Product: Utopia (1954)
Rating: 2.0
Not As Bad As You've Heard But...
The Boys' last and supposedly worst film together. It has a notorious reputation and much of it is justified. Stan DOES look old and frail. Ollie DOES look dangerously obese. It's poorly dubbed (apparently none of the other performers could speak English), the picture quality is far worse than their 1930s material even after DVD treatment and the gags are lame, tired and in places cringe-inducingly childish. The plot, while pretty original and perhaps even daring for the time is convuluted and as far from the classic Laurel and Hardy as ever.What does redeem the film are the performances from the two leads. Their acting was remarkable considering they were not well men at the time. Oliver Hardy's acting was as commandingly brilliant as it had always been and a further example of how much of an under-rated actor he was. Meanwhile, Stan Laurel was amazingly physical here despite his obvious illnesses. There's at least one scene where both men are running along a beach. Which comes to the observation that the scenery was very pretty!'Atoll K' is probably the worst Laurel and Hardy film ever made. But it isn't as bad as some would make out.