected, at least considering the huge amount of material still extant in the Laurel and Hardy filmography (some items are, sadly, thought to be lost forever), is the fact that only two films by the pair have lapsed into the public domain. One of those two is the duo’s last screen pairing, 1951’s Atoll K, a not very well remembered outing which served as a kind of sad farewell to one of the most legendary pairings of 20th century cinema. The Flying Deuces, on the other hand, has long been considered one of the more enjoyable (relatively) late Laurel and Hardy outings, one which features at least one standout sequence where the two, having joined the Foreign Legion, are tasked with doing the laundry for what appears to be the largest regiment ever assembled in the desert (at least when going by the number of shirts hanging on an impossibly long laundry line). According to the often not very reliable Wikipedia, the original negative for The Flying Deuces is still around, housed in the Turner archive, but it’s obvious that that element was not used for this pretty underwhelming looking release from midline label VCI. Interestingly, the end credits on this Blu-ray point to the UCLA Film Archive subsite dedicated to the pair, but the site itself does not list The Flying Deuces as one of its vaunted restoration efforts, and judging by the look of this release, it’s doubtful they were involved in any meaningful way. (A quick post-film credit points to www.savelaurelandhardy.com, a URL which in turn automatically ports the reader to www.cinema.ucla.edu/support/laurel-and-hardy, the UCLA Film and Television Archive's page advertising the Laurel and Hardy Preservation Fund.)

Stan and Ollie are enjoying a night out in Paris, though it’s doubtful their waiter is. The two are sharing one glass of milk, hardly the sort of order that is going to generate a generous tip, but that’s hardly of any concern to the pair. Stan is already making plans on returning home, while Ollie confesses that if things work out the way he’s intending, Paris may very well be his new home. It turns out that Ollie has fallen head over heels in love with Georgette (Jean Parker), the daughter of the innkeeper where the two have been staying.

When the two get back to the inn, a gaggle of gifts Ollie has sent to Georgette has already arrived, and the young woman is properly effusive in her appreciation. Up in their room Ollie confides to Stan that not only is he in love, he’s actually bought an engagement ring and is ready to pop the question. Meanwhile downstairs a little revelation is forthcoming when it turns out that Georgette is actually already married to a Foreign Legionnaire named François (Reginald Gardiner). When Ollie’s proposal goes understandably awry, desperate (suicidal) measures seem to be the only option, but crafty François shows up to “save the day” (in a manner of speaking, anyway) by convincing the boys to join the Foreign Legion, where in time honored fashion Ollie will be able to forget his misery.

That sets the film on its true course of havoc wreaking, as obviously Stan and Ollie are not exactly the disciplined type one would expect to see in a military environment. A number of little set pieces follow, including predictable elements like the pair not “falling in” with the other soldiers doing some marching maneuvers. The longer laundry washing sequence is a true standout, though, with Stan repeatedly squeezing wet clothes which result in Ollie getting a face full of water, and Ollie reacting by scalding Stan’s backside with a steaming iron. As all of this plays out, various Legion higher ups pass by insisting that the guys get back to work. It’s a typically manic sequence that builds to a fair amount of hilarity as it continues.

The two ultimately come to the obvious conclusion that the Legion is not for them, which only leads to their incarceration (but not before the ever machinating François drops the bombshell that Georgette is his wife, thereby even further crushing Ollie’s spirit). A funny jail sequence ensues, including Stan aping Harpo Marx (with bedsprings as his “harp”), leading to a calamitous climax which rather incredibly sees one of the pair meeting his demise (only to be almost instantly brought back in a rather whimsical fashion). The Flying Deuces is brief, brisk and often very funny, presenting Laurel and Hardy at close to the peak of their professional lives, with their on screen personas perfectly formed and in no need of lengthy exposition or dawdling. The film has some fun, if fairly brief, supporting turns by a gaggle of well known character actors, including Charles B. Middleton, who had gained fame as the nefarious Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon.

The Flying Deuces Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Flying Deuces is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. VCI continues to be almost willfully defiant of any suggestion that a newer encoding technique (as well as higher bitrates) might help the look of their releases, but in this case some of the lackluster appearance of this release can also be attributed to a dupey source element, lots of damage (including veritable chunks of minus density), poor contrast and what appears to be some high frequency roll off, resulting in a less than optimal looking grain field. The biggest issue for me personally was how dark everything is (something shared by some other VCI releases), which I assume may have been done to counter anemic contrast issues. What results, though, is totally inadequate shadow detail and fairly rampant crush where, for example, Ollie's jet black suit can more or less "become one" with a shadowy background. Contrast issues also plague the brightly lit "desert" sequences, though to be fair these at least approach some baseline level of providing a bit of detail in close-ups. Midrange and wide shots throughout the film are often quite soft and lacking any appreciable fine detail. There is some very fine grain apparent, especially if you freeze frame the film, but in motion it's minimal and inorganic looking, and the lack of detail and fine detail suggests fairly liberal noise reduction has been utilized, probably because the elements utilized for this transfer were so far removed from the original that it was thought they were too grainy. There are more understandable issues with missing frames, misaligned frames and the like, but overall this is going to be a disappointment to many Laurel and Hardy fans who might have hoped for a more convincing restoration.

The Flying Deuces Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Flying Deuces offers a serviceable uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mono track which does provide decent support for most of the dialogue in the film, but which is hampered by understandable age related issues, including a thin sounding high range (exacerbated somewhat by hiss) and a pretty hollow sounding mid- and low end. There's nothing horrible here, and no really unexpected damage, but this a pretty boxy sounding effort that can't quite overcome limitations of the source stems. For the record, VCI has provided optional English subtitles on this release.

The Flying Deuces Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• This is Your Life: Laurel and Hardy (Rare TV Episode Remastered from 35mm) (1080p; 29:31) presents the uncut 1954 broadcast (with original commercials, which are a lot of fun) which for a time at least seemed to augur a comeback for the comedians, a comeback which sadly got derailed with the continuing health issues for the pair.


• Sons of the Desert (A Rare Trailer) (1080p; 2:32) looks to be the trailer for the Spanish speaking market, though the actual dialogue is in English.


• The Paper Hanger's Helper (1925 Silent Short with Oliver Hardy) (1080p; 8:52)


• Lucky Dog (1921 Silent Short Starring Laurel and Hardy) (1080p; 16:49)

The Flying Deuces Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe some archivist who knows the Turner holdings can track down the negative for The Flying Deuces which one Wikipedian at least seems to think resides there. This film deserves a top flight (think Criterion) treatment where it's lavished with state of the art restoration efforts. Laurel and Hardy completists may well want to purchase this as an "in the meantime" solution, but they may end up wanting to join the Foreign Legion themselves to help forget the less than optimal technical merits this release has to offer.