User Reviews

Of the three features L&H made based on operettas - The Devil's Brother (Auber's 'Fra Diavolo'), The Bohemian Girl (ibid, Balfe & Bunn), and Babes In Toyland (ibid, Sigmund Romberg) - I feel that this one shows off The Boys' comic abilities the best. James Finlayson, an L&H regular, is in his usual fine form, and Thelma Todd is marvelously coquettish. James C. Morton, who appeared so often as a policeman in so many of the L&H shorts, does a brilliant turn in the tiny part of the woodchopper. Best moment: Stan, ordered to hang Ollie, tightens the noose around his neck prior to hauling him up. "Stop that! You're choking me!" complains Ollie.

Dennis King is a marquis, traveling around the countryside. trying to seduce Thelma Todd. He is also the notorious bandit Fra Diavolo, although that's supposed to be a secret.

Laurel and Hardy offer a lot of comic relief to this Americanized version of the Auber operetta; although the music is used throughout the movie, there's little in the way of actual singing until halfway through. Mostly it's an excuse for Laurel and Hardy to offer a lot of comic relief Stanley provides most of the gags, including his disconcerting nimbleness, while Ollie is his perpetually disconcerted straight man and unconscious accomplice. The singing, what there is of it, is good. Miss Todd is gorgeous, although she doesn't get much to do. With the Boys to while away the time, who cares?

Although it was made in thirties it's a great funny picture from the Fantastic Laurel and Hardy so famous in Brazil, one of best early comedies from the duo, mixing musical and comedy ours friends have to joint with the thieves to try to recover their stolen money, apart them another highlight is the beauty Thelma Todd in a sexy role, sadly years later she was found dead in most mysterious case of murder in Hollywood, unsolved by detectives and even closed and issued as suicide didn't has a proper conclusion for lack of proves, great lost to the cinema!!

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First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

I can't understand how the comments on this film, thus far, can have been less than spectacular. This is probably among the top five of my favorite L&H films...the scene with drunken Stanlio alone is enough to split my sides every time I see it. L&H are such a joy to watch, and this film truly shows how much chemistry they had, and in the end, how much they truly respected and cared for each other--beyond the slapstick! I also loved the triptych of Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and Dennis King. Todd was just so beautiful, graceful, and a true diva of her time. She even captures the tittering laughter that is described as typical of ladies-of-court in the late 1700's. James Finlayson, all pepper and brimstone, is a fantastically funny foil (and an alliterative jewel!) to the cast. And what can I say about Dennis King...it is such a shame that this gentleman did not have much in the way of recorded work. He is most dashing, charming, swashbuckling and handsome as the bandit Diavolo and his pseudonym, San Marco. True, he is the villain, but can we really resist him when he sings to the tavern folk, stealing a kiss from the Countess? This is a jewel of a classic. I will need to find a new VHS cassette of it soon, for mine is nearly worn with use. Better yet--wouldn't it be grand if these classics were released on DVD?

Based on the comic opera Fra Diavolo by French composer Daniel Auber, Bogus Bandits is set in Northern Italy and stars Laurel and Hardy as wandering friends Stanlio and Ollio, who, after being robbed on the road, decide to become bandits themselves. This being Laurel and Hardy, robbing the rich proves much harder than it seems: their first victim gives them a sob story, and they wind up giving HIM money. Their next attempt is even worse: the man they try to rob is Fra Diavolo (Dennis King), a charming but cut-throat criminal, who decides to hang the friends for their impudence. However, they are spared a cruel death when Diavolo finds himself in need of two men to pose as his servants so that he can steal a fortune from aristocrat Lord Rocburg (James Finlayson) and his wife, Lady Pamela (tragic beauty Thelma Todd). Of course, teaming up with such a pair of bumbling fools proves to be a big mistake, and much chaos ensues, with Diavolo's plans going far from smoothly.

