Sons of the Desert is a 1933 comedy film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Hal Roach and directed by William A. Seiter.
Stan and Ollie are neighbors and fellow members of the "Sons of the Desert" society. They very much want to go to the society's national convention in Chicago, but Ollie's wife, Lottie, has a previously scheduled vacation in the mountains and categorically refuses to let Ollie go. Stan and Ollie conduct a wacky scheme in which Ollie fakes an illness and convinces his wife that he needs a health cruise to Hawaii. It works, and the boys attend the convention—but they have difficulties on the way home.
Charley Chase, a fellow veteran of Roach-produced short comedies going back to the silent days, has a supporting role as an obnoxious conventioneer.
This film contains examples of:
- Blackmail: When Stan wavers about sticking to the cover story, Ollie threatens to tell Stan's wife, Betty, that he smoked a cigarette at the convention.
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: The eponymous Sons of the Desert. They're a vaguely Shriner or Moose Lodge-type organization with a heavy conglomerated Egyptian and Middle Eastern motif, and all their members get to wear fezzes.
- Catchphrase: As usual, we're treated to Ollie's "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" and "Why don't you do something to help me?"
- Comically Missing the Point: When Ollie upbraids Stan for being whipped.Ollie: Do you have to ask your wife everything?
Stan: Well, if I didn't ask her I wouldn't know what she wanted me to do. - Contrived Coincidence: Charley, the annoying conventioneer that Stan and Ollie meet in Chicago, happens to be Lottie's younger brother.
- Death Glare: Betty Laurel gives a pretty intense one to her husband when she walks in on him talking about her to Ollie, made all the more dangerous by the rifle she happened to be carrying at the time. She also bears this while ruminating on the (as far as she knew at that point) hypothetical possibility of Stanley ever lying to her.
- Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Stan takes a few beats to realize the implications of the newspaper headline about the ship sinking.Stan: Well can you beat that? I'm sure glad we didn't go. If we'd've... (beat; looks at the headline again, starts panicking)
- Diabolus ex Machina: Ollie's scheme would have worked, if the cruise ship hadn't sunk on the way back from Hawaii.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Particularly at the end of the film, between Oliver and his wife Lottie.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Ollie attempts this while arguing with Lottie, but she catches herself just in time.Ollie: I want this understood once and for all! I'm not going to the convention, I'm going to the mountains!
Lottie: That's just what I said! That you're not going to the mountains, that you're going to the— that you're going to the mountains! - Failed a Listen Check: Downplayed. Lottie does notice that her brother's friend, with whom she's speaking on the phone, sounds very much like her husband — especially when, after he realizes who he's talking to, he hastily hangs up with a stammered "Goodbye, Sugar" — but since at that point she's still certain that Ollie and Stan are in Honolulu, she sets aside her suspicions for the moment.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Lottie has a habit of either cracking vases over Ollie's head or chucking them at his head from across the room.
- HA HA HA—No: When Ollie first tells Lottie that he'll be going to the convention the next week, she at first says that she hopes he'll have a nice time there...then laughs with no humor and informs him that he is not in fact going to the convention.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Lottie, Ollie's wife.
- Henpecked Husband: Both Laurel and Hardy.
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: Spoken word for word by Betty while she pampers Stan as reward for his telling the truth.
- Hypocritical Humor: Ollie criticizes Stan for letting his wife boss him around. Then we meet Ollie's wife...
- Literal-Minded: After the boys are trapped on their roof in the middle of a thunderstorm and Stan declares that he's going to go inside and tell Betty everything, Ollie accuses him of being "yellow"* . Stan blinks in confusion for a moment, then remarks, "Must be the lightning."
- Malaproper: Laurel, as usual."Honesty is the best politics.""We floundered in a typhoid."
- At one point, Lottie mangles a phrase:
- Mathematician's Answer: When Stan and Ollie are sneaking out of their attic, they are seen by a police officer, who interrogates them about their places of residence. Ollie refuses to give an answer, so the cop repeats the question to Stan, who replies that he lives "Next door to [Ollie]".
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lottie gives Ollie an off-screen one by throwing every dish in the house at him.Lottie: I'll show you, you son of a desert! Go to a convention, will ya?! Ha!
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Ollie asks Stan to get a doctor to help him fake a medical excuse. Stan calls a veterinarian.Stan: Well, I didn't think his religion would make any difference.
- Off the Table: Implied; Ollie's wife, Lottie, originally wanted him to go to a retreat into the mountains instead of the convention. When Ollie's big lie is uncovered, he sheepishly suggests they take that trip into the mountains. Lottie doesn't verbally answer, but ends up hitting him with many dishes.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Ollie has one when he sees the newspaper headline reporting the sinking of the ship they told their wives they were on.
- Earlier, when Ollie is talking on the phone to Charley's sister and finally realizes that it's Lottie.
- The Prankster: Charley, a particularly obnoxious conventioneer who does stuff like the squirting flower gag and the cigarette-case-loaded-with-spring-snake gag.
- Right Behind Me: Betty walks in on the boys while Stan is giving Oliver "advice" on dealing with his wife:Stan: You know, if my ball-and-chain ever talked to me— if she even dared to raise her— do you know what I'd say?
Ollie: What?
Stan: (turns in his seat putting Betty in his line of sight) I'd say— Hello, honey. I— (Double Take) - Secret Test of Character: The wives see Stan and Ollie in a newsreel, thus realizing that they did not go to Honolulu. They then decide to see if their husbands confess. Eventually Stan does, and is pampered with cigarettes and candy by Betty. Ollie, who sticks to the cover story, takes a beating from Lottie.
- Serious Business: The Sons of the Desert take their oath to attend their annual convention very seriously.Exalted Ruler: This oasis must face the situation with determination. Every man must be accounted for. Every man must do his part. There must be no weaklings in our midst. We must put our very hearts and souls into this great undertaking. There must be no thought of failure.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: From a most unlikely source.Stan: I've certainly got to hand it to you.
Ollie: For what?
Stan: Well, for the meticulous care with which you have executed your finely-formulated machinations in extricating us from this devastating dilemma.
Ollie: (stares into the camera)
Stan: Then, on the other hand...
Ollie: Get in bed. "Meticulous". Hmmph! - Toxic Friend Influence: After discovering the boys' deception, Betty and Lottie get into an argument regarding on whom most of the blame lies, with Betty declaring that it was entirely Ollie's "negative influence" that got Stan involved when he is normally completely honest with her.
- Your Television Hates You: Distraught over the notion that their husbands might have perished at sea, Lottie and Betty go to the cinema to distract themselves while they wait for the rescue ships with the survivors to arrive the next day. This fails, as the first thing that comes up at the feature is a newsreel of the Sons of the Desert convention, causing Lottie to sob with guilt over not having let Oliver attend. After a few seconds, however, they spot two familiar faces in the convention crowd...
