The Flying Deuces

Infobox Film
name = The Flying Deuces


caption = The Flying Deuces - Movie Poster
director = A. Edward Sutherland
writer = Ralph Spence
Charley Rogers
Fred Schiller
Harry Langdon
starring = Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Jean Parker
Reginald Gardiner
producer =
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures
budget =
released = October 20, 1939
runtime = 69 min
language = English
preceded_by = "Block-Heads"
followed_by = "Saps at Sea"
imdb_id = 0031322

"The Flying Deuces", also known as "Flying Aces", is a comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy. It is set in the French Foreign Legion, as is their 1931 short film "Beau Hunks", but the films' plots have little in common.

Production

"The Flying Deuces" was the first Laurel and Hardy film not to be produced by Hal Roach, although they had played supporting roles in MGM features previously. The film was made and released by RKO Radio Pictures.

The film did well, and the duo decided to leave Hal Roach Studios and move to 20th Century Fox after finishing "Saps at Sea", under the impression that they would gain greater creative control under a new studio. This turned out to be a mistake.

Director A. Edward Sutherland and Stan Laurel did not get on well together. Sutherland said he would rather eat a tarantula than work with Laurel again.

Plot

The boys are in Paris. Ollie proposes to the innkeeper's daughter Georgette, who is actually married to a soldier, François. When she puts him down, Ollie decides to jump into the River Seine. He drags Stan along with him, and they discuss reincarnation.

:Stan: Well now that you're going to go, what would you like to come back as?:Ollie: Well I haven't given it much thought. I like horses. I guess I'd like to come back as a horse.:Stan: Hah!:Ollie: What would you like to be when you come back?:Stan: Oh, I'd rather come back as myself. I always got on swell with me.

The boys are saved from suicide in the nick of time when François recruits them into the French Foreign Legion.

They are sent to a fort in North Africa, where they disrupt drills, and are eventually sent to do laundry work. They accidentally throw wet underwear in the face of an officer and set a mountain of clothes on fire. They find that they are not army material (as one would guess) and they desert, after having sent an offensive letter to their commandant. They are imprisoned and sentenced to execution by firing squad.

:Ollie: Shot at sunrise!:Stan: I hope its cloudy tomorrow!

The boys find a secret tunnel, but it caves in. They manage to escape in a biplane, despite Stan's initial protests ("Good old terra cotta for me any time,") and a hilariously frantic take-off. The plane crashes, and Ollie is killed on impact. His soul waves goodbye to Stan as it floats up towards heaven.

At the very end, Stan, on a walk in the countryside back home, meets the re-incarnated Ollie, a moustachioed horse wearing a bowler hat. Stan hugs his friend, who says "That's another fine mess you've gotten me into!"

Cast

*Stan Laurel
*Oliver Hardy
*Jean Parker as Georgette
*Reginald Gardiner as François
*Charles B. Middleton as a Commandant
*Jean Del Val as a Sergeant
*Clem Wilenchick as a Corporal
*Jimmy Finlayson as a Jailer
*Michael Visaroff as the Innkeeper

Trivia

*Charles B. Middleton plays the same role he played in "Beau Hunks".

*Oliver Hardy sings "Shine On, Harvest Moon" in a musical interlude which closely resembles "Lazy Moon" from "Pardon Us". The song that Stan plays on the wires under his bed is "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise". Most of the audience at the time would have recognized that tune and understood the point that Stan and Ollie were waiting for the sunrise too.

* At the beginning of the film innkeeper's daughter is seen looking at a framed photograph of Ollie. The same photograph can also be seen in the short film "Our Wife" (1931), where sight of it prompts the father of Ollie's fiance to forbid the wedding.

*An unedited version of the film includes an escaped shark (a strange-looking model fin being pulled back and forth) in the river Stan and Ollie are planning on jumping into.

*"The Flying Deuces" was shown in the reality show "Age of Love".

External links

*imdb title|id=0031322|title=The Flying Deuces
* [http://www.archive.org/details/TheFlyingDeuces Download the whole movie for free] from the Internet Archive