This period piece features lots of operatic singing by King, but not so much in the way of big laughs from Laurel and Hardy: their performances are more amusing than hilarious, with fewer elaborate comedic set-pieces than I have come to expect from the guys. The most memorable moments from the pair see Stan Laurel engaging in silly games of coordination and dexterity - Kneesy Earsy Nosey and Finger Wiggle - much to the annoyance of the less dextrous Hardy (and most viewers who give it a try, I suspect). A drunk routine shows promise, but never really delivers the goods (set in a wine cellar, it should have provided barrels of laughter - bad-dum tish!).

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for tasty Thelma Todd, whose neckline is deep, and for lovely Lucile Browne as Zerlina, romantic interest of soldier Lorenzo, whose job is to catch the bandit: she sings a song while stripping to her underwear, which makes the warbling easier to bear.

Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy star in this, the first of their comic operettas. They play wandering travelers forced in a life of crime after their loot is stolen. They end up assisting professional thief Dennis King though they're not above betraying him if it meant a better reward. I'll stop there and just mention one good scene of first Ollie singing before King takes over and just slays him with his warbling. I also loved seeing Stan getting drunk and then the laughing both he and Ollie do. Oh, and James Finlayson is also here and does his usual bumbling around the boys. Another supporting player named Henry Armetta is also a hoot here. Neither the songs nor Thelma Todd are bad either but, of course, it's the two men that are slim and heavyset that we've come to see. So on that note, The Devil's Brother gets a recommendation from me. Oh, and if you watch this on DVD, I also highly recommend the commentary track done by Hal Roach historians Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann.

Whilst being a little dated, this movie still sparkles thanks to the brilliance of Laurel and Hardy ably assisted by an excellent supporting cast including Dennis King and Thelma Todd.

This is a period piece which is high camp and laugh out loud material. Our famous duo are used as "patsies" by a wicked con man masquerading as royalty.

The film once again illustrates that Laurel and Hardy, who are hilarious together in the picture, and are without doubt amongst the funniest artists ever to grace the movie world; the likes of say Adam Sandler and others, whom I consider not in the least amusing, and those of the same ilk, can see for themselves what being funny is all about.

At least: 7/10.

Two hapless misfits find themselves working for Fra Diavolo (THE DEVIL'S BROTHER), the notorious singing bandit of the early 18th century.

Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy are at the top of their form - high praise indeed - in this lavish, but rather obscure, rendition of Daniel-François Auber's popular operetta. Laurel's frightened squeak & Ollie's pout of wounded dignity are on display, as is the easy camaraderie and genuine affection of these two gentle souls. Here they are simply allowed to do what they did best: amuse. One hilarious sequence follows another: Stan attempting to hang Ollie (really!); their slapstick endeavor to capture the bandit; the Boys helpless in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Director Hal Roach understood their comedic style better than anyone, and he lets them make the most of their time before the cameras. Their every moment captured on film is precious; each minute they are missing so that subplots may develop is decried as an intolerable waste.

In the title role, British opera star Dennis King monopolizes much of the screen time. A good deal of his vocalizing is unintelligible, but he plays the charming rogue well. However, it is important to notice that despite his charm, he is one of the most dangerous villains the Boys encounter in any of their films. Beneath the thin veneer of civility, he is little more than a murderous, thieving rapscallion. He has nothing but his handsome face & dulcet tones to separate him from a Karloff or a Lugosi.

Peppery James Finlayson & lovely, tragic Thelma Todd play silly, vain aristocrats who have more jewels than common sense. Both of these wonderful performers were always welcome in roles large or small - his bristling mustache and popping eyes & her classic beauty so often the focal point of great humor. But here they have very little contact with the Boys and so much of their comedic talent is rather dissipated in mildly adulterous scenes with the Bandit Chief. Pity...

There is a subplot involving the Innkeeper's daughter and her forbidden love of a young military officer, but fortunately it is not allowed to intrude too much. Henry Armetta as the Innkeeper, however, is given some very funny moments as he tries without success to duplicate Stan's intricate hand games.

