Sons of the Desert

Sons of the Desert is a 1933 comedy about two friends who belong to a fraternal lodge called the Sons of the Desert and want to attend its convention in Chicago. Because their wives disapprove, Oliver pretends to be ill and arranges for a doctor to prescribe a sea voyage to Honolulu, with Stan accompanying him. The two men go to the convention instead, and their story collapses when the wives learn what really happened and the deception is exposed.

The film was directed by William A. Seiter, whose earlier work includes The Kentucky Colonel (1920) and who went on to make Love Birds (1934), Room Service (1938) and Hired Wife (1940). Hal Roach produced and shares screenplay credit with Oliver Hardy and Glenn Tryon. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star as Stan and Ollie, with Mae Busch as Mrs. Lottie Hardy, Dorothy Christy as Mrs. Betty Laurel, Charley Chase as Charley and Lucien Littlefield as Dr. Horace Meddick.

At 65 minutes, it is a compact comedy that has held up well, with an IMDb rating of 7.5 from around 10,000 votes and a TMDB rating of 7.1 from 276 votes. A critics' rating of 8.6 from nine reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.