Manthast Absolutely amazing

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Aspen Orson There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

evanston_dad Avid movie goer that I am, I somehow got to the ripe old age of 39 without being exposed to Laurel and Hardy. My wife and I decided to rectify that by getting one of their collections through Netflix, and a disc with this film and the last one the duo did together, "Utopia," was the first to arrive. Expectations were high for "The Flying Deuces" and I was sure I was going to find the two hilarious.....And then I watched the movie and could barely keep my eyes open. What a woefully unfunny movie "The Flying Deuces" is, and if it's representative of Laurel & Hardy (which I've heard it's not), there's not much chance of me liking their other stuff. I want to see some of their earlier films, especially the silents, as I gather that's where I'll find their strongest collaborations, but even at that I'm not sure I'm ever going to like them as much as I like other comedians from the same era, like Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. I just don't care for the personas Laurel and Hardy play, or the mean spiritedness that colors all of Hardy's interactions with Laurel. Hardy doesn't make me root for him, which is essential in these slapstick comedians for their schtick to work. And the brand of humor doesn't appeal to me either. A typical joke in "The Flying Deuces" goes something like this: Laurel bumps his head multiple times on the slanted roof of their Parisian boarding room, Hardy says something like "How can you be stupid enough to keep bumping your head like that?" and then a couple of minutes later Hardy...guess what?...bumps his head on the same ceiling. Hardy har har.I'm willing to give the boys another chance, but my expectations are now set much lower.Grade: D

mark.waltz As the 1930's came to a close, it became apparent that the comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy was reaching a turning point in their career. Sometimes they seemed just too old to be doing the same pratfalls that they had done five years before, and yet, fans still couldn't get enough of them. Their days of two reel shorts were long gone, and their feature films, while still relatively short in length, still had funny moments, seemed sometimes forced. For this entry, their first after leaving the Hal Roach studios, they are playing Americans in Paris who decide to enlist in the Foreign Legion so Hardy can get over his unrequited love for French waitress Jean Parker.Of course, as the boys were apt to do, they get into nothing but trouble as they fail to live up to Foreign Legion standards. They end up on laundry and kitchen duty (at the French equivalent of three cents a day!) and decide to desert. This results in a chase between them and the M.P.'s and a wacky flying sequence which results in a visual gag that in retrospective may be funny but is certainly dark in nature.Laurel of course gets some great one-liners, telling Oliver, "I've waited on you with my hands and feet", and Oliver comes back dramatically with a famous quote from "A Tale of Two Cities". There's another dark moment where Laurel accompanies Oliver to the river to drowned himself over his sorrows at loosing Parker and finds out that Oliver insists he end things with him. "After all, if I wasn't with you, how could you explain the reason you look the way you do?", he uses as reasoning. "I wouldn't be there to explain it for you". An amusing moment has the boys breaking into a light dance to "Shine on Harvest Moon", and only in a Foreign Legion jail cell would Stanley find a harp. Then, there's an escape passage which is utilized several times, once with the pursuers getting drunk off the wine the boys accidentally spill into the hole after shooting them with corks. So while this is a mixed bag as far as comic excellence may go, it does have a lot to offer its audience, especially if you can't get enough of the two stars.

JoeKarlosi Funny Laurel and Hardy picture has the boys as two Americans vacationing in France. Ollie develops a boy-like crush on a pretty café waitress and intends to marry her but has his heart broken when she must turn him down, for she is already happily married. Poor Ollie at first decides to end it all and take his good pal Stan with him, until he gets a better suggestion to just join the Foreign Legion to try and forget his troubles. This, or course, leads to even more troubles! A good solid comedy from Laurel and Hardy, nearing the very end of their best period in the Hal Roach movies. This film has long been available as a public domain release on various labels with rather weak quality, but the best print out there as of this date is the DVD from KINO. It really boosts the enjoyment of this one. *** out of ****

bkoganbing I saw Swiss Miss and The Flying Deuces back to back and in doing so spotted what was wrong with Swiss Miss. It didn't need that whole operetta subplot, it just needed Stan and Ollie. Then watching The Flying Deuces I was completely convinced I was right.What's wrong with The Flying Deuces is that it's made on the cheap as cost conscious Hal Roach always did it. But that's OK in a slapstick comedy, especially one that borders on the surreal.The boys are on holiday in Paris, but Stan thinks it's about time they return back to their jobs in the fish market in Des Moines. But Ollie thinks he's in love, unfortunately to Jean Parker who is married to Reginald Gardiner. Ollie is distraught on learning the news and wants to throw himself in the Seine and end his troubles and he wants Stan to share in the suicide as well. This sets up some very funny business and the selfsame Reginald Gardiner who doesn't know Ollie is sweet on Jean persuades them that the Foreign Legion is the place for them.Of course upon arriving in North Africa, the Legion proves a bit much to their delicate sensibilities. Especially stern commander Charles Middleton who plays it as he would Ming the Merciless. What's interesting in The Flying Deuces is that in most Laurel and Hardy films, dumb and dumber always flop no matter what they scheme. In this case they're still quite dumb, but the Legion is populated with a gang of 'tards that even they outwit. Especially old nemesis James Finlayson who plays a jailer.Of course it all does flop in the end for the boys. But Ollie mentions that he does have a wish and in the end he gets his wish. And at the end he and Stan have quite the reunion.And you'll have to see the very funny The Flying Deuces to know what I'm talking about.