I generally dislike movie musicals, but I love Laurel and Hardy, so I ignore all the silly songs and music and focus on the comedy, which is substantial and of high quality. If you dislike musicals, you might want to remove a star or two, but Laurel and Hardy will make it worth your while.

As someone else mentioned, when Laurel & Hardy ventured into feature length films, they often adapted operettas. This is the best of the lot, although "The Bohemian Girl" runs a close second. This is L&H at the top of their form. I've seen every L&H film still extant, and this definitely ranks in the top five.

The plot stays fairly close to the operetta in most major details, but adds genius bits of comic business for Stan & Ollie. The catchiest tune in the original, the "Romanze" (or Diablo's theme) is retained and used as a center piece for some of the funniest bits in the show.

For those who can appreciate Stan Laurel's sublime comedic genius (he was the brains and creative force of the duo), I can't recommend this highly enough.

Laurel & Hardy could very easily have slid into musical comedies, as could the Marx Brothers. Hardy had a tenor voice, put to good use in WAY OUT WEST, and Stan (while he was not as good a singer) could talk sing quite nicely (and was prepared to do comic singing - his change of voice in singing "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia" in WAY OUT WEST is an example). As a result a musical number will frequently pop up in their movies. In SONS OF THE DESERT it's the HONALULU, BABY! number. In SWISS MISS there were several (even a ditty, supposedly composed by Walter Woolf King, entitled "Crick, crick, crick goes the cricket"). Even in their earliest features numbers appear (in PARDON US we hear "MICHIGAN"). So it was not unexpected that Hal Roach and Stan Laurel would do full scale musicals. They turned to operettas (or spoofs of operas like FRA DIAVOLO) because the costumes and settings gave opportunities for Stan to come up with new pieces of business for himself and Babe Hardy.

The actual opera by Auber is more dramatic than this comedy. Fra Diavola dies at the end (he is, after all, a villain). But here there is a light hearted element that overcomes the original. Stan and Ollie (or Stanlio and Ollio) are robbed by brigands on the road and decide to turn brigand themselves. Naturally, Ollie decides that he will protect them from discovery by claiming to be the infamous Fra Diavalo. Their initial attempt at theft is hardly successful. They confront a man with a hard luck story, and end up giving him money. Then they seem to be more successful confronting a younger man, until Ollie brags that he is Fra Diavolo. The younger man demands proof. Diavolo always sings a theme song, and everyone knows his voice. Ollie starts singing the tune, and the man (you've guessed it - it's Dennis King) continues singing it. They almost get hanged for that, but King decides to use them as minions in a plot to rob an English mi-lord and his wife (James Finlayson and Thelma Todd*).

(*Finlayson's name, as a joke, is Lord Rocburg. In reality, the character in the opera was Lord Cockburn.)

The bulk of the film deals with King and the boys in the inn run by Henry Armetta, where Finlayson and Todd are residing on their trip. King is romancing the frivolous and bored Todd, and hoping to get her jewelry. Finlayson is suspicious of her activities, but is not swift enough to catch King in action (at one point, he is mistaken for King by Ollie and Stan, who lock him up after beating him, and start telling him off - they think of course he's King, who listens to them annoyed but amused).

The music is actually not overdone, and King (who had a fine trained voice) gets several opportunities to sing. He was not the first major Broadway star to work with the boys (Lawrence Tibbett had in ROGUE SONG) nor the last headliner to do so (Dante the Magician would in A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO). But he seems to work quite nicely with them, sharing screen time, and even showing elements of comic timing and reactions. In one song number, he even shudders and turns away from an ugly woman while addressing a romantic passage in the tune.

