THE BOHEMIAN GIRL(1936)Written August-September, 1935. Filmed October, 1935 - January, 1936. Produced by Hal Roach. Directed by James Horne and Charles Rogers. 70 minutes. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Antonio Moreno, Jacqueline Wells, Darla Hood, James Finlayson, Thelma Todd. STORY: Gypsies Laurel, Hardy, and fellow travelers, are camped near the estate of Count Arnheim. Mrs. Hardy makes no secret of her affections for the handsome Devilshoof, and flaunts their affair in front of her husband. When Count Arnheim has Devilshoof flogged for trespassing, Mrs. Hardy kidnaps the Count's daughter in revenge. She tells Ollie that the little girl is his (she's just been keeping her a secret all these years) before running off with Devilshoof. The little girl is raised by Stan and Ollie, who make a loving and attentive, if bumbling, pair of fathers. Years later, the gypsy band is again camped outside the Arnheim estate. The Count recognizes his daughter, but not in time to save her kindly guardians from the torture chamber. |
JB:
The third of the Laurel and Hardy operettas, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL has
often been cited as a poor sister to FRA DIAVOLO and BABES IN
TOYLAND. It is true that the music isn't as beautiful as Victor
Herbert's score for BABES, and that the story features no lovable rogue
like Diavolo or hissable villain like Silas Barnaby to keep the plot
scenes entertaining when Laurel and Hardy aren't around. Still,
to at least one Laurel and Hardy scholar (me), the comedy scenes more
than make up for any other deficiencies. THE BOHEMIAN GIRL is the
funniest of their operettas, and with Laurel and Hardy getting the
lion's share of the film's footage, it just may be the best of the
three, at least for those who watch Laurel and Hardy to laugh.
There are many self-contained little routines
throughout the film, two of which deserve a hallowed spot in the Laurel
and Hardy Hall of Fame. The first is the "pickpocket routine", in
which Stan tricks victims into closing their eyes while he tells their
fortune, and then steals the valuables right out of their
pockets. Ollie tries it himself but cannot quite get the hang of
it, almost managing to get them both arrested. However, the
gendarme mistakes one of their victims for the robber, and demands that
he return all of his valuables to Stan and Ollie! It plays much
better than it reads, and is the early comic highlight of the
film. In a slight change to their usually relationship, Stan is
clearly the smarter of the pair in many scenes. While this had
always been an undertone to their comedy, it had never been so
explicitly played out on screen before. It is especially
noticeable in this scene, where Ollie cannot grasp Stan's rather simple
pickpocketing technique.
The second classic comedy routine is a Stan
solo scene, in which he tries to bottle some wine that has been
fermenting in a barrel. The wine comes out of a hose faster than
Stan can bottle it, and so while retrieving the next bottle, he has to
stick the hose in his mouth. Before long, he winds up drinking at
least as much of the wine as he is bottling, getting "guzzled" in the
process. It is a fanastic piece of Laurel pantomime, the kind of
thing that one wishes would go on for a lot longer than it does.
Some of the other comedy scenes cover familiar
territory, but are no less entertaining. In a nod to FRA DIAVOLO,
perhaps their most well-remembered feature at the time, Stan and Ollie
play more "fingers" games in a tavern not unlike the one in
DIAVOLO. Also somewhat derivative but still delightful is Mae
Bush's performance as Ollie's wife. Usually an Ollie wife is
provided with a reason before she starts nagging her husband, but here,
she turns on him viciously as soon as he says hello. "I told you
an hour ago not to speak to me!" she yells. "I told you a week
ago not to speak to me!" she continues, to which Stan adds helpfully
"Yeah, and you told him a year ago too." In THE BOHEMIAN GIRL,
the reason she treats Ollie so poorly is not because he has done
anything in particular, or that he has been spending too much time with
Stan, but simply because it is expected of her to act that way. Ollie
himself is more subdued and resigned to his marital misery than ever
before, and he expresses not a single moment of regret when she runs
off with a fellow gypsy, never to be seen again.
A fascinating bit of characterization comes in
a scene where Mrs. Ollie and her suitor, Devilshoof, flirt with each
other as Stan and Ollie watch. Being pre-sexual children (in
Charles Barr's words), they can't quite understand the significance of
the lovers' playful hand gestures and spend several moments recreating
them with their own fingers. Finally, Stan catches on and asks
Ollie "Did you see him chuck her under the chin?" Ollie still
can't understand what it all means, but Stan concludes with a forceful
"If it was my wife, I'd chuck her under the wagon!"
The other comedy scenes are just as fun:
Stan attempting to steal Ollie's money from under his mattress, with
Ollie still in the bed; Stan and Ollie scrubbing down their horse and
each other; a drunken Stan making as much noise as possible while
trying to spring the older Arline from jail --- with all this good
comedy, why some critics aren't more kind to this film is beyond me.
