Intro to Later Films

IntroductionWith Commentary

In 1940, after filming SAPS AT SEA, Laurel and Hardy walked away from the Hal Roach Studios. Of their last few films, BLOCK-HEADS was a genuine classic, but A CHUMP AT OXFORD and SAPS AT SEA were merely patchwork collages that clearly showed Hal Roach Studios waning interest in its top two stars.

While the team made some stage appearances, in Stan's Driver's License sketch, their agent Ben Shipman negotiated a contract with 20th Century Fox, pleasant news for Stan and Babe who were certain that now they had a new home where they could make their pictures their way. When they showed up for work, however, they were horrified to discover that they would have no say in how the new Laurel and Hardy movies would be made. Though the studio now had access to one of the greatest comic minds in film history, they chose to ignore Stan Laurel's input and suggestions. The scripts would be by Fox staff writers, most of whom, in retrospect, seemed not to have even the slightest clue as to what made Laurel and Hardy so funny. Instead of new routines, Laurel and Hardy were forced to perform out of character gags or brainless retreads of tried and true scenes from the past. Essentially, Laurel and Hardy had been hired as actors to read lame wisecracks from even lamer scripts and to hit their marks when the director yelled "Action!"

In 1998, Scott MacGillivray published the outstanding book LAUREL AND HARDY; FROM THE FORTIES FORWARD, the first book to look exclusively at Stan and Babe's later years. After the publication of the book, fans began to look at the films in a new light. MacGillvray's convincing arguments that the films were much better than their reputations brought on the temptation among some fans to consider these movies the equal of anything done by the Boys at Roach. Laurel and Hardy Central's own webmasters took a look at the later films with a fresh eye and revised some of our own opinions, though, in truth, not by much. Most of our thoughts remained the same, and in general we still contend that in some moments in the Fox films, Laurel and Hardy, troupers that they were, rise to the occasion and pull off good routines and gags but overall there is a huge drop in quality. Some of the Fox films are better than others, and, almost all of them are better that the two films Laurel and Hardy made at MGM during the same time period.

Five years after their final Fox film, Laurel and Hardy appeared in one final film together, the disastrous UTOPIA (aka ATOLL K), filmed in Europe.

JB: I think Elvis went through the same thing the Boys did. At first, he was pretty much his own man, getting to choose many of his own songs, using musicians he grew up with, and being able to work in a free atmosphere. After the Army, though, the Colonel pretty much called the shots, and Elvis just showed up for work.

JL: Ah, yes, but...the difference is that Elvis still turned out some quality work. No, there's nothing to compare to the pre-Army Elvis, and yes, his later hits were bland by comparison. But "Return to Sender" is still a better song than THE BIG NOISE is a movie. Of course, I agree with you for the most part and I'll take Elvis in black leather over Elvis in a cardigan sweater any day. But there's plenty of later Elvis I wouldn't want to be without, whereas you could burn all the post-Roach L&H films and I wouldn't care one whit, not one whit, mind you.

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