Stan & Ollie - Storyline, Actors And Ratings
The movie "Stan & Ollie" is a Tragicomedy production.
IMDB rated the movie with 7.4 / 10.
According to Google Users - 87% of the people watched the movie liked the story.
Director: John C. Baird
Actors: Rufus Jones, Danny Houston, John C. Riley, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda, Stephanie Hayam, Richard Kent, Susie Kane, John Henshaw Simple, sincerely, touching.
Stan & Ollie Review
Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Riley) - a classic comedy duet in the style of "Fat and Thin". They work under a contract with the famous Hollywood producer Hal Roach (Danny Houston), but Stan's contract ends and he does not want to renew it on the previous terms, in addition, Roach is going to focus exclusively on feature films, and Laurel and Hardy feel best in short films. However, Hardy is afraid to lose his contract with Roech: he after another divorce sits without money and is not ready to risk everything.
Laurel, who in a duet is responsible for both scripts and business contacts, is trying to sign a contract with the producer Mr. Mifkin to create a new film about Robin Hood: Stan is just now writing a script for him and Oliver. But the contract is moving neither shaky nor shaky, and then Laurel agrees with impresario Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones) that he organizes for their comedy duo a series of concerts in various cities of England. Hardy Stan explains that with these concerts they will raise funds for the creation of a new film.
The first concerts are received by the audience quite coolly, and Delfont falls into despondency, but the further, the more success have famous comedians, and Bernard for their performances begins to rent huge halls.
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Laurel and Hardy were perhaps the most famous on-screen comedy couple of the early-mid-twentieth century. It's hard to say who was more famous than them: they were more popular than Charlie Chaplin.
Lorela's real name is Arthur Stanley Jefferson: he's English, he played in the theater. Once, when once again his troupe came to America on tour, he remained there. In the States, Arthur wrote scripts and played some episodic roles. Eventually producer Hal Roach invited him to write scripts for his studio. The pseudonym Stan Laurel was invented by his friend - ballerina Mae Dahlberg: she said that this "Arthur Stanley Jefferson" just can not fit on the poster.
Oliver Hardy was born in America, became an actor. Because of his composition usually played in small episodes of some villains.
In 1917, Laurel and Hardy first played in the same film - it was called "Happy Dog". But then there were still nine years left before the duet appeared.
In 1926, they met again on set and Laurel invited Hardy to write a script for the two of them. They came up with two characters: Laurel portrayed a kind of slut-watcher, because of which there was all sorts of trouble, and Hardy was an irritable and self-confident fat man. Interestingly, in life they were completely different: Hardy was a very calm and reserved person, and Laurel in their tandem, of course, played the first violin.
They made a bunch of short films, many of which were wildly popular and are classics of comedy cinema.
And this is their famous dance from the movie Way Out West.
In feature films and sound films they also starred, they only together - 156 film works. However, in the shorts their couple looked best, so in 1940 they broke the contract with Hal Roech, which shorts were no longer going to put. They then starred in eight Fox and MGM films, but then decided to focus on live performances.
Lorel and Hardy's concerts were also a great success, and outside America: when they came to Ireland with concerts, their steamer was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of fans.
Hardy died in 1957, he was sixty-five years old. Laurel survived a friend for ten years, but after the death of Oliver Stan ended his acting career and rejected any offers. Interestingly, Stanley Kramer invited Laurel to play Captain Culpepper in "This crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world." And after his refusal, the role went to Spencer Tracy.
The film "Stan and Ollie" tells about the last concert period of two great comedians. Director John C Baird and screenwriter Jeff Pout wanted to show these people in their normal lives: how they communicated with each other, how they spent time, how they cooked their sketches.
In fact, about their relationship and about the backstage of this duo was known quite a lot: after the death of a friend Laurel willingly met with the public and told numerous stories from their lives.
The picture is very simple and unpretentious. There were no special upheavals, much less sinister secrets in the life of this duo. Just once they were terribly popular, and now with great success perform at concerts, but Hardy has various health problems, the film, which Laurel dreams of, they will never put, and the future they have no longer. Hardy is ready to accept this, Laurel is not ready yet, but nothing can be changed anyway.
Actors in the role of Lorela and Hardy are chosen amazingly. I had no doubt that John C. Riley would play Oliver brilliantly, and that's how it turned out. A calm and completely non-conflict person, he fully trusted Laurel, but in their relationship, of course, there were certain problems and roughnesses. Hardy realizes that he has to leave because with his heartaed heart has a chance to die right on stage, but he also knows that Laurel will not be able to perform without him. His last dance - that famous dance from the movie Way Out West - well just a lump in his throat. Especially since from the hall looks at him wife Lucille, who perfectly understands what is happening.
About Steve Coogan in the role of Lorel I had some doubts - after all, he is an actor very, very specific. However, I take my hat off - he played perfectly. It is very clear how seriously he studied the playing style of Lorela and his characteristic techniques, it is recreated very cool.
Hardy's wife was played by Shirley Henderson - I honestly didn't like her. But Lorela's wife, dancer Ida Kitaeva (Nina Arianda) - it's just a bomb! Nina Arianda is an American of Ukrainian descent. I saw her in the TV series "Billions," "Goliath" and "Horace and Pete" - she played there perfectly, especially when she was allowed to turn around! In this movie, Nina is gorgeous! The brightest character who draws attention to himself from the first appearance, a chic Russian accent - the role is absolutely remarkable. Everyone is waiting for Nina to be entrusted to play the main role - she deserves it.
Good movie, I loved it. It seems quite simple and unpretentious, and the mood creates a great and played somehow very, very sincerely. Judging by the complete lack of reviews and reviews - passed completely unnoticed, and very, very in vain, in my opinion. By the way, John C. Riley for this role was nominated for the Golden Globes 2019, he also has three nominations of the British Film Academy.
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