The Bohemian Girl (1936)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Memorable, crazy movie

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Thelma Todd's last film before she was murdered.... She is, unfortunately, edited out of this film and I can only think it is because she was painted in a comically ridiculous light. We do see her miming badly to a song at the beginning. I assume the footage that was shot would have been dis-respectful to her memory, which follows that this film is a bit of a joke. Or it was a bad decision to edit her out.Stan and Ollie are part of a band of gypsies and make a living as pick-pockets. Ollies's wife (Mae Busch) is having a relationship with another suitor and runs off with him, leaving Stan and Ollie to look after the young girl that she has previously kidnapped. The young girl is actually the daughter of a wealthy Count and when the group of thieving gypsies return to the scene of the crime 12 years later, the truth is revealed.Mae Busch is excellent in all of her screen time and the scenes where Ollie witnesses her unfaithfulness are very funny, especially as she tells him off instead of the other way round! Laurel & Hardy are always great to watch....and this film is better than their other effort that was released this year - "Our Relations". It contains scenes that are L & H contrived interwoven between pointless operetta singy la-la-la crap. Overall, it's enjoyable - only just.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Basically this film revolves around the world of the gypsies, and a band of them are camped outside the palace walls of Count Arnheim (William P. Carleton). Amongst the gypsies are pickpockets Stan and Ollie, and while they sneak around snatching purses and wallets, Mrs. Hardy (Mae Busch) and her new lover Devilshoof (Antonio Moreno) kidnap the Count's child daughter Arline (Darla Hood), before running off and leaving Ollie with "Uncle" Stan to raise her. Twelve years have passed, and adult Arline (Julie Bishop, or Jacqueline Wells) dreams of being a princess, still with no idea she is one, and she is captured as a gypsy by the Count's guard Captain Finn (James Finlayson). So Ollie and a drunken Stan (from syphoning wine into bottles) go to rescue her, and dropping her medallion is how she finds out her true heritage, and Ollie and Stan who raised her are saved, well, only after Ollie is stretched and Stan is squashed. Also starring Thelma Todd as Gypsy queen's daughter and Zeffie Tilbury as Gypsy queen, it should be mentioned Todd, a regular in Laurel and Hardy died soon after this film was completed. I think what put me off a little in this film was the ridiculous costumes for Laurel and Hardy, and the songs (being some sort of musical) are a little annoying, especially if they're ongoing. Filled with one or two likable slapstick moments and not too bad classic comedy, it isn't great, but it's a black and white film worth looking at. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Okay!

This is Stan's response when Ollie tries to explain the sight of his wife's lover giving her a chuck under the chin."The Bohemian Girl" is classic L&H. Two guys who are clearly out of place(does anyone really buy them as gypsies? Especially when Ollie is wearing the same wig he wore in "March of the Wooden Soldiers").I'm sure everyone by now knows this is the film that was Thelma Todd's last picture, due to her untimely death. That's why the film is so choppy, too many edits.But there are still so many classic scenes with the two boys. Stan's wine scene, when Ollie recovers his "stolen" property, Stan searching under Ollie's pillow, and on and on.James Finlayson and Mae Busch steal the picture. They are both so right for their parts, they're hysterical.I had never seen this film before, but heard plenty about it. For years I have heard my mother-in-law talk about this film that she saw when she was young, and how some of the scenes had stayed with her. She thought that the film was lost, but my wife and I found a copy on Ebay, and gave it to her for this past Christmas. This weekend she loaned us the tape, and I enjoyed it so much I'm sure that many of the scenes will stay with me for a long time as well.

Bohemian Girl won't rank up with the best of the Laurel and Hardy features but it's a fine attempt with a number of wonderful scenes. Only the bland singing and the overly dramatic plot stop this picture from claiming a spot alongside Way Out West and Blockheads as one of the boys finest.The best scenes include a wonderful pickpocketing scene, a crazy wine-drinking sketch and the final image of an overgrown Ollie and a shortened Stan. Some Laurel and Hardy regulars make brief but amusing appearances. Mae Busch is as tyrannical as ever as Oliver's wife. She has the gall to have an affair right in front of her husband and yet Ollie is too much of a gentleman to stop her. James Finlayson has a nice turn as a palace guard adopting that wonderful double take of his to great effect.Bohemian Girl is not the film that you'd show to a first time Laurel and Hardy watcher. It lacks the rhythm of their best pieces. However, for a loyal viewer, it provides a few of the boys finest routines.