Mum's Monday: Stan and Ollie

The start of this film goes right in, when they are at their height of fame, which is a very good place to start. We all are aware of Laurel and Hardy and their rise to fame, if not all of their films or shorts.

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly play the parts brilliantly. When I first heard about this film and Steve Coogan was going to play Stan Laurel, my first thought was ‘I know him as a long dark haired actor/comedian and not I could picture him playing Stan Laurel, but he pulls the part off phenomenally well. When I heard that John C. Reilly was going to play Oliver Hardy I didn’t know anything about him so had to have watched the film before I could comment. Now I have seen the film he again pulls the part off just as well as Steve Coogan.

The story is well timed, as it is set sixteen years later as their fame is on a downward spiral in Stan and Ollie’s lives and as they embark on their British tour. It is heart-warming and it shows that they were human, they argued and fell out with each other just as two people spending so much time together inevitably would.

There is an amusing part when they arrive at a hotel in Newcastle as part of the tour. Ollie walked in with his small case and Stan is left to bring in all the rest of the luggage. This is the start of the references to how they were on their films and in their shorts. There is even a reference to how a scene in the ‘Music Box’ plays out at a railway station, it is cleverly done, well timed and set up perfectly.

One part I didn’t understand and we never find out how Ollie knew about the new film. I suppose it just goes to show how well they knew each other.

They made a great double act, even though one could be described as ‘Hard Boiled’ and the other as ‘Nuts’. It worked and so does this film.

There is a second reference to the ‘Music Box’ film in the film when a character is describing the plot and the steps in it. Stan says ‘We were there’. And so have I and so can you be as the steps are situated on N Vendome St, Los Angeles California USA. I did think ‘We all know Stan and Ollie were there but I wander if Steve Coogan has actually been to. I may have been somewhere he hasn’t as he only referenced it as Stan Laurel. What I do know is the ‘Music Box steps’ is the most iconic place I have ever been to and remains so to this day.

You can’t really miss them as there is a sign and a plaque on the steps. Also if walk up only a few flights and turn round you can see the edge of the central reservation in the road, which you recognise from a scene in the ‘Music Box’ film. It has changed a bit in that it is built up and there are now trees that have grown, but the area layout is still there.