So I just saw something about this film, Stan & Ollie, with Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly in it. From the trailers and the comments from critics it looks to be well done if possibly a bit schmaltzy. I’m curious if anyone else has an interest in seeing this. I suspect younger people may not have any idea who the two men were so that could hurt its chances at the box office.
I’m looking forward to seeing this.
Will there be ice cream? 
Two actors I’ve never particularly enjoyed, but the trailer showed them both off well. I knew Coogan was a good mimic, but Reilly seemed to get the accent and cadences down too. Will probably rent it.
I’ve recently been on a tear watching them. I never really saw much of them as a child so I’ve had to rediscover them as an adult. TV stations usually showed Our Gang and Three Stooges. They are laugh out loud funny in ways that surprise me. I’ve always liked the Three Stooges but never really recall laughing much as the violence is so numbing. L&H have similar violent slapstick, but there’s a lovable sweetness you don’t get with the Stooges. I’m very much looking forward to this film. I love biopics, anyway. Even bad ones have their charm.
While I was growing up, Stan and Ollie were always on WCCO 4 late on Saturday night, the last thing before signoff. By the time I graduated from high school, I had seen all of their talkie shorts multiple times.
I think that lovable sweetness is what I most disliked about Laurel and Hardy.
The Stooges may have been rough on each other, but they were fiercely loyal to each other, in a way that appealed to those of us in your more dysfunctional families. Stan and Ollie were always annoyingly slow to me.
But they sure can dance!
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
My sister and her husband have been Sons Of The Desert for 35 years. I’d always liked L&H anyway, but they helped me appreciate just how inspired the two were. Really looking forward to the new movie.
Let’s go to see it and not tell our wives.
Dear! He’s only clowning! ::dodges bowl::
I saw the trailer recently and immediately added it to my list (of movies to see in 2019). I was a big Laurel and Hardy fan as I child. I never liked the Three Stooges, but Laurel and Hardy had a sweetness that was relatable for me.
didn’t they have a falling out where they didn’t directly speak to each other for decades ala abbot and Costello ?
Yeah, but it’s not treacly like, say, Chaplin can sometimes get. They are just more likeable as personalities than the Stooges even while being assholes. This isn’t meant to imply that the Stooges aren’t liked or even that I don’t like them, but they come across more deliberately aggressive. I have a similar dislike of Harpo Marx. I find him too aggressive in his pure ID assholery. I do like the Stooges, but really if you’ve seen one Stooge short, you’ve seen them all. It’s literally the same slaps, punches, eye pokes, and so on just in different settings.
But we all have different taste. I prefer Keaton to Chaplin but like them both. Love Groucho but hate Harpo. I love WC Fields and think Gracie Allen was a genius.
Indeed, it is a matter of taste. But I must disagree that the Stooges were the same thing over and over again. The slaps and eye pokes may have been basically the same, but the stories, jokes, and situations were not. Think of the slaps as a garnish rather than the entree.
I prefer the Stooges to the Marx Brothers, but like them both. I’m surprised you consider Harpo the asshole of the group. I find him the sweetest of the bunch.
I’ve never heard they had a “falling out.” So far as I know, they were good friends until Ollie passed away in 1957. (Stan lived until 1965.)
What they did have was a conscious division of labor. Stan was actually the “brains” of the outfit: he was happy busying himself with the minutiae of production, down to the point of editing each short. Ollie’s main interest was getting the film in the can so he could go out at the end of each day and play golf. He was very athletic and enjoyed the outdoors. Everything I’ve ever heard indicates they had a very harmonious relationship.
Hal Roach kept Stan and Ollie on separate contracts rather than one contract as a team. In the late 30’s Stan got into a contract dispute with Roach. During this period Ollie was cast in a film called Zenobia and teamed with Harry Langdon. It’s possible Roach was trying out a new team or just did it to get San to re-sign, which is what ultimately happened. The trailer for this new film suggests there was some anger on Stan’s part toward Ollie for making that film. But as has already been mentioned, they remained friends until the day Ollie died and certainly didn’t go decades without speaking to each other.
Also, it isn’t accurate to say Abbot and Costello went decades without speaking to each other simply because Costello died two years after they split up. All reports I’ve read of that say it was an amicable split. I have no idea if they stayed in touch or not in the brief period before Lou died.
well according to what ive read at some point Costello made either a comment or joke about abbot being a “drunk” and it got back to bud and even though they worked together they never personally spoke again and used go betweens ……
I think i only just now realized Gilligan and Skipper were doing a Laurel and Hardy thing. And was fully conscious of Skipper breaking the fourth wall often.
Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane and Boss Hogg were supposedly doing a Laurel and Hardy thing as well, albeit a skewed one.