The dialogue in the film is above par, with
many great Laurelisms ("Well, blow me down with an anchovy!") and
sarcastic insults from Mae Busch. And in the scene where Ollie
takes care of baby Arline, reminiscent of scenes in PACK UP YOUR
TROUBLES but even more enchanting due to the setting, there is a twist
to the famous bedtime prayer "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" that no
Laurel and Hardy fan will ever forget.
Darla Hood makes for an adorable baby
Arline. MGM might have searched for months to find the perfect
child actress to play the part, but Hal Roach simply plucked up Darla,
his most recent addition to the Our Gang series, and plopped her right
into his film. Thus, the daughter of European nobility speaks
with with a distinctly Southern accent, pronouncing "if" as "ee-yiff"
and "in there" as "in they-ah". It is one of those charming
little absurdities, born from financial considerations, that sets Hal
Roach films apart from those of other studios.
Jacqueline Wells does not fare as well as the
older Arline. Although extremely photogenic (meaning she's purty!), she does not have
enough screen time to really make an impact. In fact, it is hard
not to dislike her at the end of the film when she takes her sweet time
asking her real father, Count Arnheim, to release Stan and Ollie from
the torture chamber at the end of the film.
As for the plot scenes that most critics find
extremely dull: yes, they are, but they go by quickly, leaving all the
more room for Laurel and Hardy. The film starts out
unpromisingly, with a few songs and some exposition about the mutual
hatred between Count Arnheim and the Gypsies, but once the camera finds
Laurel and Hardy, they become the focus of the film and are never too
long out of sight. Instead of getting brief moments of comedy in
between the story, we get brief moments of story instead. For
example, we learn of Devilshoof's capture and subsequent flogging by
Count Arnheim's men only in short cutaways during the The Boys extended
pickpocketing routine.
The music in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL has often
been criticized by fans and writers, especially "I Dreamt I Dwelt in
Marble Halls". I never found it to be a problem. The first time I
saw this film, I walked away whistling "Gypsy Vagabonds are We",
whereas it took me about four viewings before I warmed up to any of the
music in FRA DIAVOLO. As for "Marble Halls", I'll state without
reservation that it is a beautiful song, Rosina Lawrence (dubbing for
Jacqueline Wells) does a marvelous job singing it, and those who don't
care for it can enjoy the cutaways to Stan eating, which are always
hilarious. While Ollie beams in pleasure at his daughter, in
closeups that seem a little too "Hollywood" for a Roach film, Stan
keeps looking at her curiously, wondering what the hell she is singing
about, while shoving yet another piece of toast into his mouth.
Thelma Todd died before the release of THE
BOHEMIAN GIRL, and Roach and Laurel, worried about the emotional impact
on audiences, cut most of her footage and refilmed key plot
scenes. Much as we love Thelma Todd at LHC, it cannot be said the
the revisions harmed the film all that much. In retrospect, it is
a little irritating that most of the final footage we would ever see of
the beautiful and talented Todd is lost to us forever, but Hollywood
history is filled with such heartbreaking decisions. 73-year-old
Zeffie Tilbury (delightful in Our Gang's Second Childhood of the same
year) takes over Todd's original role as The Queen of the Gypsies, a
slightly bizarre bit of recasting. Most of the other players in
the film are merely adequate, though James Finlayson makes a welcome
appearance in the final moments of the film as one of Count Arnheim's
guards, and Eddie Borden is hilariously campy as the effeminate
nobleman whom Ollie attempts to pickpocket ("Now, then, you scurvy
knaves...").
Finally, sharp-eyed fans will notice a very
familiar canine friend waking up with The Boys before Arline fixes them
breakfast. On the Roach lot, everybody was on call to work at a
moment's notice, including that adorable little pup named Laughing Gravy.
JL: When
I hear the title THE BOHEMIAN GIRL, I expect a documentary on Astrid
Kircherr, but I digress. I also disagree. The best of the operettas?
Maybe when compared to the local junior high school's production of
H.M.S. PINAFORE, but not compared to the other two Laurel & Hardy
films in this genre. Yes, THE ASTRID KIRCHERR STO -- er, THE BOHEMIAN
GIRL is a good film -- we don't disagree as much as we do over the
first half-hour of BONNIE SCOTLAND -- but it's familiar territory they
covered more creatively in the earlier efforts.
My general opinion of the film reflects what
many have said before: too many uninteresting plot scenes coupled with
comedy scenes that are often no more than mildly amusing. I don't find
anything in BOHEMIAN GIRL to equal the comic vignettes in FRA DIAVOLO
(with the exception of Stan's drunk scene, which is indeed a classic).
