Laurel & Hardy

The Pocket Essentials: Film

by Brian J. Robb

British-born Stan Laurel and American Oliver Hardy were teamed up at the struggling Hal Roach studios in the 1920s and embarked on a series of hilarious short silent films. They soon established a classic screen partnership and became instantly recognizable comic icons in their crumpled suits and bowler hats. Laurel and Hardy were the most successful of all the film comics who made the difficult transition from silent shorts to sound and then to feature films, enjoying unparalleled success from the 1920s through the 1950s. Regular and repeated screenings of their work through the 1970s and 1980s on television brought shorts like the Oscar-winning classic The Music Box to new generations, while in recent years the entire rarely-seen back catalogue of silent Laurel and Hardy films has become available to film buffs, comedy fans, and collectors on a series of DVD releases. This guide contains a handy reference section listing other books about them, interesting websites, and details on availability of their 106 films. From Another Fine Mess to Way Out West , this is the one-stop celebration of the films and lives of Stan and Ollie.

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Brian J. Robb is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling biographer of Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt. He has also written books on silent cinema, the films of Philip K. Dick, Wes Craven, and Laurel and Hardy, the Star Wars movies, Superheroes, Gangsters, and Walt Disney, as well as science fiction television series Doctor Who and Star Trek. His illustrated books include an Illustrated History of Steampunk and a guide to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth (Winner, Best Book, Tolkien Society Awards). He writes and edits the Chaplin: Film by Film centenary blog site and is co-editor of the Sci-Fi Bulletin website. He lives in Edinburgh.