Tuchergson Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Hitchcoc Ollie is in love but it turns out she is already married. He decides to kill himself and suggests that Stan should do the same. But they goof it up and meet a guy who tells them that the French Foreign Legion is the way to forget a crushing romance. Of course, off they go. We know from every military movie they were involved in that disaster is on its way. Naturally, the fact that people like Jimmy Finlayson were already in the Legion doesn't speak all that well for their choices. Soon they are getting a reputation as the worst soldiers in the battalion. They finally manage to get themselves listed as AWOL and as deserters. They risk facing a firing squad. The Flying Deuces thing is from the fact that they end up plane-napping a plane. We all know that while nothing goes right for them, some sort of miracle is going to keep them alive. It doesn't mean things are hunky-dory. There is a great rendition of "Shine on Harvest Moon," one of those great songs they occasionally did.

ma-cortes Olli is broken heart when aware which Georgett(Jean Parker), a beautiful girl, is already married to officer Francois(Reginald Gardner). Oliver is depressed and attempts to commit suicide in river Seine, taking Stan Laurel with him. But the newspapers publicize : ¡ famous men-eating shark escapes, ferocious fish battles keeper in Paris Aquarium, believed at large in Seine, boaters, swimmers, Beware! . Later they enlist the French Foreign Legion commanded by a stiff commandant(Charles Middleton). Of course, the comic pair cause wreak havoc wherever they go . Their botchers lead them charges of desertion and condemned to death penalty. They're imprisoned but receive a letter in the jail saying the following : ¨ Lift up floor board and you'll find a tunnel which leads to the outer wall use your own judgement, a pal ¨. Hilarity ensues when they try to escape and avoid a firing squad.Zany comedy seeing the misfit couple in all kinds of troubles involving French Legion. This entertaining Laurel and Hardy recital provides too much amusement in detailing the duo's exploits in Foreign Legion . Lots of physical comedy and hilarious dialogue including some musical interlude . Furthermore sympathetic introduction of fantastic elements as when Oliver Hardy's reincarnation as a horse . Comical and spectacular final flying is one of the film's highlights. Based on screenplay and sketches written by the comic Harry Langdon, among others. ¨Flying deuces¨ is well directed by Edward Sutherland. He was producer, director , actor and one the original Keystone Kops. He began in films as an actor for Mack Sennett , turning filmmaker and usually worked for W. C. Fields.

BJJManchester An independently-produced effort while contractual disputes with Hal Roach were on-going,THE FLYING DEUCES is possibly the best non-Roach Laurel and Hardy vehicle,because at least Stan Laurel was allowed some say on the plot and script content.The original draft was apparently woefully unsuitable(as were virtually all their wartime Fox and MGM features),and the story itself is pretty thin(an obvious reworking of BEAU HUNKS)and the production rather cheap.What saves the picture from mediocrity are some familiar names in the supporting cast like Charles Middleton and (especially) James Finlayson from the Roach studios,with others like Richard Cramer,Arthur Housman,Eddie Borden and Sam Lufkin in much smaller parts.With such performers in support it does at least give it the feel of a Roach film,with the addition of their favourite cameraman Art Lloyd behind the scenes another plus factor.That said,the comic material itself is not of a particularly high standard,maybe because of the initial weakness of the original story and draft,and the amount of pancake makeup they both wear cannot disguise they were beginning to age somewhat after their Roach studios peak.Despite funny gags and individual scenes,THE FLYING DEUCES is rather patchy,and one yearns for rather more of Middleton's stentorian tones(their simply isn't enough of him in the film)than Ollie's simpering over Jean Parker.Her on-screen husband Reginald Gardiner starts off in amiable conversation with the boys persuading them to join the Foreign Legion,but he turns decidedly unsympathetic and hostile once they've enlisted,especially when he finds out that Ollie is in love with his wife.Much comic potential is not explored because unlike BEAU HUNKS(which was not perfect but shorter and rather better),there are few jokes about their tribulations in the Legion itself;the best scenes are some charming,if slightly irrelevant, musical interludes,involving Ollie singing 'Shine On Harvest Moon' while Stan performs a nifty soft-shoe shuffle,Stan playing 'The World Is Waiting For Sunrise' on his prison cell bed mattress(Ollie taps his feet amusingly during this number!),and some funny business with their best ever foil James Finlayson.The rest frankly is something of a disappointment,but we can be thankful at least that Laurel and Hardy are still in character here,which was not the case in their films from 1941 onwards,because of big film studio interference and reluctance to give Stan Laurel artistic control.THE FLYING DEUCES is certainly no classic,but is still fairly enjoyable and a decent L & H film thanks to producer Boris Morros' decision to give Stan a degree of creative freedom.Now why didn't the producers at Fox or MGM do that?

