Sons of the Desert is one of the best of the feature-length motion pictures starring the comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The film was released in 1933 and ranks with Way Out West (1937) and Blockheads (1938) as the finest of Laurel and Hardy’s 27 feature films.
In Sons of the Desert, Stan and Ollie play members of the Sons of the Desert lodge. They want to go to the lodge’s national convention in Chicago, without their wives. They convince their wives that the men must go on a cruise for Ollie’s health, but the two actually attend the Chicago convention. The wives discover their husbands’ plot when they see the men in a newsreel of the convention parade. Stan finally confesses to his wife, while Ollie faces his wife’s anger.
Sons of the Desert has more elaborate sets and a larger cast than the typical Laurel and Hardy film. It is also one of their best-written movies, with the humor coming more from character and situations in the story than from slapstick gags. Mae Busch and Dorothy Christie play the wives. The famous silent film comedian Charlie Chase appears as a practical joker at the Chicago convention.
See also Laurel and Hardy .
