The Bullfighters (1945), starring Laurel and Hardy
In The Bullfighters, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are private detectives. They go to Mexico City to apprehend a fugitive. But, they’re soon blackmailed into having Stan impersonate Don Sebastian, a famous bullfighter. Unless grudge-holding Muldoon finds them first!
Cast of characters
Stan Laurel as Stan / Don Sebastian. A dual role, as the inept private detective, and the very capable bullfighter — who’s delayed due to passport issues. So, the inept detective is blackmailed into impersonating him.
Oliver Hardy as Ollie. The other inept detective. Stan’s bossy friend.- Richard Lane (Boston Blackie) as ‘Hot Shot’ Coleman. The promoter who looks to make a fortune from Don Sebastian’s performance as a bullfighter. But when Sebastian’s detained by passport issues, he blackmails Stan into impersonating him.
- Irving Gump as Mr. Gump. Hot Shot’s right hand man.
- Carol Andrews as Hattie Blake, aka. Larceny Nell. She’s the fugitive that Laurel and Hardy have come to apprehend, with extradition papers. Which she takes, and hides in her bosom! Where the boys don’t dare to go … Her egg fight with Laurel and Hardy is absolutely hilarious! Literally, the highlight of the movie.
- Diosa Costello as Conchita. Muldoon’s girlfriend, who suspects that Don Sebastian is actually Stan. But she’s not certain …
- Ralph Sanford (Dance, Girl, Dance) as Richard K. Muldoon. The antagonist, although with good reason. Stan and Ollie both mis-identified him in court, causing him to be wrongly convicted. To twenty years hard labor. The guilty man confessed after he served 5 years of the sentence. He, understandably, holds a grudge. And keeps threatening to skin Stan and Ollie alive if he ever sees them again.
- Jay Novello as Luis – Maitre d’
- Edward Gargan as Vasso – Man Practicing Speech. A minor, but very funny appearance, in the water fight unintentionally caused by Stan.
Funny bits in The Bullfighters
- Struggling to get into a cab while leaving the airport. Which is loaded like a clown car!
At the hotel
- Oliver mistakenly blaming the conventioneer for squirting him with water, and starting a fight. When it’s actually Stan’s fault! When Oliver eventually figures that out, he tries to get revenge on Stan. Which backfires, of course.
- Stan’s reaction to being kissed by a beautiful señorita in the hotel lobby.
- Larceny Nell hiding the extradition papers … and where!
- The “egg war” between Nell and the boys.
At the restaurant
- Stanley, impersonating the bullfighter, falling … backwards this time.
- Stanley taking a big bow at the restaurant … bang!
- Oliver trying to disguise himself as a waiter to evade Muldoon … bang!
- Oliver “escaping” Muldoon by accidentally dropping a telephone booth on him!
At the bull farm
- Throwing hats on the ground.
- Stan and Ollie hiding from the mad bull … at the top of a haystack that it’s charging!
- The wild hay wagon ride isn’t that funny … but the landing in the cactus field is.
At the bullfight
- Senorita Conchita gleefully stabbing Oliver (through a curtain).
- The real bullfighter arriving, and kissing a senoria … and leaving her in a swoon.
- Stan, drunk as a skunk, pushed into the arena by Ollie. Who doesn’t realize that the real bullfighter’s already in the ring.
- Turn the bulls loose!
- Muldoon: Pardon me, senoritas.
Conclusion
- The “skinned alive” bit wasn’t funny. It was telegraphed a mile away.
Editorial review of The Bullfighters courtesy of Amazon.com
Stan and Ollie play a couple of detectives from Peoria, Illinois, who fly to Mexico City to arrest the notorious Larceny Nell (Carol Andrews). Their South-of-the-Border visit coincides with the much-anticipated arrival of famed Spanish bullfighter Don Sebastian-who happens to be the exact double of Stan Laurel! When Don Sebastian’s Mexican debut is delayed by passport problems, press agent Hotshot Coleman (Richard Lane) persuades Stan to take the toreador’s place in the bullring. Stan is understandably reluctant until Hotshot threatens to turn the boys over to his business partner, sports promoter Richard K. Muldoon (Ralph Sanford). It seems that several years earlier, Stan and Ollie wrongly sent Muldoon to prison; upon his release, he vowed to someday catch up with the boys and literally skin them alive.
With this threat hanging over their heads, Laurel & Hardy are forced to acquiesce to Hotshot’s scheme-leading to a chaotic nightclub incident, a hectic misadventure at a bull farm, and a climactic riot at the bull arena when the real Don Sebastian finally shows up.
Though it falls apart in the final reel thanks to an overabundance of mismatched stock footage gleaned from Blood and Sand (1941), The Bullfighters is for the most part a fond throwback to Laurel & Hardy’s glory days: the highlight is an egg-breaking routine revived from 1934’s Hollywood Party.
Songs
- Rock-a-Bye Baby (1886), Music by Effie I. Canning, In the score at a bar scene
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat, In the score during the egg scenes
- (I Wish I Was in) Dixie’s Land (1860), Written by Daniel Decatur Emmett, In the score during the egg scenes
- Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, In the score during the egg scenes
- Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, In the score during the egg scenes
- Bim, Bam, Bum (1935), Written by Johnnie Camacho and Noro Morales, English lyrics by Harold Adamson, Sung by Diosa Costello in the nightclub
- Home on the Range (1904), Music by Daniel E. Kelley, Variations in the score for the cactus scene
- How Dry I Am, In the score for Stan’s drunk scene
Updated December 6, 2021