Years ago as a child, I grew up watching TV and on Saturdays
was sent by Mom to the movies. As a child, if it wasn’t a cowboy movie it had
to be a comedy. It always was a 2-man comic team that entertained little kids.
There were Abbot and Costello, who later on continued into
the 1970s and 80s onto the TV screen. Sharing the cinematic menu was the team
of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, a team that once was then disappeared as an
entity. But there was one team that filled all the categories of comedic
entertainment, and that was Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
I first noticed their existence when I was about 4 or 5
years of age. I don’t recall if it was on the big screen or the little screen,
but their performance immediately impressed me. I called them then: ‘Fat and
Skinny’ because that is how I saw them. Eventually, I learned their names and
life went on. After the early 1950s, I lost touch or they lost touch with their
audience and fans. Seeing them immediately got my attention as I waited to
laugh at their antics. Seeing their movies I learned a great many of their
routines and seeing a bowler hat takes me back immediately as that child I once
was.
In college, I read a book I believe was titled:
Recently I went to the movies and saw the latest ‘MR. LAURAL
AND MR. HARDY’
There are countless other books and articles on the two and
I always read those. They were icons that still stand up today. The famous
mustache and bowler hats with ties and a long chin all lend to their images as
an icon. Usually, those icons were created in the genre of the media, black and
white film.
The movie itself was excellent and there are many powerful
scenes that move you emotionally while teaching you that behind the mask of
happiness lays a sad tear-filled clown.
In the movie: Stan & Ollie the casting was excellent,
the actors; Steven Coogan and Stan and John C. Reilly as Ollie do a masterful
job of conveying a friendship that withstands the test of time, leaving the
viewer feel the emotions of an aging friendship and makes the viewer realize
their own mortality and past friendships. It had me wanting to call my best
friend Phil of over 50 years to tell him I love him.
The film focuses on details of the comedy duo's personal
relationship while relating how they embarked on a grueling tour of the U.K.
and Ireland during 1953 and struggled to get another film made and be back in
the spotlight of comedy.
Often I travel to Burbank and see these tall palm trees that
line the streets all in a row, both sides of the road and it takes me back to
those wonderful films they made on those streets. They are a constant reminder
to me of their wonderful movies. The jokes, slapstick and facial expressions
all give us MR. LAURAL AND MR. HARDY, the body nuances, and music that fill the
background make for the world of MR. LAURAL AND MR. HARDY
.
It’s another fine mess they got me into!
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