theowinthrop In 1939 - 1940 Laurel & Hardy's long contractual relationship with Hal Roach was coming to an end. The boys actually never had a joint contract with Roach - Stan and Babe had signed up in the 1920s at different times. Stan's contract was ending first, but Babe's would be finished within a year.Most people assume that the three men worked very smoothly together. The decline in their work is ascribed to a lack of sympathy shown them by MGM and 20th Century Fox in the 1940s. This is not quite true. Roach, as a producer, was cost conscious, and if he felt something was over-budget he squawked. This led to collisions with Stan. At least once it harmed a film - the feature "Swiss Miss", where a vital element in the scene involving the rope bridge was dropped. Similar cost cutting may have hurt "Bonnie Scotland" (which has an ending that does not even try to settle a plot problem). As early as 1937 Roach began to look into ending the boys partnership. He tried to create a "Hardy" family series (no pun intended) in which Babe was married to Patsy Kelly, and their son was Spanky MacFarlane. A still photo exists of Babe holding Spanky (both trying to out-stare each other) with Patsy looking somewhat bemused. But nothing came of this. In 1939 Roach produced the film "Zenobia", starring Babe as a small-town physician in the anti-bellum South. A request to help a circus elephant causes him trouble. The owner of the elephant is Harry Langdon, and there were rumors at the time that Roach was toying with a new teaming of Hardy and Langdon.Under the circumstances of Roach's antics, it is just possible that the decision of Stan and Babe to make "The Flying Deuces" with Boris Morros as producer was a counter-move: a type of testing the waters to see if the boys needed Roach to be there in order to make successful comedy features. If so, they were smart to do it. "The Flying Deuces" is not one of their greatest comedies (like "Sons Of The Desert") but it is a very amusing one.Although a story and screenplay is listed as the source of the film, one imagines the real source goes back to a short subject movie made a few years earlier called "Beau Hunks". In that short Babe is broken hearted because the woman he loves has married another man. The woman in question is actress Jean Harlow. Babe insists that he must join the Foreign Legend in order to forget his false love. But he insists Stan go with him. Stan can't quite grasp this - why should he join, as he has no reason to forget anyone. Babe immediately says that it is selfish of Stan not to join his friend in trying to forget. So they leave for North Africa. The rest of the short deals with their hard life as legionnaires (under Commandant Charles Middleton) and the fact that the horrified Hardy keeps finding that every man in the Foreign Legion is there trying to forget Jean Harlow (as is the leader of the Riffs!).As you can see there are elements in "Beau Hunks" that are picked up in "The Flying Deuces". Here, while in Paris, Hardy falls for Jean Parker, but she has a boyfriend. Hardy resolves on suicide in the Seine, and ties a heavy weight to himself AND Stan (who should share his fate, as a good friend). But they are prevented by French Legionaire officer Reginald Gardiner, who convinces them to join the Legion in order to forget the sad affair. They agree (Stan is told to get rid of that thing, promptly unties himself from the weight, and throws it into the Seine, causing Ollie to be pulled in). They show up in North Africa, at a fort run by Charles Middleton, and discover that Gardiner is an officer there too - as is his new wife, Jean Parker!The difference in the two films is that the feature enables more material to be put in. When they are going to their quarters, Stan and Ollie break into a soft shoe and song of "Shine On Harvest Moon" (no doubt influenced by similar moments where they did singing and dancing in "Way Out West" the year before. They get into trouble when they are outraged with the small pay they have unwittingly agreed to by signing up. Their behavior keeps escalating until they end up in the guardhouse, awaiting court martial and probable execution, with Jimmy Finleyson as their jailer. And then they make a final break for freedom at the controls of an airplane. The plane crashes, and (for the only time in their films) one of them dies...temporarily. Earlier they had a discussion on reincarnation, and now they see the wisdom of that theory.It is an extremely amusing film for all the players (Middleton having a royal fit when he reads an insulting message left by Hardy on his desk; Gardiner going ballistic finding the boys in Parker's boudoir with her, and Finleyson unable to understand how the boys as well as nearly twenty soldiers raced into the cell they were locked into - so that he couldn't find them - and then they all reappeared). While not as polished as their best work, it certainly was in the top of their second tier of good feature films (better, anyway, than "Bonnie Scotland").It may have worked for awhile. After "Zenobia" and "The Flying Deuces", Roach did not seem to bring up re-teaming Babe with anyone. The boys made "A Chump At Oxford" and "Saps At Sea" with Roach. Then both contracts were over. Unfortunately, they then signed with MGM and 20th Century Fox, and the long decline began in earnest.