Beau Hunks

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

Suffering from a failed love affair, Ollie drags Stan off to join the French Foreign Legion. Once in the desert, their merry mix ups cause much mayhem. The BEAU HUNKS are soon sent to relieve an isolated fort, but arrive just in time to endure a fierce Arab attack...

A bit longer & more elaborate than most of the Boys' short subjects. Stan & Ollie were excellent at this kind of farce; they provide lots of laughs as they try to act like competent Legionaries. As an added treat, Ollie gets to sing 'I Love You' in that wonderfully nostalgic high tenor voice of his.

In 1980 I had the good fortune to be invited to the home of legendary motion picture producer HAL E. ROACH. I was there to show him a few films I made, hoping for some good advice. We talked about many things, including Laurel & Hardy.

I then asked Mr. Roach what his all-time favorite Laurel & Hardy film was. After a thoughtful pause, he replied: "BEAU HUNKS."

In 1939 BEAU HUNKS was remade as FLYING DEUCES (not by Roach) during a temporary lapse in the boys' contracts. The story must have been a favorite of theirs as well.

BEAU HUNKS is an odd length (37 minutes), not too long and not too short. A classic which stands alone as one of Laurel & Hardy's most inspired films. No spoilers in this review, but if you are an L&H fan, seek out Hal Roach's personal favorite and you'll be glad you did!

Although "Beau Geste" had already been made

with Ronald Coleman in 1926, "Beau Hunks" is not just a funny play on words.

Unlike today, being called a hunk was not a compliment. In those days, "Hunk," "Hunky," or "Bohunk" was a pejorative term for an Eastern European --- (It's a conflation of "Bohemian" and "Hungarian.) The general connotation of the term was that of a stupid, not necessarily clean, undesirable immigrant. So to call someone a Bohunk was quite an insult.

It's a pity that the extremely stupid guidelines require ten lines of text, when I could have said everything in five. Are they perhaps taken from the IRS tech-writing standards for tax laws?

Can you even call this a comedy short? The movie is nearly 40 minutes long and it actually features a plot line. Anyway, short or long feature, this movie is a well written and directing one which makes this movie a very enjoyable and comical great movie.

After once again being letdown in love, Oliver Hardy signs up with the Foreign Legion to forget his problems. Of course he drags Stan Laurel along with him. Once joined, they get into the middle of a battle between the Foreign Legion troops and a tribe of Arabs. This plot line doesn't sound unfamiliar for the Laurel & Hardy fans, since this theme is used in a dozen of other Laurel & Hardy pictures. Still "Beau Hunks" is a original movie on its own, mainly because its a well written and directed one.

The movie has some really great and comical dialog. It doesn't rely so much on its slapstick humor but that doesn't mean this movie is any less fun than other Laurel & Hardy comedy shorts.

Also its action and scale is quite nice which helps to make this movie one of the most impressively good looking shorts.

The acting is great. Of course Laurel & Hardy are great as ever and so is the impressing Charles Middleton, who still is best known for playing Emperor Ming in the Flash Gordon movies from the '30's. Also fun was to see Jean Harlow as the woman in the picture, who is a important returning element in the movie. It's nice to see the boys paying homage to the then already famous Jean Harlow, with who they worked together in the silent comedy short "Double Whoopee". Director James W. Horne also plays a small part in the movie. The only Laurel & Hardy movie in which he appears as an actor. The movie is further more filled with a whole bunch of Laurel & Hardy regulars in bit parts such as Baldwin Cooke, Charlie Hall, Jack Hill, among others.

A very well made that also is fun to watch as well. Highly recommendable!

8/10

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Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

Although a vast majority of Laurel and Hardy's previous efforts ranged from above average to very good ('45 Minutes from Hollywood' being the only misfire and mainly worth seeing as a curiosity piece and for historical interest, and even that wasn't a complete mess), 'Two Tars' for me was their first truly classic one with close to flawless execution. Didn't find 'Beau Hunks' quite one of their very best, but it to me was one of their best 1931 efforts and among the better half of their output at this point.

Admittedly, the story is pretty thin and is pretty standard.

Despite that, 'Beau Hunks' is great fun, never less than very amusing and the best moments, such as the ending, being classic hilarity. It is never too silly, there is a wackiness that never loses its energy and the sly wit is here, some of the material may not be new but how it's executed actually doesn't feel too familiar and it doesn't get repetitive. A lot happens yet it doesn't ever feel rushed or over-stuffed. It contains one of the funniest beginnings of their filmography and the ending is a sheer delight.

Laurel and Hardy are on top form here, both are well used, both have material worthy of them and they're equal rather than one being funnier than the other (before Laurel tended to be funnier and more interesting than Hardy, who tended to be underused). Their chemistry feels like a partnership here too, before 'Two Tars' you were yearning for more scenes with them together but in 'Beau Hunks' and on the most part from 'Two Tars' onwards we are far from robbed of that. Their comic timing is impeccable.

'Beau Hunks' looks good visually, is full of energy and the direction gets the best out of the stars, is at ease with the material and doesn't let it get too busy or static. The supporting players are solid, but it's Laurel and Hardy's show all the way.

Concluding, a near-classic. 9/10 Bethany Cox