Sons of the Desert (1933)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Sons of the Desert (1933) – W. Seiter

Laurel and Hardy are ridiculous idiots – and, as usual, they are the butt of every joke.  Ollie is the “mastermind” of their plan to dupe their wives to travel to Chicago for a convention of their titular fraternal order.  Stan goes along for the ride but can’t quite grasp the cover story.  He also eats some wax fruit.  One thing inevitably leads to another and their wives find out.  But the fun is all in getting to that point (the Chicago scenes, featuring Charley Chase and some pre-code dancers are surprisingly brief).  Sure, there is slapstick but the laughs derive equally from Laurel’s malapropisms and Hardy’s slow burn.  The wives (Mae Busch & Dorothy Christy) hold their own without becoming caricatures.  What little plot there is allows the gags to be strung together fairly well.  Good for a few chortles.

Design for Living (1933)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Design for Living (1933) – E. Lubitsch

The Lubitsch touch was a certain wink-wink naughtiness put forth in a sublime comic way that kept things elegant rather than crass or raunchy.  Or at least that’s my interpretation.  Here, Gary Cooper and Frederic March are best friends, a painter and a playwright, who fall in love with Miriam Hopkins.  However, she can’t decide which she prefers and instead they decide to live together as a threesome – but no sex allowed.  Of course, this doesn’t quite work out (or does it?).  Edward Everett Horton is the fuddy-duddy foil to the merry three -- although somehow he is less funny than in the Astaire/Rogers films.  In fact, the whole package is somewhat less delicious than other Lubitsch hits (Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, Ninotchka, Heaven Can Wait, To Be or Not To Be) – this may be a result of the screenwriter, Ben Hecht, who excelled in a different kind of comedy (His Girl Friday, Nothing Sacred, Twentieth Century).  Nevertheless, Design for Living crosses many lines in its review of the plausibility of the menage a trois (something the censor would never allow a few years later) and it has a distinct feminist flair with Hopkins definitely in control.  Not quite a revelation but never less than enjoyable.