Sons of the Desert (1933)

Sons of the Desert
Directed by William A. Seiter
Written by Frank Craven
1933/US
Hal Roach Studios
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Oliver: Do you have to ask your wife everything?
Stan: If I didn’t ask her, I wouldn’t know what she wanted me to do.

Is this the funniest of the Laurel and Hardy features? Quite possibly.

Stan and Ollie are members of a crazy sort of lodge called The Sons of the Desert. The leader of their group makes everyone swear to attend the national convention in Chicago. But Ollie’s wife refuses to let him go in the most vehement way possible. Stan’s wife is more lenient.

So Ollie fakes an illness and gets a doctor (actually a veterinarian) to recommend a sea cruise to Honolulu. His wife is persuaded to let him go without her since she doesn’t like water. The boys, of course, head straight to Chicago. They are in trouble throughout. Most especially when they get home.  With Mae Busch as Hardy’s wife and Dorothy Christy as Laurel’s.

I loved the “two peas in a pot/pod/pod-ah” gag, all the broken crockery, and the “Honolulu Baby” number and reprises. A whole lot of fun.