Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

csrothwec Have been a fan of the Boys for decades but had missed this one until a new TV channel specialising in "film history"/Goldie Oldies launched a L&H season and gave me the opportunity to view this one. Never again! Every single one of the "gypsy" scenes could have been omitted with no loss whatsoever (archaic/dated/tiresome drivel now but I cannot really believe that people paying to see this at the local cinema in 1936 would have found these scenes anything other than trite, poorly performed kitsch. The "songs" are only memorable for being worse than the one just before - no memorable melodies, delivered by third rate singers trying to compensate for their lack of singing ability by lots of eye work, hand clasping and upward gazing (probably asking (like me), "How much longer do I have to endure this?") I would love to say that the bits without the dreadful gypsy scenes are then pure gold, but I cannot. There are some quite nasty sides to this picture (child abduction (and therewith, of course, centuries of anti-Romany prejudice/hatred coming through), adultery (and Oliver's hen-pecked husband routine just comes across as simply disturbing/alarming in the way it is played here) plus what seems a little too much enthusiasm for flagellation (including (potentially) of a young woman towards the end!) and the very final scenes of torture being inflicted to raise a (very cheap) laugh at the very end). The portrayal of the Boys as conscious, deliberate thieves/pick pockets also jarred ill with me as one of their key features was always that of innocence/naivety which is retained here overall but cannot be squared with their resolution to set off and deliberately separate people from their belongings (again some anti-Romany feelings creeping in?) Even taking this out, however, and just leaving the Boys on their own and creating havoc, the film STILL has little to offer! Stan's routine of filling wine bottles towards the end is just awful, lacking in timing, innovation and simply flat, I found. Most of the other sketches are fairly flat as well and, overall, I must say that this is probably THE L&H picture which caused me to laugh least of all the ones I have seen (although I believe there are still some stinkers for me to live through in the coming season ("Swiss Miss" from what I have heard?) I believe the Boys were pretty useless when it came to money and were totally ripped off by Hal Roach and others, meaning they did not earn a penny when their films were shown (in black and white) on American TV in the 1950s (where, of course, they were adored and helped to win a whole new generation of fans of their work) and it would seem they were also sometimes pretty useless at choosing which films to appear in as well (and this one should certainly have been left to second-/third-raters from whom one would not expect anything better, like Abbott and Costello or The Three Stooges). Still, I am at least grateful that for every "The Bohemian Girl" there is a "Way out West" and "Sons of the Desert" and that, overall, the gold far outweighs the drivel/dross.

Hitchcoc While we are watching a relatively unknown operetta written by a guy named Balfe, we get to watch some of the funniest stuff Stan and Ollie ever did. I realize they are not on screen as much as we would have liked, but there is a fun plot and they are really interesting characters. They are stereotypical gypsies, stealing stuff from people. They are also victims because Ollie's wife, Mae Busch, takes his money and runs off with some wolfy guy. The boys are left care for a little girl (Darla Hood) who we have seen kidnapped by gypsies (another stereotype) earlier in the film. Anyway, there are so many treats in this, the normal byplay of the two guys, is precious. Stan holds forth with his weird stuff that flabbergasted Oliver. Of course, the scene in the winery where Stan is supposed to fill the bottles will have you on the floor. I still get pains from laughing as I'm watching it. I know that some of the opera is hard for contemporary audiences, but there are a couple of beautiful songs in this one that make it worth listening.

richard-1787 Hollywood could never make this movie today in this way. The Laurel and Hardy scenes, and they are funny, are simply inserted between scene of a very sincere, if corny, production of Balfe's then still popular Bohemian Girl. It never occurs to the director to make fun of this folk opera, which must have taken real restraint, as it is at its best quite corny and could easily have been made fun of. But Roach doesn't. When Eileen sings the big number, "I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls," the focus is on her and nothing ridicules what was then still a popular number in pops concerts.That's what fascinated me about this picture. Yes, as with the Marx Brothers'A Night at the Opera those with no interest in opera or its performance history will see the operatic scenes as just annoying filler. But for those of us who do have an interest in such things, it's very interesting to see that there was a time when Hollywood could present opera, even not very good opera, in a sincere and straightforward fashion, relying on the audience to enjoy those segments for what they were.Yes, this is another example of Laurel and Hardy, and an enjoyable one. But it is also a sort of document of how a certain type of opera was once performed and appreciated, and that is not negligible.

Alex da Silva Thelma Todd's last film before she was murdered.... She is, unfortunately, edited out of this film and I can only think it is because she was painted in a comically ridiculous light. We do see her miming badly to a song at the beginning. I assume the footage that was shot would have been dis-respectful to her memory, which follows that this film is a bit of a joke. Or it was a bad decision to edit her out.Stan and Ollie are part of a band of gypsies and make a living as pick-pockets. Ollies's wife (Mae Busch) is having a relationship with another suitor and runs off with him, leaving Stan and Ollie to look after the young girl that she has previously kidnapped. The young girl is actually the daughter of a wealthy Count and when the group of thieving gypsies return to the scene of the crime 12 years later, the truth is revealed.Mae Busch is excellent in all of her screen time and the scenes where Ollie witnesses her unfaithfulness are very funny, especially as she tells him off instead of the other way round! Laurel & Hardy are always great to watch....and this film is better than their other effort that was released this year - "Our Relations". It contains scenes that are L & H contrived interwoven between pointless operetta singy la-la-la crap. Overall, it's enjoyable - only just.