Review of The Bohemian Girl

I notice that the majority of reviewers have major criticisms of this period Laurel and Hardy feature-length comedy, based on an 1843 opera. Despite cutting out nearly all of Thelma Todd's scenes, due to her untimely and suspicious death, and frequent complaints about the quality and quantity of the musical numbers, I loved it. Incidentally, you may notice that the colorized version is a few minutes shorter than the original B&W. That's because Thelma Todd's rendition of "Heart of a Gypsy" was eliminated. Since this was the only significant remaining scene featuring Thelma, I assume the idea was to expunge her contributions to the film. Or perhaps because this was the only major song added to the original music, perhaps it was eliminated?. Some reviewers don't like music inserted into a comedy, but I like musical comedies, including this one. I don't think I've laughed so many times in L&H feature.........Mae Busch, as Ollie's wife, was right on target as the ultimate scold, as well as a gold digger, thief and blatant adulteress. She was also a kidnapper, , capturing Arline(Darla Hood, of "Our Gang"), the small daughter of Count Arnheim(William Carleton) in retribution for the flogging of her lover, Devilshoof(Antonio Morono), simply for being a gypsy.........There are several reality problems with this abduction. Mae saw her playing by the road, and simply put a shawl over Darla and carried her to her trailer, with no evident resistance by the child, who readily accepted her captor and L&H. The second problem is that, instead of telling Ollie the truth about her, she claimed she was his daughter, with no explanation as to her whereabouts before this. Ollie accepted this obvious lie, not wanting to contradict his wife. Soon thereafter, Mae would steal all of Ollie's gleanings from his pickpocketing, before setting out with her current lover. leaving Ollie and , presumably, Stan to care for Arline.........Ollie and Stan seemed to make their living by telling fortunes and pickpocketing outsiders. The implication was the other gypsies also engaging in the same activities. Stan had a particular strategy where he mesmerized the victim by slowly bringing 2 fingers toward their eyes, as part of his fortune telling technique, then using his other hand to pick their pocket. Ollie was not as skilled at this technique, and more greedy, so that the dandy he was robbing easily detected his activity, and drew a derringer on him, making him return all things stolen, plus his gleanings from a previous robbery. However, a palace guard saw the last part of this exchange, and demanded that the dandy give back everything he had taken from Ollie, who lifted some things he had not previously taken, including the derringer. Very funny!........I won't give away the final scene, which is quite humorous.........One 'problem' with the screenplay is that all the main characters other than Arline are pictured as being flawed in some way. L&H are thieves, Mae is also a thief, as well as a scold and adulteress, and the Count is unjustly cruel toward gypsies. The screenplay gives the false impression that most gypsies survived on fortune telling and thievery. Women did often make their money from telling fortunes, but men, such as L&H, didn't.......... Returning to the music, the keeper song from the opera is "I Dreamed I Dwelled in Marble Halls", lip synched by Julie Bishop, as the adult version of Arline, and dubbed by the beautiful and talented Rosie Lawrence, who played Mary Roberts, in "Way Out West". The other songs derived from the opera are : "Then, You Will Remember Me" and "The Heart Bowed Down". I've mentioned Thelma's "Heart of a Gypsy."