Bogus Bandits (Devil's Brother, The) (1933)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1933
Running Time	88:14
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Hal Roach Charley Rogers
Studio Distributor	Astor Pictures Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Dennis King Thelma Todd James Finlayson Lucile Browne Arthur Pierson Henry Armetta Matt McHugh Lane Chandler Nina Quartero Wilfred Lucas James C. Morton
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	$9.95	Music	Daniel-François Auber

    In 1933, Hal Roach decided to cast his biggest stars in a film of the operetta Fra Diavolo. Three years earlier, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had appeared as the comedy relief in another operetta film, The Rogue Song, which was a success. It was not such a success that The Rogue Song is still available for us to view: apart from the Vitaphone soundtrack (recorded on disc instead of directly on film), only one reel of footage from that film exists. So this film is the earliest of the four Laurel and Hardy operetta films that survive.

    When the film was released in the United States, Roach was convinced by his distributors to change the name. In every country bar the USA, the film was released under the operetta title Fra Diavolo. In the USA it was called The Devil's Brother. Years later when it was reissued in the States, it was called Bogus Bandits, hence the title of the current DVD release.

    The story takes place in the early nineteenth century. Fra Diavolo is the scourge of the countryside, not just stealing money and jewels from the rich but also making off with their wives. Stanlio and Ollio are two travellers who are robbed, and in order to survive they decide to become bandits themselves. Ollio pretends to be Fra Diavolo and they attempt a hold-up. Unfortunately, their intended victim turns out to be Fra Diavolo himself (Dennis King). In a rather curious sequence, Diavolo forces Stanlio to hang Ollio (which of course he bungles).

    Meanwhile, Diavolo has his eyes on the riches of Lord Rocburg (James Finlayson) and on his voluptuous young bride Lady Pamela (Thelma Todd), who does not reject his advances. After failing to find half a million francs hidden on the coach on which they are travelling, Diavolo disguises himself as the Marquis de San Marco and checks in to the same inn as Rocburg, with Stanlio and Ollio in tow as his servants. Thereafter follow numerous comic misadventures and musical sequences.

    This is supposed to be one of the better Laurel and Hardy feature films, though it is quite slow to start. It is only in the second half of the film, where the duo are given a chance to do some routines that are only thinly connected to the plot ,that it takes off. Stanlio's "earsy-kneesy-nosey" routine is hilarious, and pretty difficult (try doing this at home). The drunk scene is also vintage L&H. Their frequent foil James Finlayson is good as the jealous Duke, as is Henry Armetta as the innkeeper, and King and Todd have some mildly risqué moments together in this pre-Production Code comedy. Allegedly they were briefly an item off-screen during the making of the film. The music is not particularly inspired but there is much to enjoy in this film. Not the transfer, however.

Video

    The video quality of this transfer is pretty appalling.

    The film is present in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is close to the original 1.37:1.

    Often I read in reviews something along the lines of "as good as you can expect in a 60/70/80 year old film". Well, this one certainly is not. The same day I watched this disc, I also watched a DVD of a 1921 Lon Chaney film. Compared to Bogus Bandits, that film was clear and as sharp as a tack. Bogus Bandits is fuzzy and indistinct. It is often difficult to make out what is happening in medium and long shot, and the poor and murky level of shadow detail does not help. Contrast is poor as well, with faces washed out and lacking in detail.

    I did not notice any film to video artefacts, though it would be difficult to see anything through the shower of film artefacts. Artefacts ranging from dark scratches to nicks and bits of assorted debris, dirt and gunk are present. Reel change marks are visible at 9:50 and 19:09 for example. There are also a number of missing frames, which makes some of the sequences and dialogue choppy.

    The film is presented on a single-layered disc with no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio afforded to the film is of reference quality. That is, if you want a reference for scratchy, hissy audio.

    The sole audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0, though of course this is not stereo and there is no surround encoding present.

    Dialogue is slightly muffled but most of it can be made out without too much difficulty. The audio transfer is very scratchy, with lots of crackling and hissing present. This forms an omnipresent background to the dialogue and music, so that it becomes less noticeable during the course of the film as your ears adjust. There is also a metallic hum present throughout.

    The music is by Daniel-François Auber, taken from his 1812 operetta Fra Diavolo, on which the film is based. Frankly, I did not find this music to be very good, though I suspect that it needs a recording of greater fidelity than this to make an impact. The arrangement of the music for this film is by Leroy Shield, and has been done quite well. Dennis King's singing voice is reasonable but does not come across too well given the murky audio. Also, on at least one occasion missing frames interrupt his singing, as it does with the music during the opening credits.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras are provided.

    The release of Laurel and Hardy's films is a fairly hit and miss affair in the USA. Warners hold the rights to this film but have not released it on DVD. Outside of the US, the situation is different. Universal have previously released Sons of the Desert and Way Out West in excellent transfers in Region 4. There are large sets released or about to be released in Region 2. In Germany, Kinowelt have issued pristine copies of the films on 24 DVDs so far, with two more about to be released. However, while disc 12 is titled Die Teufelsbrüder (The Devil's Brother) it does not include this film. In the UK Universal are releasing a 21 disc box set in May 2004, but it does not include this film either.

    This film is being released as part of a two disc set in the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) in April 2004, mainly using the Kinowelt transfers. The other films in this set called Features Volume 1 are Pardon Us, Pack Up Your Troubles and Sons of the Desert. While it looks as though these releases will be of good quality, if you are interested in owning this film on DVD it might be best to wait until detailed reviews of the Region 2 set are available so that you can make an informed choice. While I can hardly imagine that the Region 2 will be as bad or worse than the Region 4, I will tentatively call this a draw until I have further information.

    An enjoyable film from the great comedy duo, but don't waste your money on this disc.

    Video quality: very poor.

    Audio quality:  See "video quality".

    Extras: none

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall