John McCabe befriended Stan and Babe after meeting them at one of their British-hall performances in the 1950's, and one of the byproducts was this wonderful book, which helped to renew fervent interest in their movies and assured them of their rightful place in film history. Some of it has dated somewhat, particularly the entries on L&H's later Fox films. While rightfully depicted as lesser than their work for Hal Roach, McCabe posits that the quality of the films got worse and worse in order to "freeze out" Laurel & Hardy, as though Fox, the studio that hired them in the first place, wanted to use its corporate clout only to put a great comedy team in their place. In fact, some of the later Fox films have their champions (see Scott MacGillivray's book on this subject); it's more likely that Fox had not a clue what to do with comedians who wanted to do things their own way. Other than that, the book is an "affectionate" (McCabe's own words) and delightful introduction to Stan and Ollie.
(C) 2002, Steven Bailey.
