Customer Reviews

The Final Film of Laurel and Hardy: A Study of the Chaotic Making and Marketing of Atoll K

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Historian Norbert Aping does a fine job examining Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's ill-fated "Atoll K" (1951). Despite the hefty price tag, "The Final Film of Laurel and Hardy" shows why the maligned French-Italian production is worth another look - particularly in regard to the now-available German version. If you have only seen the mutilated public-domain dupes of "Utopia" (the 1954 U.S. release), the 87-minute "Dick und Doof erben eine Insel" is quite a surprise in terms of its excellent print quality and the additional subplot with co-star Suzy Delair. Though somewhat marred by Stan and Ollie's declining health (which Aping chronicles in telling detail), the admirably offbeat "Atoll K" remains superior to the team's post-Hal Roach efforts of the 1940s. A must-read for any Laurel and Hardy fan.

When you bring up the subject of Laurel and Hardy's last film to Laurel and Hardy buffs, many may cringe. It was terrible, the boys were sick, it never should have been made etc. Many refuse to even watch the film, so bad is its repuatation. But author Norbert Aping makes the case that Atoll K, while not a great film, is NOT the abomination people believe it is. Aping writes about the film from its conception, the writing, the filming, the editing, and the many versions that were released in different areas of the world. He also details the health problems Laurel and Hardy dealt with during the filming. Aping includes rare photos taken on filming locations, sample pages from the script, and lobby cards and advertising from all over the world. Also included are details of scenes that were cut from the original version of the film, French box office reports, and a filmography of the verious versions of Atoll K. Atoll K is a Laurel and Hardy film that needs another look, and this book is a good start.

This is the kind of "keeper" that fans and historians dream about. What is fascinating is to see rare behind the scenes photos, worldwide promotion, and read detailed analysis of a subject which I surmise many people thought ended with other fine books.
If you feel, as this reviewer does, that Atoll K was their best film since Hal Roach, then you will not know where the time goes as you enjoy this tome.
[Don't like the cover design altogether: "Laurel And Hardy" should be on one line, or covering three lines, as in their short subject opening titles: but, tut-tut-tut...it's not a deterrant!].

An expertly written and researched look into one of the last outings from the legendary duo LAUREL AND HARDY. A compelling and interesting story and analysis of a much maligned project that sheds new light and thus creates a greater appreciation. I love books like this, that can shift your focus and educate your viewpoint. A worthy effort that should be considered a landmark filmbook among the legions of L&H scholars.

"Atoll K" (a.k.a. "Utopia"), Laurel & Hardy's final movie, is an academic experience with all the fun of a final exam. There are a few laughs here and there, but you have to wait and wait for 'em. Richard Bann has called it "their only horror movie," and that really is putting it charitably. So why bother writing (or reading) a whole book about this mess?

Because, like many a downhill road, this one was built on good intentions. Nobody, certainly not the French film makers (who adored the team), set out to make a tedious movie. Like many another nice mess, this one was as interesting in its buildup as it was disastrous in its outcome. Norbert Aping gives a meticulously detailed account of the movie, from its conception to its lively afterlife in an incredible number of variant editions and reissues. The photographs, script excerpts, and publicity material alone are worth the price of the book.

Whether we merely dislike it or despise it, "Atoll K" is part of the Laurel & Hardy canon, and something of a monument, marking the end of a career. This book is an excellent means of coming to grips with an unpleasant but intriguing movie artifact.

I love Laurel and Hardy. I have seen all of their films innumerable times--that is, all except Atoll K (a.k.a. Robinson Crusoeland, a.k.a. Utopia). That particular film is so contrived, so depressing, so poorly made that I have never been able to sit through it, despite repeated attempts over the past 30 years. So why would I gladly pay for and read an entire book on a film I dislike so much? Because, as I said, I love Laurel and Hardy. I appreciate the men and their unstinting professionalism. Their story--their complete story--is important to me, which is why I have read every book written about the team. The Final Film of Laurel and Hardy is the first book covering just one of their works, and it is superb. Norbert Aping (a judge in Germany) has done a masterful job of researching this much-maligned film and presents his findings in a readable manner (he was greatly aided by the Canadian writer and comedy scholar Chris Seguin). Judge Aping has done an estimable job for film documentation in general and Laurel and Hardy in particular. Everyone who is dedicated to Stan and Ollie's legacy should have this chronicle. Even those of us who can't sit through Atoll K.

Atoll K. The film's very name is strange. For many Laurel and Hardy fans, Atoll K holds an odd fascination, a surreal Laurel and Hardy dream where familiar elements drift in and out of bizarre trappings. Withered by serious illness, Stan Laurel looks ghastly in his first film in many years - and last ever. Oliver Hardy is enormous even by Oliver Hardy standards. The multi-lingual supporting cast suffers from poorly synchronized, flatly recorded dubbing, which creates the effect of disembodied voices. The choppy editing sends plotlines askew, including a romantic subplot featuring French singer Suzy Delair. The movie reaches for moments of grandeur and political satire, accompanied by a full symphonic score, then falls back on simple slapstick from a bygone era. The film's public domain copyright status has resulted in a flood of super-cheap, blurry video releases in dollar bins across the country, baffling legions of new viewers every year.