For an early example of their use of operetta, THE DEVIL'S BROTHER is (as Stan Laurel said) one of their best films. Of course, to most people, it will always be recalled as the film where Stan drives both Ollie and Henry Armetta to distraction with his "finger wiggle" and his "earsie - eyesie - nosie" games that he can handle with ease but the other two can't quite coordinate. It is fun to watch here, and would later be subject to a rare repeat comment: in BABES IN TOYLAND, when Ollie insists that anything Stan can do Ollie can, Stan smiles and shakes his head. He then does "earsie - eyesie - nosie", much to Ollie's annoyance.

Laurel and Hardy play two hapless would-be bandits who team up as servants of the notorious Fra Diavlo (Dennis King), whose career is schmoozing with the upper class with intentions to rob them blind. But the kindly Stan and Ollie decide to foil his plans and try to capture him and perhaps reap a handsome reward. When the comedy duo are on screen, they deliver amusement and don't disappoint their fans. But how much one will enjoy this musical/comedy depends on their tolerance for Operettas of this time. In my case, they make me want to stab myself with a kitchen knife, and I have never liked when Laurel and Hardy's comical antics are put on hold so we can suffer through more singing, courtesy of Mr. King as he tries to woo Thelma Todd. When Stan and Ollie themselves are not center stage, the film becomes a burden, with cringe-inducing crooning so awful that it makes the songs in Abbott and Costello's 1940s films sound like catchy Rock 'N Roll. **1/2 out of ****

This is an incredibly uninvolving Laurel and Hardy vehicle, as it is so chock full of opera-style singing that the comedy, at best, takes a secondary position. I have never really understood why this funny duo was periodically subjected to musical crap like this as well as THE ROGUE SONG or BABES IN TOYLAND. Think about it...Laurel and Hardy were the funniest and best known comedy team of the era and yet instead of leaving them to what they knew best, they stuck them in movies that alienated most of their fans. Plus, while I hate opera-style movies from the 30s, the fans of the genre must have also felt frustrated in having comedy interjected into it. The closest melding of these styles that actually worked were the cute films starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald.

This film stars Dennis King as The Devil's Brother--a kissing bandit in 18th century Italy. Throughout most of the film, he croons to ravishing Thelma Todd in order to trick her out of her husband's fortune. There to assist him in his schemes are Stan and Ollie who just seem out of place and tacked on to the film. In addition, Stan and Ollie's routines are among the poorest I've seen. One involved Stan accidentally drinking a sleeping potion and another later involved Stan getting drunk and laughing. Both scenes went on way too long and milked a rather unfunny bit for all it was worth.

My advice is only watch this after you've seen the rest of Laurel and Hardy's work. The only exceptions I can think of are their films of the 40s and 50s--these films made at the very end of their careers, if it was possible, are even worse than this musical fiasco.

UPDATE: 9/2010--The Wheeler & Woolsey film "Cockeyed Cavaliers" was a costume comedy set during the same time period AND also featuring Thelma Todd. Now you might think I am crazy for saying this (especially since Stan & Ollie were great and Wheeler & Woolsey were usually pretty lame), but the Wheeler & Woolsey film is better, as the singing is not an important part of the film and what singing there is isn't operetta-style. Plus, the emphasis is first and foremost on the comedy team--which, sadly, is not true with "The Devil's Brother".

Two of the funniest scenes in a movie. One where Laurel keeps drinking all the wine he's supposed to be putting in a vat. Soon he's sloshed and starts making a smack noise with his mouth, that gets funnier every time he does it. Soon after, they're both sitting at a table in a restaurant and Laurel can't stop laughing. Ollie tries to make him stop but he is quickly consumed by laughter as well and they are ramping up the laughter with every past moment they reminisce. You can't help yourself from laughing and I was laughing hard.

Everything else about this movie is damn good too. The support acting is ahead of it's time and the music is well placed, novel and catchy. And the main female lead is very easy to look at. Check it out, won't we?

This is yet another long Laurel & Hardy movie which uses a classic and well known story as the basis for the movie. This time its the libretto; Fra Diavolo, set in the early 18th century Italy.

