These portraits are detailed, closely observed labours of love, especially as Coogan and Reilly had to nail both the screen personae and also fabricate a subtler, more naturalistic account for the off-stage versions. Steve Coogan and John C Reilly give great portrayals of Laurel and Hardy. It has a persuasive feel for this twilight of the comedy gods.
Jon S Baird’s feature appears fictionally to conflate the tour with the wintry mood of later UK tours when Stan and Ollie’s health and career worries had escalated further.
Well, here were film stars dying night after night in Newcastle, Glasgow and Worthing. Recently we had Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, about Gloria Grahame’s theatrical engagements in Britain. In 1952, at a low point professionally, out of fashion in the United States, their relationship under stress and needing money, they took on a British tour, sometimes to painfully sparse audiences. Collection of films starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.