Bonnie Scotland (1935)

The beginning of Laurel and Hardy's long line of feature films after they and Hal Roach reluctantly stopped making their wonderful short films (Their final short THICKER THAN WATER was made around the same time as this),"Bonnie Scotland" is an oddly contradictory,desultory work in which they start as the principal characters but seemingly end up as providing comic relief to the frankly dreary and hackneyed plot,particularly in the second half.It all starts off amusingly enough,with Stan and Ollie (stowaway convicts from the US,with only a week to serve of their sentences) visiting a Scottish village to see what inheritance Stan will receive after a relative passes away (he assumes the name Sandy MacLaurel!);it turns out to be merely a set of bagpipes and a snuff box.The material here is very funny and well up to standard,with the undoubted highlight being some business with the snuff box resulting in Ollie sneezing an entire river of all it's watery contents (which even by 21st Century expectations,is technically very adroit),and some almost as equally good sequences involving the reading of the will,their residing in a local guest house,and a ingeniously improvised way of cooking a fish in their room.The depiction of the Scottish village is rather endearing and charming,the set being apparently borrowed from a production the previous year,THE LITTLE MINISTER.After such encouraging preliminaries,the film takes a decided turn for the worst when the story travels to India.The scenes in Scotland had only featured the stolid love story section of the plot (built around William Janney and June Lang) only sporadically;it thankfully concentrated more on Laurel and Hardy.When it reverts to India (itself a rather unnecessary continuance to bring into the film),this unfortunately is brought to more prominence and leads to much dialogue,situations and characters which are unfortunately played in a straight,humourless manner.The tedium is made more resistible by the unappealing,maudlin,milksop-type character that Janney has to play,making it more baffling how Ms Lang would find anything attractive in such a person.Production values also take a nosedive from this point on;after a fairly convincing representation of a Scottish village,India is portrayed somewhat artificially by several unremarkable matte shots and a desert fort that comes across as more Californian than anything else.It is always welcome to see James Finlayson alongside Laurel and Hardy,and he has some amusing moments,as does the all too-briefly seen Daphne Pollard.But they and Stan and Ollie themselves come close to being totally sunk by the stiff,colourless actors surrounding them,not to mention the hopelessly banal storyline.Their scenes here seem to be tagged on merely arbitrarily and having no real relevance to the story,but at least they are still funny;several familiar encounters with Fin;a 'mirage' accordion sequence,and a delightful impromptu dance to the tune '100 Pipers' playing in the background,with similarities to a slightly better hybrid in their classic short THE MUSIC BOX (1932).As it is,"Bonnie Scotland" is mostly enjoyable but often afflicted by it's fractured plotting and script.Their best features (SONS OF THE DESERT,WAY OUT WEST,BLOCKHEADS,OUR RELATIONS) were those that built a story round them and was not hindered by straight or romantic sub-plots or other irrelevancies.Had "Bonnie Scotland" not fallen into this trap,it may have been one of their better full-length vehicles.One can only regret the presence of such dispensable elements which undermined their peerless comic partnership.RATING:7 out of 10.

This Laurel & Hardy movie is not among their best. It has way too much story and subplots present and because of this the boys are not given the full opportunity to show their skills and antics in this movie.There are lot of scene's in which Laurel & Hardy are not even present. There is an unusual amount of dialog and story present which works perhaps only distracting from Laurel & Hardy and their silly slapstick moments. Most people are not waiting for a movie like this. Most people just want to see Laurel & Hardy act silly and get into some troubling and silly situations. The whole story makes perhaps a bit of a pointless impression and the ending is not satisfying enough because it leaves too many loose ends.But before I really am beginning to sound negative, of course the movie is still fun. There are some good jokes present, of which some are also truly quite memorable. It also is always fun to see James Finlayson in a Laurel & Hardy picture. This time he plays the boys their sergeant in the army in Imperial India. He provides the movie with some good and memorable moments.Yet it is the story that is most overly present in the movie. The movie is not really about Laurel & Hardy, not really about slapstick moments but it's more a serious story disguised as a comedy instead. This might slightly disappoint some of the fans, although there still is plenty to enjoy for them and for everyone else of course. The gags still work, despite the 'serious' (serious for Laurel & Hardy standards of course, I mean.) story.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Laurel & Hardy leave for Scotland so that Mr. Stanley MacLaurel can receive his inheritance, what he hopes is money; what he gets is bagpipes and a snuff box. On shrinking Ollie's pants, Stan covers up at the boarding house that Ollie is sick; yet this plan doesn't work (hilarious cooking of the fish) and the boys are kicked out, and wind up joining the Scottish Army in search of pants for Ollie! This movie also has a subplot, whcih does not pertain to the boys at all, it is romantic, and doesn't hog up the spotlight too much. The romantic plot: A clerk is in love with Miss MacLaurel, Stan's cousin or something, and she leaves as a ward for Colonel Gregor McGregor to India; his sister hiding away the clerk (Alan's) letters. Finally, in a desperation of love, Alan joins with Stan & Ollie as they, in the Scottish Army, go to India as well.Once there, we see some hilarious scenes-from Stan marching out of place, to the invisible accordion, and who could ever forget that funny dance routine and Stan's calling of the Sergeant (Finlayson), "Leatherpuss." The romantic subplot, however, is never resolved, and in the end, Stan & Ollie throw bee hives at enemy forces disguised as officer in the Scottish Army. Everyone runs from the bees, including all of the good guys, and the film ends here. True, Stan & Ollie are finished, but the unfinished romantic subplot leaves you wondering: What Happened?All in all, this is an excellent Laurel & Hardy film, one every fan should see. It's not one of their funniest or all-time greatest, but it is an all-round good film, much better than many of the current comedies..

Laurel and Hardy go to Scotland, because Laurel has an inheritance there from his Scottish uncle.In Scotland boys join the Indian army-by accident.Bonnie Scotland is a nice Laurel and Hardy comedy from 1935.It has some very funny parts, like when the boys are making the fish and who could forget the dancing scene with the boys.