Bonnie Scotland
The Scottish Connection and Film Reviews
BILL CROUCH reports
In the1935 full-length production, Bonnie Scotland, Laurel and Hardy turn their attention to the Scottish military in a parody of the popular Gary Cooper film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. They join (by mistake) the Caledonian Highlanders and much of the film is set in India, with the real Scottish connection the British Army Highland Regiments. (Kilts, bagpipes and tartan.)
The film was made on location in California, USA and made use of the same fictional Scottish village built, at great expense, for The Little Minister, (which will be discussed in a later article.) It had been built to represent rural Scotland in the 1840s and, sadly, still looks like that era in Bonnie Scotland.
A number of Scottish expats working in Hollywood provide the necessary ‘Scottishness’ in their individual supporting roles. These include Jimmy Finlayson, David Torrence, Mary Gordon, Alfred Olaf Hytten, Barlow Borland and David Clyde. Some of these actors played parts in The Little Minister a year earlier.
Bonnie Scotland and the Scottish Connection
There were a number of Scottish expats working in Hollywood by the 1930s and there would have been something of a Scottish community in Hollywood.
The majority would go on to have quite long and successful careers without ever becoming leading actors or stars in their own right.
Although leading roles eluded many Scots, their skills as supporting players should not be overlooked.
In my first article on the subject of Bonnie Scotland I quoted the writer of the article, Robert Watson, as saying there would have been, on the side-lines, a cloud of Scottish accents “as thick as Scotch broth or a Glasgow pea soup fog.” There is indeed a thickness to many a Scottish voice - a thick Scottish burr. Some accents have a nice lilt to them with rolling r’s accentuating some phrases, like, “what’s going on here” sounding more like “what’s going on heerre” with the emphasis on the rolled r's. What makes the Scots accent distinctive is that it is made up of different features.
These Hollywood Scots would have mixed and matched their rich vernacular to create an acceptable blend of language for film makers and that is evidenced in Bonnie Scotland. Four of these Hollywood Scots will feature in future articles.
The treatment of ‘Scottishness’ in the film can only be described as jolly with, for example, the bagpipes inherited by Stan merely a comic prop.
Sadly, the first person (the policeman) they meet in the fictional village has a pretend Scottish accent. Scotland in fact, barely features in the film. Why the name Bonnie Scotland? It is a bit of a misnomer as most of the action takes place in India. Working titles did include Kilts, perhaps based on the 1924 Hal Roach silent Short Kilts starring Stan Laurel (again much prancing about in kilts and tartan). Other working titles were Laurel and Hardy of India and McLaurel and McHardy!
Film Reviews
By the mid-1930s Laurel and Hardy were global stars and proven box office draws. However, initial reviews in American magazines saw them unimpressed by Bonnie Scotland. The film lacked balance and proportion with its romantic but trite sub-plot. This jolted the studio into an editing process to improve it - and one day attracted a very curious spectator!
The PICTUREGOER Weekly, 14 September 1935, reported, “Probably the most interested spectator on the Laurel and Hardy set for Bonnie Scotland recently was Arthur Jefferson. For hours at a time he would sit in rapt attention watching the filming of the picture, occasionally offering a comment in subdued tone to his wife, who accompanied him. It was quite apparent that the spectator, who was in his middle seventies, had more than a casual interest in the proceedings. It was the first time he had seen his son work.”
An extract from Motion Picture News of 31 August 1935 said, “This might have been funny as a two-reeler comedy, but stretched to feature length material it lags. Parts of it are very comical, but instead of permitting the comedians to appear more often, the script calls for a serious story. Whenever they do appear they are certain to make the audience laugh.”
A review in the Scottish Aberdeen Press and Journal December 31, 1935 gives a more Scottish angle.
The Capitol, which opened in 1933, was known as the city’s most luxurious, with a pioneering lighting system, a mezzanine tea lounge and Compton theatre organ.
A snippet from The Laurel & Hardy Digest page 168 said, "A lady died while watching Bonnie Scotland in Aberdeen. She laughed so much that she choked on a piece of popcorn."
The Laurel & Hardy Digest mentions Bonnie Scotland thirteen times!
