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Film · MGM · 1933

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Sons of the Desert

50Watch it awake.

The rest-cure lie falls apart, and the wives were never the fools of it.

The review

Stan and Ollie tell their wives they are leaving for a rest cure, then slip off to a convention. Laurel and Hardy, a short-subject pair stretched to a feature. The lie collapses. A house can watch it. I grinned because I knew the fib would fail and still wanted the wives in the room. Nobody is a villain. The wives are not fools. That kept it from being a joke on women, which I would have resented.

The marriages are the trap. The convention is what they wanted instead of home. I have wanted a night off badly enough to know the lie, which is not the same as liking it. The feature needs no meaner plot. Put it on when the house can laugh at a cure that was never real. I would not let anyone leave on a fake excuse. The collapse is the decent part.

Journal

Keep Sons of the Desert in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 50. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Piety and Courage and Republic are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Singin' in the Rain

60 instead of 50

Singin' in the Rain is still a comedy film, and it scores 60 instead of 50. What you gain is industry: Rehearsal, diction, the unglamorous part of a picture.

The eight

2
Industry
The convention is time off, not a job either husband is doing.
8
Household
Two marriages are the trap, and the wives are not the fools.
4
Piety
They do not stop themselves; the collapsed lie is what stops them.
3
Courage
They risk the marriages for a convention, and that risk is not brave.
4
Republic
They owe their wives the night they spend instead at a convention.
5
Temperance
The convention is the want, and the failed lie is what checks it.
8
Truth
They tell a rest-cure lie, and that lie collapses on both of them.
6
Stewardship
What remains is the marriages they tried to sneak out of.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Sons of the Desert · 50IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Prime Video · 1999

Pass it on

10 Things I Hate About You

50Watch it awake.

The bet is the sin. The poem is the repair. Older teens, with the bet named.

The review

Someone is paid to take the difficult sister out so the younger one can be dated. That is a use of a person, and the film knows it before it decides to be charming about it. Kat is not a problem to be solved. She is a girl with a standard, some of it pride and some of it sense. The poem works because it is specific and public and ashamed. A romance that ends on a confession is better than one that ends on a wink.

The Shakespeare underneath is a harsh play. This softens it into a high school, which is a mercy, and keeps the money, which is the part you have to say out loud so a teenager does not learn that being purchased is a meet-cute.

Journal

Keep 10 Things I Hate About You in the record.