Will Stan & Ollie Renew Interest in Laurel & Hardy?

On Friday night, Dad and I went to City Cinemas Cinemas 123 on 3rd Avenue across the street from Bloomingdale's to see the premier of the Laurel & Hardy biopic Stan & Ollie. 

I had been very much looking forward to seeing this film because I've scarcely seen much Laurel and Hardy over the past three decades. During my childhood in the early 1980's, my siblings and I would regularly see Laurel and Hardy movies on The Matinee Money Movie which aired weekdays after school on WDIO-WIRT, the ABC affiliate in Duluth and Hibbing, Minnesota. Hosted by Ken Chapin, during commercial breaks, viewers would have the opportunity to win money or a gift certificate to the Jade Fountain, a now defunct Chinese restaurant in Duluth. We would also occasionally see Laurel and Hardy on Magic Shadows, a weeknight program on TVOntario hosted by the late Elwy Yost in which he would air a single movie over five nights. 

But after about 1986 when Magic Shadows went off the air and our American TV signals were switched from Duluth to Detroit, I never saw another Laurel and Hardy movie until this past Thanksgiving. Dad and I were flipping the channels and saw Babes in Toyland (a.k.a. March of the Wooden Soldiers) on WPIX. I didn't realize it was a Thanksgiving tradition in New York City.

It reignited the hunger for Laurel and Hardy so the release of Stan & Ollie could not have come at a better time. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly look like Laurel and Hardy have come back to life. Coogan has a strong physical resemblance to Laurel and while Reilly had to be put in heavy makeup, his voice was unmistakably that of Babe. 

However, much of the story is loosely based on their final tour of Europe in 1953 long after their career peak had declined and so had their health, particularly that of Hardy. While the viewer gets a taste of their act it will not be apparent to anyone unfamiliar with Laurel and Hardy why they were considered the greatest comedy duo in film history. It doesn't help that in the film Laurel is presented as the dominant partner and Hardy as his follower. Whereas in their films it is Hardy who bullies Laurel into tears before getting his inevitable comeuppance. 

It is also unhelpful that at the end of the movie this viewer is told their tour of Europe was their last ever appearance when in fact they famously appeared on This Is Your Life hosted by Ralph Edwards in December 1954. Nevertheless the film is warm, humorous and quite touching. The jury is out as to whether it helps renew interest in Laurel and Hardy in a new generation of viewers. If it does then so much the better.