The Bohemian Girl

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!

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.

I disagree that this is the worst Laurel & Hardy film, but it is not their best either. The plot is simple and tedious with uninspired music, but the moments with Stan & Ollie still sparkle with crisp routines and character relationships. Stan's magic tricks are a real delight and Ollie's conflict with Mae Busch are classic. If you want the worst - check out "Utopia" - that's sadness personified.

Very happy to contradict other reviewers of this movie, but it is a little-known gem. From the scene where they pickpocket the dandy, to the scene where Stan is filching Ollie's money-bag, to the scene where Stan is filling the wine-bottles, through to the final scene after the torture chamber, when they look at each other, it is a wonderful movie (Ollie: "I'm going to take my zither lesson"; Stan: "Oh, I slept like a top, too," followed by Ollie's great mug). The scene when Hardy is claiming "his" items from the dandy is priceless (his "lorgnette"--now how does a gypsy like Ollie know that word?! Vintage Ollie). I always loved the scene when Stan was singing in the two operatic voices. Great music, great cast (Darla Hood, Mae Busch, Finlayson, et al). See it for yourself (VERY hard to find).

In one of Laurel & Hardy's least-seen films Stan not the first time plays the brains of the outfit as he and Hardy cross to the wrong side of the law as a pair of gypsy pickpockets wearing funny hats Bob Hope would have envied in the only film they made with lovely but ill-fated Thelma Todd.