Un par de gitanos

I have never understood the lambasting `Bohemian Girl' has received. It is not the best L&H (I leave that for others to debate, but the lean is towards `Way Out West' or `Sons of the Desert'), but it is far, far from their worst.

The operetta background seemed to work as well for Stan and Ollie as the opera did for the Marxes (`A Night at the Opera'), Mae West (`Goin' to Town'), and the Stooges (`Microphonies'), giving them something different and deliberately starchy to play against.

It is a shame that Thelma Todd died just about the time BG was released. Stan was said to have felt it inappropriate to show her in such a big part with her lurid death – which many claim was a mob-related murder – still heading the headlines. The Hollywood hush-hush surrounding it may have also contributed to its excising…and the sadness was only worsened by its occurrence during the Christmas season and the arrival by mail of presents to various friends (including Stan) after her body had been found. Roach himself (with the bigwigs in his corner) was said to have helped head off the DA's second inquest after Thelma's attorney had protested the suicide verdict…another reason, perhaps, behind her severely edited and retooled role. Who begs for a dark cloud?

But how WELCOME to see Mae Busch back! She always worked especially well with the team and gives that extra boost to Ollie in particular that one always got from a Maggie Dumont, Jan Duggan, or Symona Boniface. Mae could play an absolute bitch, and you still loved her. The added reunion with Jimmy Finlayson was great (`Oh, my GOOD eye!' – an insider's joke that kills me every time), and we have the bonus of Our Gang's Darla as the adopted Arline. Sweet, without being cloying.

One might decry songs such as `The Heart Bow'd Down by Weight of Woe,' but it's an operetta, folks. There's going to be singing.

And with routines like `the eyes are the windows to your soul'; the fingers bit in the bar; the odd wrap-up gag; the wine bottling; Stan's bass/soprano switch; his search for Ollie's money; Darla's bedtime prayer; the butter churn…even something as simple as Ollie claiming to be leaving for a zither lesson and then miming it with his fingers (whereupon Stan suddenly gets it – `Oh!')…it's all great! What more could one want? They couldn't re-film `Sons of the Desert' every year! Give this baby a chance!

None of the latter day Fox-MGM movies can touch it; not even the best of `Jitterbugs.' `The Flying Deuces,' unfortunately so long in public domain that it appears one is watching it through a pillowcase, is pretty good, but this one seems warmer and cinematically superior. I prefer BG to some of its contemporaries, too. I mean, take `Bonnie Scotland,' with several good scenes sandwiched between the lachrymose bits with the whiney lead. Then look at the highly Roach-edited `Swiss Miss,' which butchers a L&H song and makes us sit through Della Lind and Walter Woolf King (who is decent here, but a far cry from the love-to-hate-him Lasparri (sic))…give me a dubbed Thelma and a nice helping of Mae any day.

Why complain and deride it? It's a pleasant evening, with lots of merriment. And it's Stan and Ollie in their prime, even if not in the best of their films. We should be so lucky as to have another BG filming in Hollywood today. Go jump on `The Big Noise' or `Air Raid Wardens,' if you just want to gripe.

But if you want some fun, pop BG into your VCR and prepare to laugh.

THE BOHEMIAN GIRL (1936)

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white)

Two bumbling gypsies (Stan 'n' Ollie) are left holding the baby when Ollie's wife (Mae Busch) steals the infant daughter of a contemptuous nobleman (William P. Carleton).

The last of three L&H vehicles based on popular comic operas (following FRA DIAVOLO and BABES IN TOYLAND). Derived from a work by Michael William Balfe, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL is theatrical in every sense of the word, with its exaggerated performances (by everyone except Stan and Ollie), cramped sets and predictable plot. Some of the songs are lovely (particularly the ode to Ollie's fatherly love, sung at breakfast by Julie Bishop, here billed as 'Jacqueline Wells'), but most are rendered quaint by antiquity. Ollie is just as punctilious and accident-prone as ever, but Stan steals the picture with effortless grace, getting drunk on home-made wine and saving Bishop from Carleton's misguided nobleman. Favorite gag: After being told that Ollie has become a father, Stan shakes his hand and declares, "I hope you grow up to be as good a mother as your father was!". Mae Busch plays Ollie's duplicitous wife, and L&H regular James Finlayson turns up in a bit part as one of Carleton's guards. Though previewed in 1935, the movie underwent extensive re-editing following the death of co-star Thelma Todd, who appears only briefly in the finished version as the gypsy queen's daughter. Directed by James W. Horne and Charles Rogers.