Problem with these sort of Laurel & Hardy pictures always is that the story distracts from their antics. It causes the movie to be a bit too often too serious and leaves too little room for Laurel & Hardy's great comical talent and timing. Most of the time the different characters in this movie fulfill the roles of the main characters and Laurel & Hardy turn in into merely comical sidekicks who provide the comical relief.

But it definitely is true that this movie is a well made one. It's directed by Hal Roach himself and has some fine looking sets and costumes. It distinct this movie from most other Laurel & Hardy pictures from the same period. It provides the movie with some good looking sequences. The story is nicely told although but at certain points it starts to drag a little. Nevertheless the movie remains for most part a perfectly entertaining one to watch.

There still also are plenty of enough comical great sequences by the two boys, who provide the movie with some memorable and enjoyable moments throughout the movie. The movie further more features Laurel & Hardy regulars Thelma Todd and James Finlayson, in big roles, who also add to the entertainment value and comical level of this movie.

This definitely isn't the most pleasant or must fun Laurel & Hardy movie around to watch but this movie still offers plenty of enough reasons why this movie still is a perfectly good and entertaining one to watch.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is one of the greatest comedic couple ever.In this movie they get to be the retainers of a singing bandit called Fra Diavolo(Dennis King).Of course, everything goes wrong, when Stanlio and Ollio are trying to do their job.The Devil's Brother is a great musical comedy.The movie contains some very funny moments, that just make you laugh.From the couple Laurel is the more childish one, who cries in these movies many times. Hardy is trying to be more adult, who is barely standing his friend.There isn't one problem, these two fellas can't manage with their own stupidness.

With those words to live by, Oliver Hardy convinces Stan Laurel that this might be just the profession for them in 18th century France. Unfortunately the second guy they decide to rob is the famous bandit, Fra Diavolo, the Devil's Brother played by Broadway star Dennis King in his second feature film role. And to top it all off, these two decide to impersonate Fra Diavolo while doing the robbery.

King is justifiably angry about this and orders Stan to hang Ollie who he sizes up rather quickly as the brains of the outfit. But when Stan bungles the job in a most amusing manner, King decides these guys are worth having around for laughs.

King's on quest, to rob nobleman James Finlayson of a fortune in jewels and then to woo the lovely Thelma Todd. At that point the action of the film and for that matter the operetta it's based on takes place in an inn where all the principals are staying. These also include Arthur Pierson as the earnest, but rather dull young French officer who wants to capture the notorious Fra Diavolo and Lucille Browne, the barmaid who loves the lug.

Stan and Ollie give King cause to regret his choice of confederates on this job before the film is over. Let's just say the rotund Mr. Hardy is not built for swashbuckling and my favorite moment is seeing Ollie swinging from the balcony like the man on the flying trapeze. Best moment for Stan is him getting drunk in the wine cellar. There's a whole lot more.

The Devil's Brother was their second film where they have supporting roles in a classic operetta. The first was The Rogue Song where they support Lawrence Tibbett which has unfortunately been lost. Dennis King who primarily concentrated on the stage in his career delivers a far better screen performance in this than he did when he repeated his Broadway role of Francois Villon in The Vagabond King. Dennis King had a strong voice, it's a pity he did not do more musical films.

In the end their escape has to be seen to be believed. Let's just say that one of Stan's earlier gags came back to haunt the forces of law and order.

The Devil's Brother is Stan and Ollie at their finest with Hal Roach, don't miss it if you are fan of their's.

I confess that I am hardly an afficionado of Laurel and Hardy, having seen very little of their work, but from what little I had seen of them, I somehow expected this movie to be funnier than it was. Instead, it was a reasonably well thought out story about a thief in 18th century Italy who is trying to steal the money of a wealthy count, and who enlists the help of Stan and Ollie, much to his chagrin in the end.

