Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward [Paperback]

I disagree with the reviewer who thought this book was "contradictory" and
that the films were "garbage." I've always found it amusing that everyone
dismisses the team's '40s features as being terrible. Yet
when pressed, everybody will admit to having at least one favorite from the group if
not two, or perhaps three. Mr. MacGillivray tries to be fair in his
reporting, so his comments are balanced, not contradictory. And he's right,
Stan and Ollie's later films are well worth your time. I've watched several
of them recently and enjoyed them more than ever.

The publisher's claim on the back cover says this book demonstrates that the
later works of perhaps the greatest comedy team in history are worthy of
study and consideration. One reader seems to have taken this claim too
literally: does one really need to rely on a book to be convinced? Of course
not. As with the lesser Hitchcocks and sometimes-painful-to-watch
Keaton talkies, ALL of their works are worthy of study and consideration. The real
purpose of the book is to inform and entertain us, and this is precisely
what the author has done.

"From the Forties Forward" also has interesting material on movie

re-releases and Robert Youngson's silent-comedy features. They gave many of
us the chance to see L & H "in the theaters" for the first time (most of us
weren't born or were too young when the original films played in the '30s and
'40s). There is also quite a bit about Laurel & Hardy on TV and video. Especially enjoyable was the section on Laurel & Hardy home movies. It brings back
great memories of seeing Laurel & Hardy on my own movie screen.

The book is jam-packed with new information and fresh material from the
years when so little was written. Mr. MacGillivray has given us such a
wealth of new information, that in the future, historians and buffs will
routinely use the factual information in this book as if it were their own
(as the case with Wm. K. Everson..often quoted, rarely credited). There are also many
rare photos. My personal copy of "From the Forties Forward" is falling apart
from use, so if you're a serious Laurel & Hardy fan, be sure to order two copies!

The second part of the book was about how the L&H movies long survived the individuals themselves. Macgillivray summarizes how different vendors obtained old tapes and how they were able to revive the tapes and keep L&H (and others) alive on the screen for modern day viewers. The results were fascinating, but the process (and perhaps unavoidably the description) was dry.

This book would have been an easy four star and maybe even close to a five star book (still not as good as Skredvedt's though) had Macgillivray been better able to sell his argument that the L&H Fox/MGM movies were better than they have been credited for or if he had toned down his praise of them. The book has a lot of good information, but he failed to achieve the purpose of convincing readers that L&H's Fox/MGM movies were mostly good.

Garbage by any other name is still garbage.