Silent Films:
pre-team 1921-1927
Laurel and Hardy Silents 1927
Laurel and Hardy Silents 1928
Laurel and Hardy Silents 1929
Laurel and Hardy sound films
(alphabetical order):
A-Haunting We Will Go
Air Raid Wardens
Another Fine Mess
Any Old Port!
Atoll K (aka Utopia)
Babes In Toyland
Beau Hunks
Be Big!
Below Zero
Berth Marks
The Big Noise
Block-Heads
Blotto
The Bohemian Girl
Bonnie Scotland
Brats
The Bullfighters
Busy Bodies
Chickens Come Home -
The Chimp
A Chump At Oxford
Come Clean
County Hospital
The Dancing Masters
The Devil's Brother aka Fra Diavolo
Dirty Work
The Fixer Uppers
The Flying Deuces
Fra Diavolo aka The Devil's Brother
Going Bye-Bye!
Great Guns
Helpmates
Hog Wild
The Hoose-Gow
Jitterbugs
Laughing Gravy
The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case
The Live Ghost
Me And My Pal
Men O'War
The Midnight Patrol
The Music Box
Night Owls
Nothing But Trouble
Oliver The Eighth
One Good Turn
Our Relations
Our Wife
Pack Up Your Troubles
Pardon Us
Perfect Day
Saps At Sea
Scram!
Sons of the Desert
Swiss Miss
Their First Mistake
Them Thar Hills
They Go Boom!
Thicker Than Water
Tit For Tat
Towed In A Hole
Twice Two
Unaccustomed As We Are
Utopia (aka Atoll K)
Way Out West
Specials:
Cameos
Cartoons
For Love Or Mummy
Laurel and Hardy Memories
"Stan"
Year: 1999
Written by: Jeffrey Pillars and Joseph Dattorre
Directed by: John R. Cherry and Larry Harmon
Duration: 84m
DVD Availability: (Why would you want to own this on DVD?!!?) Try sendit.com (region 2 only)
Viewpoint:
Whrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
That's the sound of Stan and Ollie spinning in their graves.
I won't bother listing the fundamental flaws of this movie as they're so obvious they go without saying. Small things, like this being "The All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy" despite the stars being dead for over thirty years when it was made. Little things like that.
A bad idea would be to have actors playing buffoons whom just happen to be called Laurel and Hardy. As bad as that is, it might have worked. For a really bad idea, try casting two actors to impersonate the duo. Okay, they might claim to be nephews, but the end result is the same.
Bronson Pinchot can be funny. Okay, forget his wacky foreigner "Cousin Larry" schtick in sitcom Perfect Strangers, and look at him in True Romance (1992). Here though, he stinks. It's probably not all his fault, and, like the director and the support cast - all of who are better than the material - he was probably just desperate for money. There are those who claim Americans find it difficult to master an effective English accent. This cause is not helped here by Pinchot. What is Stan? Welsh? Iranian? Pakistani? Only in Stan's trademark yelp does he come close, though as the yelp is overdone to the point of tedium that's nothing to write home about. Gailard Sartain does slightly better as Ollie, though it's like saying what's worse - stepping in dog dirt or a kick in the knackers?
Remember the originals with their split-second timing, intuitive teamwork and innate loveability? Well that's absent altogether, replaced with two stupid old men and jokes so mistimed you could park a bus through the gaps. Whereas the originals had plots that could be summed up in a couple of panels, this one has some long-winded Mummy hokum (and what a lousy title!) that's mixed in with the boys' fraternity scenario. I can't claim to have seen every single one of Laurel and Hardy's 106 movies, but I think it's a safe bet that even their nadir was leagues ahead of this. [*]
Maybe the major problem is that the originals were sort-of playing themselves, or at least using their own accents. It at least felt natural and unforced, as opposed to the contrived caricatures Pinchot and Sartain are given. And since when did Stan do malapropisms, and so many at that? "I was gonna give you a standing cremation"; "I would like to marinate my friend." Stop it!
Only notable moment is a reference to Bozo the Clown, the cartoon character who shared Larry Harmon's L & H comic. Harmon of course bought the name copyright (how disconcerting to see a ® after Laurel and Hardy) and was co-director and producer of this travesty.
Questions abound. Would Stan and Ollie do fart gags if they were alive today? Would they glass mummies with broken bottles? Have Stan being smacked in the genitals with a spear and end on a big CGI-finale? Let's hope not.
I did laugh once, but I think that was just in disbelief at how terrible it all is. Why was this film made in the first place? Who did the makers think would like it? Possibly the worst movie I've ever seen, an absolute abhorrence I grew sick of watching after just the first five minutes. About as much fun as having your head trapped in a vice while a red-hot poker and stinging nettles are forcibly inserted up your back passage.
* I can now... ish. And yes, even Utopia is better.
Post-script: It's June 2007, six years since I wrote this review of For Love Or Mummy. Maybe I was a little too hard on the film, as watching it again to get images (don't worry, I rented it) it felt less like a cheap cash-in and more like the people attempting to homage the duo. Certainly Gailard Sartain does a far more respectable attempt - albeit still rubbish - at Ollie than I'd given him credit for, and it's really only Pinchot that's abominable. The review's also quite coarse, too, so sorry about that, but I guess it fitted with the film. But what a film... just misconceived from the outset, and with some appalling dubbing problems that I hadn't observed before. Anyway, "enjoy" the new pics, and there's even a new extract from the film in the Clips section...