The story behind Atoll K (more commonly known as Utopia in its messy American edit) is as wild and weird as the movie itself. Aping's book is an excellent and comprehensive piece of in-depth research into the scrambled creation and marketing of Laurel and Hardy's final film -- an interesting failure closing out the career of the greatest comedy team of all time.

I am of two minds after reading The Final Film of Laurel & Hardy. On the one hand, the book is a meticulously researched and detailed history of L&H's final theatrical movie. On the other hand, considering how mostly unbearable the book's subject is to watch, the book is rather look using a state-of-the-art telescope to examine an anthill.

Author Norbert Aping obviously wrote this book with the best of intentions, and he probably did so at the right time. For decades, L&H legend maintained that (a) everything that needed to be said about L&H's movies had been said by the late 1970's; and (b), the quality of Laurel & Hardy's movies went straight downhill after they left the Hal Roach Studios and were forced into the "studio system" manner of making movies. But Randy Skretvedt's glorious 1988 L&H bio proved the first theory to be wrong, and a decade later, Scott MacGillivray's revisionist bio put the lie to the second theory. So Aping must have figured that the time was right to revisit Atoll K and show that it wasn't nearly as bad as it's been made out to be.

The trouble is that Atoll K -- or Utopia, as it is more commonly known from public-domain tapes and DVDs -- speaks for itself, often quite bitterly. If you start watching an L&H/Fox film with the knowledge that The Boys were often hampered by the studio system, there are still moments -- indeed, entire scenes -- of the Fox films that you can enjoy. But you can make all the excuses in the world for Atoll K, and yet once you are assaulted with Stan's sickly appearance, Ollie's larger-than-usual obesity, horribly dubbed foreign actors, and subplots that come and go with the wind, the movie practically talks you out of laughing at it for long stretches of time.

Aping is so eager to plead a positive case for the movie, he ends up doing his own schizophrenic dance trying to cover his tracks. At one point, he'll tell you that distributors who were several generations removed from the original film have tampered with it and ruined it with editorial omissions. Then later, he'll say that excisions which were never called for by the movie's original makers have considerably improved the story and tempo of the movie.

Aping also points out that different countries' versions of Atoll K (in America, England, and Europe) are very different from each other, ostensibly concluding that if we could get only one, clearly realized version of the movie, we'd all realize what a masterpiece it could have been. But unlike film buffs who still search the world for a complete print of The Rogue Song or Hats Off, there's never been a documented case of anyone (other than, perhaps, Aping) who has viewed Atoll K and determined that there's a pile of gold buried somewhere beneath this drek.

Also, as detailed as Aping's book is, it still leaves several questions unanswered. One is why Stan Laurel -- who, at the Roach Studios, was famous for throwing aside a script in favor of improvising his comedy -- was so unquestionably attached to the notion that a good script would have made this movie better, when all evidence along the way demonstrated otherwise.

Another anomaly is that Aping is inexplicably pleased about any script development that shows the supporting characters carrying the majority of the plotline and/or the comedy. For a movie that its European producers were eager to plug as Stan and Ollie's return to the big screen, it's very bizarre that nobody connected with the movie was bothered by L&H being removed from the storyline (by mostly inferior and irritating supporting characters) for long scenes at a time.

Aping's obvious research and good intentions are to be commended, and any L&H buff would like very much to believe that the movie Aping describes is the movie as it stands. But considering that the movie inspires more nausea and sorrow than laughs from its viewers, one is very surprised that Aping maintains, in his final line of the book, that "These two comic gentleman had no need to be ashamed of their final film together."

I was always a fan of Laurel and Hardy films. Atoll K (or, Utopia, or Robinson Crusoeland, etc.) was the production with the least amount of attention paid. Most film historians write the film off as "an abortion" (Stans' assessment), or as a sad reminder of the teams' former glory. Well, despite what one thinks of the finished film, information on the making of it, and the marketing, reviews, grosses, and aftermath were often limited at best, or sloughed off with information culled from available sources. Upon seeing this book for sale I jumped at the chance to finally read all about the final Laurel and Hardy film, despite the stiff price.
The results? There's good news and bad news. The good news is that the book is loaded with everything you need to know about the film, the bad news is that it's very dryly reported. I found myself losing interest as the author rattled another of the many synopses of one of the many versions of the film. I didn't feel that I knew Stan or Babe any better but I sure knew what was cut from the Italian version of the film.

So, if you want to read Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Atoll K this book is for you. If you were hoping to read the same story from a more human angle it's pretty tough going.