Benedito Dias Rodrigues
Although it was made in thirties it's a great funny picture from the Fantastic Laurel and Hardy so famous in Brazil,one the best early comedies from the duo,mixing musical and comedy ours friends has to joint with the thieves to try to recover their stolen money,apart them another highlight is the beauty Thelma Todd in a sexy role,sadly years later he was found dead in most mysterious case of murder in Hollywood,unsolved by detectives and even closed and issued as suicide didn't has a proper conclusion for lack of proves,great lost to the cinema!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25
Boba_Fett1138
This is yet another long Laurel & Hardy movie which uses a classic and well known story as the basis for the movie. This time its the libretto; Fra Diavolo, set in the early 18th century Italy.Problem with these sort of Laurel & Hardy pictures always is that the story distracts from their antics. It causes the movie to be a bit too often too serious and leaves too little room for Laurel & Hardy's great comical talent and timing. Most of the time the different characters in this movie fulfill the roles of the main characters and Laurel & Hardy turn in into merely comical sidekicks who provide the comical relief.But it definitely is true that this movie is a well made one. It's directed by Hal Roach himself and has some fine looking sets and costumes. It distinct this movie from most other Laurel & Hardy pictures from the same period. It provides the movie with some good looking sequences. The story is nicely told although but at certain points it starts to drag a little. Nevertheless the movie remains for most part a perfectly entertaining one to watch.There still also are plenty of enough comical great sequences by the two boys, who provide the movie with some memorable and enjoyable moments throughout the movie. The movie further more features Laurel & Hardy regulars Thelma Todd and James Finlayson, in big roles, who also add to the entertainment value and comical level of this movie.This definitely isn't the most pleasant or must fun Laurel & Hardy movie around to watch but this movie still offers plenty of enough reasons why this movie still is a perfectly good and entertaining one to watch.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
theowinthrop
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.
Petri Pelkonen
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is one of the greatest comedic couple ever.In this movie they get to be the retainers of a singing bandit called Fra Diavolo(Dennis King).Of course, everything goes wrong, when Stanlio and Ollio are trying to do their job.The Devil's Brother is a great musical comedy.The movie contains some very funny moments, that just make you laugh.From the couple Laurel is the more childish one, who cries in these movies many times. Hardy is trying to be more adult, who is barely standing his friend.There isn't one problem, these two fellas can't manage with their own stupidness.
