Virtually every book on the team tends to dismiss Laurel and Hardy's 1940s films for Twentieth Century Fox and MGM studios as inferior, studio-mandated efforts over which the team had little control. Most volumes devote as much space to L&H's final nine films as they do any single film from the Roach era. McGillivray is the first author to undertake research into the making of these films. He finds justifiably praiseworthy moments in otherwise-reviled films and reveals for the first time that Stan (and, surprisingly, Babe) had more input on at least a few of the films than was previously believed (we learn, for instance, that Stan directed a few scenes for THE BULLFIGHTERS). Since the publication of the book, several of these films have undergone critical reappraisal, as McGillivray's analyses have compelled fans to revisit a long-ignored body of the team's work. The '40s were also a decade for which we have little biographical information on Stan and Babe, and McGillivray's book fills in these gaps as well. An important work, but save it until you're well-acquainted with the Roach films. - JL