UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour 2018
Screening Dates
  • June 18, 2018 6:30

“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!” Laurel and Hardy’s fourth feature-length comedy is one of their finest and funniest films. The pair play henpecked husbands who devise an elaborate ruse to deceive their disapproving wives and sneak off to Chicago for the annual convention of their fraternal lodge, the eponymous (and ridiculous) Sons of the Desert. Hilarity and disaster ensue, of course. Celebrated silent comic Charlie Chase co-stars as an obnoxious conventioneer. The movie was a major box-office hit. In 2012, it was named to the U.S. Library of Congress’s registry of culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films.

Preservation funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation.

preceded by

Berth Marks
USA 1929
Lewis R. Foster
19 min. 35mm

In their second-ever talkie, Laurel and Hardy wreak havoc during an overnight train journey. Paulette Godard appears. UCLA’s restoration returns the short to its original, integral 1929 version, unavailable since the film was remixed for (and marred by) a 1936 reissue.

Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute.

Media