There's not as much of the slapstick as I would have expected in a Laurel and Hardy movie, which to me was a disappointment. It's what I would want to see when I watch "the boys." There are some mildly amusing moments (Stan's games of "kneesy, earsy, nosey" and "fingers wiggling" come to mind - and they're very difficult to do!) and Stan puts on a good acting job when it comes to being drunk, but somehow it just didn't work for me. It isn't bad. It has some good supporting performances from Dennis King as Diavolo and Thelma Todd as lady Pamela. It's a pleasant diversion and it will give you a few chuckles. It just isn't what I had hoped it might be.

4/10

Slapstick and opera go well together, as already the Marx Brothers proved, and here's another fine example. This entertaining version of the 19th century French opera contains some of the best scenes of Laurel&Hardy, such as the couples' hopeless attempt in robbery, the hanging fiasco, Stanilo's maddening finger and hand acrobatics and the drunk scene in the cellar. An absolute must for Laurel and Hardy fans! Especially as it also shows the superiority of Laurel's comedy over his partner's. Never mind that the scenery is as Californian as are the characters in the supporting roles. But after all - opera is all about illusion...

"The Devil's brother" is not an accurate translation of "Fra Diavolo." "Fra" in this sense was for "frater" not "fratello". Frater, of course, being a title for a religious who was not a priest. It was a common practice to address such a person as "Fra Giovanni" (brother John). Because of the bloodthirstiness of the actual person, Azzolino da Romano,(who was mentioned in Dante's "Inferno"- XII), he was nicknamed "Brother Devil"; in particular for his massacre of the citizens of Padua.

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. 'Fra Diavolo' for me is up there with their best and certainly among their funniest, 'The Music Box', 'Towed in a Hole' and 'Helpmates' are a few other examples of this and also love 'Babes in Toyland' (although somewhat different for them).

Can't really find anything wrong with it personally, was past caring this time as to whether the story was flimsy, predictable or somewhat silly, because it showcases the duo's talents really well while letting the rest of the cast shine too. It also has a lot of energy throughout, on top of being riotously funny in its best moments. Of their operetta efforts, along with 'Babes in Toyland', 'Fra Diavolo' is one of their best and actually one of my personal favourites of theirs.

From start to finish 'Fra Diavolo' is great fun, never less than very amusing and the best moments, too numerous to list (though the hanging fiasco, the hand acrobatics and the drunk scene), are hilarious. It is silly but not to an overly-contrived point, there is a wackiness that never loses its energy and the sly wit is here, some of the material may not be new as such but how it's executed actually doesn't feel too familiar and it doesn't get repetitive.

The slapstick goes with the music remarkably well, despite the worries of them not gelling with each other. A lot happens yet it doesn't ever feel rushed or over-stuffed. Despite the viewer being in no doubt how things were going to end, the ending still charms and delight and the music is infectiously tuneful with not a misfire in the score, non-operetta fans may not find it to their taste but those who are (like me) will get a kick out of it.

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 here and on the most part from 'Two Tars' onwards we are far from robbed of that. Their comic timing is impeccable, especially Laurel's. James Finlayson and Thelma Todd are also terrific.

'Fra Diavolo' 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.

