Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties (1940's) Forward [Hardcover]

Scott MacGillivray (Author), Steve Allen (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 1998

A ground-breaking look at a famed comedy team's films during the war years. Even to dedicated fans, Laurel & Hardy's wartime movies remain relatively unknown, despite their first-run success. Here, painstaking research, coupled with great photographs and movie stills, convincingly demonstrates that these films are worthy of study and appreciation. 80 photos.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

MacGillivray, a film writer and longtime fan of Laurel and Hardy, focuses on the famous duo's later celluloid contributions, painting them as Hollywood casualties. According to MacGillivray, Laurel and Hardy were unwitting victims of the studio era's demise and the desperate attempts by producers to gain artistic control, hedge bets, and cash in on past successes. Occupying the margins of A- and B-picture status, they became incidental, has-been characters in search of a suitable vehicle for their talents. A fair portion of this slim volume routinely recaps film plots, but reactions from contemporaneous exhibitors contrast well with comments from critics, pointing up the contradictions inherent in popular culture. Uneven but still recommended for film collections.?Jayne Plymale, Stamford, CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Highly readable and intricately referenced, a "must read/must have"... Includes marvelous photographs and B&W plates of marquee posters." -- Booksellers (reviewed by G. A. Hazelwood), April 22, 2007

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Vestal Press Ltd (July 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879511355
• ISBN-13: 978-1879511354
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,433,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book and Long Overdue, January 26, 2000

By 

Joe Libby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward (Paperback)

Stan Laurel and Babe Hardy didn't have many good things to say about their Fox and MGM films of the 1940's. So the legend has persisted that these films, with a couple of possibleexceptions, are unspeakable horrors and hardly worth the trouble of taking them out of the film can. Of course, at the big movie "factories," the boys were denied the kind of creative freedom they had enjoyed at the Hal Roach Studios, and their work suffered accordingly. But the time has finally come for a reevaluation of these later films. Scott MacGillivray has done just that in FROM THE FORTIES FORWARD. While Scott doesn't shy away from criticizing the weaknesses, he demonstrates that these films are frequently much better than their reputations would lead you to believe. There is also excellent coverage of Stan and Babe's European tours, the Robert Youngson compilations, the sometimes maze-like process of film reissues, and Laurel and Hardy on television. An essential book for Laurel and Hardy fans, and an excellent companion piece to both THE MAGIC BEHIND THE MOVIES and LAUREL OR HARDY.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Work on Laurel & Hardy After 1940, November 2, 2002

By 

Charles G. Vesce (Wanaque, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward (Paperback)

If you like Laurel & Hardy, you MUST get a copy of Scott MacGillivray's book
"Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward." It is the definitive work on
Laurel & Hardy after 1940. Most L & H books never discuss their later
careers, but this book starts where the others leave off.

I disagree with the reviewer who thought this book was "contradictory" and
that the films were "garbage." I've always found it amusing that everyone
dismisses the team's '40s features as being terrible. Yet
when pressed, everybody will admit to having at least one favorite from the group if
not two, or perhaps three. Mr. MacGillivray tries to be fair in his
reporting, so his comments are balanced, not contradictory. And he's right,
Stan and Ollie's later films are well worth your time. I've watched several
of them recently and enjoyed them more than ever.

The publisher's claim on the back cover says this book demonstrates that the
later works of perhaps the greatest comedy team in history are worthy of
study and consideration. One reader seems to have taken this claim too
literally: does one really need to rely on a book to be convinced? Of course
not. As with the lesser Hitchcocks and sometimes-painful-to-watch
Keaton talkies, ALL of their works are worthy of study and consideration. The real
purpose of the book is to inform and entertain us, and this is precisely
what the author has done.

"From the Forties Forward" also has interesting material on movie

re-releases and Robert Youngson's silent-comedy features. They gave many of
us the chance to see L & H "in the theaters" for the first time (most of us
weren't born or were too young when the original films played in the '30s and
'40s). There is also quite a bit about Laurel & Hardy on TV and video. Especially enjoyable was the section on Laurel & Hardy home movies. It brings back
great memories of seeing Laurel & Hardy on my own movie screen.

The book is jam-packed with new information and fresh material from the
years when so little was written. Mr. MacGillivray has given us such a
wealth of new information, that in the future, historians and buffs will
routinely use the factual information in this book as if it were their own
(as the case with Wm. K. Everson..often quoted, rarely credited). There are also many
rare photos. My personal copy of "From the Forties Forward" is falling apart
from use, so if you're a serious Laurel & Hardy fan, be sure to order two copies!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating work!, September 22, 2001

By 

plsilverman (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties (1940's) Forward (Hardcover)

Most Laurel and Hardy books cover the years 1926 to 1940 in their professional and personal lives in great depth. 1941 to 1965 gets very little attention. Perhaps the writers feel that the readers want information about the "heart" of their careers, but three decades is a long period to ignore.
Ofcourse this book focuses mainly on their 1941 to 1945 film output for 20th Century Fox and MGM. Most L & H fans know that the Boys left relative creative freedom at Hal Roach Studios for the basic assembly-line approach of the big studios, quite unintentionally. The result was a series of movies which used very little of their talent - characterization took a back seat to "situation". Most of the material would have suited *any* team.
What is not understood by many is that great comedy in the feature length form is very difficult to make, and most comedies are not funny throughout. Actually, the team's only real competitor at the time was Abbott and Costello, and most of their footage cannot be considered "classic", either. The Marx Brothers' pictures of the '40s were, like Stan and Ollie's at that time, very disappointing. Interestingly enough, for this reviewer anyway, the *Three Stooges'* one reelers were the funniest and most creative comedies of the era!
Scott M. has taken a strong, objective look at all the L & H's post-1940 and has persuaded us that most of that product was better than what was described in many books. The photos, interviews, and memorabilia are remarkable. I enjoyed reading about their 1950-51 European effort, "Atoll K", which, despite its' less than *nice* messiness, contains the purest Laurel and Hardy since Hal Roach!
A great, great addition to any library of motion picture history.