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The Flying Deuces, also kno...
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The Flying Deuces, also known as Flying Aces, is a 1939 comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy, in which the duo join the French Foreign Legion. It is a partial remake of their 1931 short film Beau Hunks.
The boys are in Paris. Ollie proposes to the innkeeper's daughter Georgette, who is actually married to a soldier, François. When she turns 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 changes their mind and 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 an aircraft, despite Stan's initial protests ("Good old terra cotta firma for me any time,") and a hilariously frantic take-off. The aircraft 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 "Well, here is another nice mess you've gotten me into!"
Principal credited cast members (in order of on-screen credits) and roles:
Actor / Role
Stan Laurel / Stan
Oliver Hardy / Ollie
Jean Parker / Georgette
Reginald Gardiner / François
Charles B. Middleton / the Legion Commandant
Jean Del Val / Sergeant
Crane Whitley as Clem Wilenchick / Corporal
Jimmy Finlayson / Jailer
Michael Visaroff / The Innkeeper
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 by independent producer Boris Morros, and released by RKO Radio Pictures after Roach agreed to 'loan out' his two stars. RKO bought the rights to a French picture, The Two Aces, but the remake was very different.
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. Noted Cinematographers for The Flying Deuces are Elmer Dyer, and Art Lloyd.
At the beginning of the film, the 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.
The Flying Deuces was shown in the reality show Age of Love. 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 film is now in the public domain and good quality prints or transfers for commercial VHS or DVD release have been rare.
The successful production of a film away from Hal Roach Studios may have influenced the pair's decision to leave Roach the following year for a larger studio, 20th Century Fox. Considered a popular but lacklustre remake of Laurel and Hardy's four-reel comedy Beau Hunks, the only memorable scenes revolve around the aerial sequences. Screen veteran Frank Clarke was the stunt pilot who flew the aircraft in the film but the ground-based scenes were strictly RKO sound stage.
In "The Impossible Astronaut", the first episode of series 6 of Doctor Who, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) watch the movie on DVD. Rory sees the The Doctor (Matt Smith) appear in the film running towards the camera wearing his fez and waving, before returning to dance with Stan and Ollie.
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