Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Beau Hunks

(1931)

Laurel and Hardy Two-reeler. The opening credits list 3,897 Arabs, 1,944 Riffians, and 4 Native Swede Guilders. It’s a take-off on Beau Geste, with Ollie going into the French Foreign Legion to forget a failed romance. (Turns out every man in the army is mooning over the same picture he is; it’s Jean Harlow.) At 37 minutes it’s neither a short nor a feature. Apparently they liked it so much they just kept expanding it. There’s a pretty high budget here, before they began making real feature films.