Laurel & Hardy: Sons of the Desert

Errant husbands trick their wives so they can secretly attend a fraternal order’s weekend convention in Chicago. Many believe this is the team’s best feature, both a critical success and one of the year’s top ten box office draws. The film has much subtlety and was meticulously plotted, but also exults in bone-crushing slapstick. Mr. Hardy winds up the target of endless pots, pans and kitchen crockery all hurled with unerring accuracy by his tyrannical wife, played by Mae Busch. A popular tune, HONOLULU BABY by studio music director Marvin Hatley, came out of this picture. During the 1970s and 1980s Hatley enjoyed playing his composition at gatherings of the “mystic” group designed to propagate the spirit and genius of Laurel & Hardy. This group was named, for the film aimed squarely at kidding all such fraternal organizations, and launched with the blessing of Stan Laurel himself: SONS OF THE DESERT. Directed by William A. Seiter. With Charley Chase as an obnoxious lodge member and Dorothy Christie as Mr. Laurel’s beautiful, guntoting wife.