STAN & OLLIE is, more often than not,
about Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
when they were being themselves, in
the twilight of their career as they toured
the UK, rather than the lauded Laurel
& Hardy. But that doesn’t mean that
director Jon S. Baird shied away from
showing exactly why the duo became
(and remain) the most beloved comedy
double act this side of Hale And Pace.
The film is packed with nods to, riffs on,
and even extensive recreations of, some
of their best-known routines.
THE HOSPITAL SEQUENCE
Taken from a short film called County
Hospital, Baird included this sequence,
in which Stan visits an incapacitated Ollie
and proceeds to drive him mad with
nothing more than a hard-boiled egg,
“because on their stage tours they used
to perform that sketch”. We see it three
times in the film — once when Stan &
Ollie perform it on stage, again when
Stan decides not to go on after seeing
Ollie’s replacement, British comedian
Nobby Cook, in the hospital bed, and
finally when Stan visits the ailing Ollie
in hospital and unwittingly recreates
the routine. “It was a very convenient
storytelling device,” he says. “John and
Steve wanted to pretty much recreate it
down to the last second. They were so
respectful of Laurel and Hardy.”
Nice
messes
Stan & Ollie director Jon
S. Baird on bringing Laurel
and Hardy back to life
Main: Laurel
(Steve Coogan)
and Hardy (John C.
Reilly). Below: The
real-life duo in County
Hospital (1932).
