Stanlio e Ollio - L'arte di far ridere

The best documentary about Laurel & Hardy ever with a lot of great interviews, filmclips and rare home movies etc.!

I was lucky. As a kid growing up Laurel & Hardy shorts were always being repeated on the BBC. Rival ITV channel used to show the silent shorts as well. I grew up watching Laurel & Hardy. My kids hardly know who they are. The repeats have stopped and these silent era stars are slowly being consigned to history along with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton.

German filmmaker Andreas Baum has made an exhaustive documentary on the duo including interviews with family, fans, friends and showbiz pals. We get to see newly recovered footage as well.

Stan Laurel was a Lancashire lad who along with Charlie Chaplin went to American vaudeville on the same boat and struck it big. Oliver Hardy also decide to strike his luck in the movies but fortune only smiled when Hal Roach paired both of them up. Until then Stan had gone on to writing and directing silent short comedies.

What made the pair stand out was that they made the transition to talkies and still sustained their success. However both had personal trauma as well. Stan was a womaniser who drank to hide away from his unhappy personal life.

Oliver's wife was an alcoholic and of course he had his vices which was food and gambling.

There were things here I knew about the duo but I also learned some new stuff. This was a German made documentary so you will get plenty of German contributors, some footage that have been taken from other sources sometimes makes the presentation look a bit clunky.

This documentary on Laurel and Hardy is a long time in coming. For years, the only programme on Stan and Ollie was the BBC 2 tribute from the series, "Living Famously." That one is OK for beginners. The man behind this documentary is to be congratulated on a job well done. He has put together the definitive tribute. The story of the funniest comedy team in film history has been well presented and the insight offered by those who were interviewed, is invaluable. Everything is covered, from how Laurel and Hardy got their start in showbusiness, their coming to the "Hal Roach" studios, their inital teamings in films and how they prospered as a comedy team. There are generous clips from quite a few of their movies. In spite of what Hal Roach thought, Laurel could create a story for the films, as well as devising all those classic gags. It is interesting how Stan and Ollie had evolved as actors besides comedians, thanks to the advent of the talkies. The comedy was made at a more leisurely pace and character was what Laurel focused on for the sound films. They were easily the best thing that ever happened to Hal Roach. Wisely, he allowed Laurel and Hardy films to be made Laurel's way. No other Hollywood studio would have permitted such creative freedom. No other documentary is necessary after this one. No other film comedy team can match Laurel and Hardy.