Bonnie Scotland is an interesting title for this Laurel and Hardy feature because, while the story certainly starts in Scotland, it is mostly set in India. That type of confusion also affects the story as it feels like the filmmakers don’t know what to do with nor what works for Laurel and Hardy. Not that’s it’s not enjoyable film as the boys certainly have funny moments throughout, but like other comedy teams, such as the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello, it is as if there was mandate that film comedies of this era had to be saddled with romantic subplots involving less-engaging characters/actors.
Buy Bonnie Scotland from Movie ZyngStan and Ollie come to Scotland for the reading of Stan’s grandfather’s will, thinking they are going to be set for life, but all he gets are bagpipes and a snuff box. While staying at a boarding house, they cause a commotion by cooking a fish in their room, using bed springs and candle. This gets them kicked out with Ollie in his night clothes after Stan inadvertently burnt his pants. They see a flier that says they can get a free suit, of which Ollie is in need. However, they go to wrong address and both end up enlisting in the King’s army and sent to India.
Also sent to India is Stan’s cousin, Lorna (June Lang). She is set to inherit the majority of grandfather’s estate but to do so she must stay with her guardian, Colonel Gregor McGregor (Vernon Steele), until she comes of age at 21. She leaves behind her boyfriend Alan (William Janney), but unbeknownst to her, he also enlists and heads to India to be close to her. The romance, which Gregor’s sister Lady Violet Ormsby (Anne Grey) tries to dissuade from happening, is rather superfluous, and the actors don’t give strong performances. It is much more entertaining and of interest to see Stan and Ollie befuddle the Sergeant Major (frequent foil James Finlayson) and the mayhem they cause as they deal with rebel leader Khan Mir Jutra and his men.
The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Blacks are inky, and whites are accurate, and there are a good variety of grays between them. The image delivers a sharp focus that reveals texture details on costumes and other objects. There’s a pleasing amount of film grain The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. Dialogue is clear. The limited score has good fidelity, although some of the music accompanying the marching sounds a tad compressed. There’s a very noticeable hiss on the track.
The Special Features are:
- Audio commentary by L&H aficionados Richard W.Bann and Leonard Maltin
- Hollywood Party (excerpt) (13 min) – Laurel and Hardy appeared in an all-star revue from MGM in 1934. Most notably, they had a battle with actress Lupe Velez.
- Pick a Star (excerpt) (8 min) – Laurel and Hardy guest star in this Hal Roach production as themselves acting as bandits in the film within the film.
- Trailer
Bonnie Scotland is a pleasant-enough film but it has some lulls, coming across like one of their shorts with a romantic movie added on to make it a feature. The high-definition video looks good while the audio is need of improvement. The extras are entertaining and one is funnier than the main feature.