When I watched this again on a Video Treasures VHS tape, I also rewatched the home movies provided and narrated by Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois, as she told of her father and Uncle Babe Hardy's trip to Europe during the early '30s to crowds nearly everywhere as we see some amusing antics they supposedly ad-libbed in front of their fans. We then see color footage of Stan at his home during the '60s admiring his honorary Oscar-which his daughter says he wished he had received with Babe when he was still alive and which he referred to as "Mr. Clean"-and making fun of it by putting glasses in front of it. As for the movie proper, Stan & Ollie are very funny-as always-and Stan especially is hilarious when he accidentally gets drunk trying to bottle some beer! The straight plot involving them as gypsies and their cohorts almost threatens to take over at some points especially when those cohorts start singing but most of it is tolerable, at best. So on that note, The Bohemian Girl is worth a look for L & H fans. P.S. This was Our Gang member Darla Hood's only time she performed with the boys on film. She's mostly held by Oliver Hardy though when she recounted her time with the boys, she had this to say to Leonard Maltin & Richard W. Bann in their book, "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang": "They were so marvelous, Hardy was a bit more serious, and reserved, but Laurel apparently just loved children, and he'd always pick me up, and hold me, play games. I remember one time I wanted to sit and make mud pies, and he sat right down on the ground with me and helped me mold my mud pies!" Thelma Todd had a large role originally but after she tragically died on December 16, 1935-five days after the preview-she was only at the beginning with her dubbed song. As a result, Zeffie Tilbury-who would subsequently appear as an elderly friend of Our Gang in Second Childhood-was added as a gypsy queen, Antonio Moreno would now be paired with Mae Busch-making her characterization a little uneven having to be both romantic to him and still mean to hubby Ollie & his friend Stan, and Felix Knight-Tom-Tom in L & H's Babes in Toyland-sang a song originally meant for Moreno. By that way, that freak ending was funny but it was also a bit abrupt!

Two gentle eccentrics raise THE BOHEMIAN GIRL kidnapped by gypsies, unaware of her noble birth.

In evaluating this film it is important to understand that it is very different from the result first planned by Hal Roach. The mysterious and scandalous death (murder? suicide? accident?) of the leading lady late in 1935 caused extensive reshooting & reediting by the nervous Studio. Although Thelma Todd is still given third place billing, her participation has been slashed down to virtual insignificance. What a waste. This was the lovely & talented Miss Todd's final film, she was a credit to her

profession and she deserved better treatment. This probably also accounts for the abrupt cuts & scene transitions which plague the production.

As a result, Felix Knight's obvious role as romantic lead was also truncated and he is left with but one short appearance, singing a melodic ballad. This is also a shame, as he was a fine young actor and he never received another good chance to become a successful movie star.

The main attractions, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, never falter. They are hilarious even when sitting and doing nothing. Playing puckish pickpockets, they get to involve themselves in a fair amount of physical activity, which gives the viewer another opportunity to marvel at Stan's inventiveness and Ollie's remarkable grace & dexterity. Stan's latest finger trick and his attempt to siphon a barrel of wine into bottles, along with Ollie divesting a foppish nobleman of every last valuable accouterment, stand out, but only as gems among treasures.

Two of the great character actors from the Boys' films of the past appear with them again. Formidable Mae Busch, making her final appearance with Stan & Ollie, plays Hardy's spectacularly unfaithful wife and suspicious little James Finalyson comes in at the end as an officious captain of the guard.

OUR GANG cutie Darla Hood is darling indeed as the purloined infant. She grows up to become pretty Jacqueline Wells (an obvious replacement for Miss Todd). Former matinée idol Antonio Moreno plays Miss Busch's paramour, while elderly English actress Zeffie Tilbury brings life to the small part of the Gypsy Queen.

Irish prodigy Michael William Balfe (1808-1870) composed the 1843 operetta upon which the film is based. Many of the words of the songs, especially when performed by the Gypsy Chorus, are unintelligible. However, it is good to hear the wonderful old solo ballads "When Other Lips" & "I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls" beautifully sung.

In this Laurel and Hardy comedy the boys play the gypsies. The gypsies camp outside the count Arnheim's palace and Oliver's wife kidnaps Arnheim's little girl.Oliver raises the child as his own.The Bohemian Girl is a nice comedy from the boys, not their best but it offers some funny moments for Laurel and Hardy fans, like when Stanley is putting the wine in bottles and many others.