In addition, BOHEMIAN GIRL's supporting players, with the exception of
Mae Busch, are no match for the charismatic cast of FRA DIAVOLO (Fin
and Thelma have too little to do in BOHEMIAN GIRL film to warrant
consideration). Other than Mae, the most interesting supporting player
in this film is William P. Carleton -- a graduate of the François
Delsarte school of acting who, as Count Arnheim, intones "Ooohhhh,
Arleeeeene" with a full, four-octave glissando. I fully expect him to
raise the back of his hand to his forehead and cry "Alas!" at any
moment.
Because of the cleverness of the concept and
the performances of all concerned, the pickpocket business is more fun
than its pat, methodical "Well-Constructed Comedy Routine" structure
should allow. I don't mind that the bit belongs mostly to the writers,
however, as it's memorable and well-presented. Their encounter with
dandified Eddie Borden (who nearly steals the scene) has Ollie
attempting to repeat Stan's "Your eyes are the windows to your soul"
con game, with disastrous results. What John B. says about Stan being
the smarter of the two is true, and it's especially evident in moments
that call for some sort of manual dexterity ("earsy-kneesy-nosey,"
"finger wiggle," a game of pee-wee, etc.). Ollie's inability to mimic
Stan's uncomplicated actions illustrates Babe Hardy's analysis of his
own character: "I'm the dumb guy who thinks he's smart."
Stan's drunk scene is indeed a gem and
tailor-made for his comic skills. It's worthy of Chaplin, but I prefer
what Stan does with such moments. Chaplin was known for being brilliant
with little eating or drinking scenes (such as eating the shoe in THE
GOLD RUSH or the spaghetti business in CITY LIGHTS), but Chaplin
elicits laughs through his inventiveness, whereas Stan make us laugh
just by being Stan. Had Chaplin done the wine-barrel scene, he would
have added a dozen ingenious gags that used the props more creatively,
and the audience would have responded with a low, appreciative laugh
and murmurs of "Oh, isn't that brilliant?". Stan, conversely, uses his
character more creatively, thereby creating comedy that's more
viscerally funny. We laugh at what he does, and we also laugh because
it's Stan that's doing it.
Chaplin was a better storyteller, and we
therefore care about the circumstances in which the Little Tramp finds
himself more than we care about the Little Tramp himself. Laurel and
Hardy were better characters, and their very presence generates
interest and concern, no matter how mundane or trivial the
circumstances. In comparing Chaplin to Laurel & Hardy, many critics
and film scholars throughout the years have acknowledged Chaplin's
genius, but contend that L&H are more gut-bustingly hysterical. And
because the wine-barrel scene is somewhat Chaplinesque, it allows us to
see what distinguishes the screen's most brilliant comic from the
screen's funniest ones.
I'm also in full agreement that this or
any film that teams Mae Busch with Ollie is more than worth seeing. As
in Chickens Come Home or Their First Mistake, this is Mae at full
throttle. It takes an actress of great comic skill to be so violently
and absurdly shrewish, berate and humiliate poor Ollie so, and yet not
elicit our hatred. I think it's best that Mae never played the harpy in
anything but a short or a supporting role in a feature. The
hair-trigger version of Mrs. Hardy would be a little tough to take
stretched over 80 minutes (which is why she succeeds wonderfully when
she softens her character in SONS OF THE DESERT, as John B. pointed out
in his review of that film). Though she disappears 30 minutes into THE
BOHEMIAN GIRL, it's nice that in Mae's final appearance with Laurel and
Hardy, she goes out as we know and love her best.
Save for the sequences in the torture
chamber--always a surefire setting for lighthearted fun--that pretty
much exhausts the major comedy moments in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL. The
remainder of the running time is given over to the Gypsies, tramps, and
thieves, as well as enough songs so they could call this film an
"operetta" without seeming like false advertising. The "straight"
scenes in FRA DIAVOLO are performed with a delightful self-awareness of
their own artificiality, whereas similar scenes in BOHEMIAN GIRL are
lethargic, portentous, and needlessly melodramatic. There's no one in
BOHEMIAN GIRL half as fun as Fra Diavolo and his gang, Lord and Lady
Rocburg, the innkeeper, or the deaf woodsman. Instead, it's a film that
loses all sense of joy whenever L&H are offscreen. As for the
music, it's nice to know that "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls (in My
Maidenform Bra)" has at least one admirer. That's the highest praise I
can afford it, I'm afraid.
It's tough not to be overly critical about
what is, after all, a good film. But it's a film more loaded with
problems than any of their good ones. Laurel and Hardy deserve
credit for succeeding in each of their attempts at operetta, but the
formula pretty much exhausted itself with THE BOHEMIAN GIRL. It's
slightly better than a halfburner.