Overall, love it. 10/10 Bethany Cox

"Fra Diavolo" was written by Eugene Scribe (1791-1861) who dominated the French theater for 40 years with his rather ephemeral plays. On this basis, Daniel-Francois Auber wrote a libretto, called (my translation) "Fra Diavolo or the Inn at Terracina" (premiere 1830 in Paris). The roles of Stanlio and Ollio are originally those of the two monks "Giacomo" and "Beppo". In the film version by Hal Roach, Stanlio and Ollio are poor laborers who have now enough money together to enjoy the rest of their lives. Just in the moment when Ollio thinks that the money is not safe enough with Stanlio and asks him to hand it over to him, the two are robbed by bandits. Stanley then comes to the genial idea that, starting again from the bottom, they could start from the top since this is the "logic of conversation". "Fra Diavolo" (1933), which contains practically no stereotypes known from the other movies of "The Boys" and therefore motivates all slap-sticks and comical parts solely by causality, is a true highlight and at least from the standpoint of quality (perhaps a bit less from that of entertainment) most probably the best Laurel and Hardy movie. It was banned in Europe until 1957 - the reasons are unclear to me although I spent quite some time on research. (They are the first European broadcast of "Fra Diavolo", in Germany is interestingly the year in which Mr. Hardy died.) Moreover, different versions of "Fra Diavolo" have been broadcast under different titles - very similar as in "Babes in Toyland" (which movie also shared the same fate as "Fra Diavolo" and is also one of the rare high-quality movies with Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy). As far as I see, there is no DVD version available in the U.S. My own copy - which goes under the strange title "Bandits in Panic" - comes from Holland and is part of a rich collection of Laurel and Hardy movies most of them are even hard to get on VHS in the US. I wonder why nobody seems to be capable of editing classic films as the classic writers'work are edited since centuries: chronologically with commentaries, annotations and bibliographies. Why does Criterion not take over the whole work of Laurel and Hardy and edits it, lets say, in 20-30 discs containing also interviews, radio documentations, old stills, etc. which may give to the present audience an idea about the public appeal of these movie in their times.

A period musical comedy starring Laurel and Hardy that it seems to me would have been better off without Laurel and Hardy. Thelma Todd is comely as the aristocrat's wife with the treasure hidden in her petticoat, and Dennis King is suave and in fine voice as the robber who disguises himself as a marquis to get near his targets ala Zorro. I enjoyed watching their flirtation, and the maid and her lover (Lucile Browne and Arthur Pierson) aren't bad either. However, I don't think I laughed once at the star comedy duo. Between Laurel mixing his words around, Hardy's exasperation, and their silly pratfalls, it just didn't do anything for me. That kneesy earsy nosey thing was pretty neat though.

Comedic legends that they are, one recognizes in the works of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy a style well recalling their equally esteemed contemporaries: a steady slew of gags, physical comedy, situational humor, and witty dialogue, with variable levels of story to tie the pieces together. This feature surely counts among those titles that lean more heavily on plot as a foundation, not just toying with a period setting but adapting an opera in the duo's own way, including bursts of music. This feature also exemplifies what we've seen elsewhere of Laurel and Hardy, that their brand of comedy often represents a lighter, gentler strain - ensuring solid amusement and smiles, certainly, if sometimes fewer hearty laughs. That holds true in this case in light of relaxed pacing and comedic timing, through any stunts and effects and more abjectly silly parts like "Kneesy-Earsy-Nosey." Even at that, however, the end result is consistently enjoyable, and 'The devil's brother,' also known as 'Fra Diavolo' or 'Bogus bandits,' once again cements the pair's reputation.

Given that period setting in the 1700s, those behind the scenes had the chance to let their imaginations run wild. Even more than with some of Laurel and Hardy's other films the sets and costume design are utterly gorgeous, and flush with detail. Hal Roach and Charles Rogers are as reliable as ever in their direction, bringing smart focus to every moment whether the tenor is simply giddily playful or geared toward one of the many delightful stunts. Admittedly, their task is made easier with a cast this fantastic. The iconic duo is the chief attraction, certainly, and I think Laurel somewhat steals the show from Hardy in this instance. Their co-stars deliver performances with just as much terrific personality and energy, though, and while some are definitely more prominent than others, the likes of Dennis King, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, Lucile Browne, and Arthur Pierson are just as essential to the overall success of the picture.

Throughout these ninety minutes there are some points that are stronger than others; the entertainment varies just enough in strength that I sometimes waver in my favor. When all is said and done, however, I don't think there's much disputing that this is a splendid good time, albeit perhaps more of an appetizer than an entree. In any event, with rare exception there's just no going wrong with Laurel and Hardy, and from one movie to the next one is assured of having fun in one measure or another. I personally have my own favorites, but 'The devil's brother' is itself a minor joy that continues to hold up. If you have the opportunity to watch, this is worth checking out and earns a firm recommendation!