The Bullfighters *** (1945, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Margo Woode, Richard Lane, Carol Andrews, Diosa Costello, Ralph Sanford) – Classic Movie Review 7447

Director Malcolm [Mal] St Clair’s 1945 comedy The Bullfighters teams Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy for their last American film together, in which they star as American private detectives in Mexico City on the trail of an infamous woman criminal, the larcenist named Hattie Blake (Carol Andrews), who is publicly known as ‘Larceny Nell’.

Unfortunately for Stan, he is the exact double of a famous bullfighter called Don Sebastian, who has disappeared, and a promoter named ‘Hot Shot’ Coleman (Richard Lane) talks Stan into replacing the matador in the ring.

Overall it is not as good as their classic shorts and features of a decade or so earlier, or funny enough to fill the 61 minutes very satisfyingly, and Laurel and Hardy do not get the quality character actor support playing they need. But it is still fun and there are still plenty of laughs. On the plus side, Laurel and Hardy are still on good form, there is a decent 20th Century Fox production and there are some good gags and amusing routines in the original screenplay by W Scott Darling, with input from Laurel and a couple of ideas and sequences successfully reworked from other Laurel and Hardy movies.

The Bullfighters also features Margo Woode as Señorita Tangerine, Carol Andrews as Hattie Blake, Diosa Costello as Conchita, Ralph Sanford as sports promoter Richard K Muldoon, Irving Gump as Mr Gump, Hank Worden as Mr McCoy, Max Wagner as Farmer,  Emmett Vogan as Prosecutor, Rafael Storm, Julian Rivero, Cyril Ring as Cafe Customer, Jay Novello as Luis the Maitre d’, Lois Laurel, Steve Darrell, Edward Gargan and Rory Calhoun [then called Frank McCown} in his film debut, as El Brillante, disgusted matador.

Laurel contributed to the script and direction uncredited. The revenge plot is reworked from the 1934 short Going Bye-Bye! and the tit-for-tat egg-breaking sequence from the 1934 MGM all-star film Hollywood Party.

Mexican actress Diosa Costello was spotted and cast on a random visit to the studio. They get her to exaggerate her strong Mexican accent.

Stan and Ollie were to make another film in spring 1945, but 20th Century Fox stopped its B-movie production at the end of 1944 and closed the Laurel and Hardy unit. They declined to return after The Bullfighters was a hit and the studio offered to reopen its B-department for them.

One more Laurel and Hardy film, Atoll K, followed in 1951.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7447

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