The last movie Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made in America was called The Bullfighters and it came out in May of 1945. I think it was the weakest film they made in this country…a view that has plunged me into a number of more-or-less friendly debates with other lovers of Stan and Ollie. It's not an argument I feel is worth a lot of discussion time so let's just say I have friends who think it ain't as bad as some others.
We all though seem to agree that their last film, which was made overseas, was more painful — painful to watch and reportedly way more painful to make. The Boys left for France on April 1, 1950 for what was supposed to be a twelve-week shoot. Due to illnesses, tech failures, budget problems, the fact that many who worked on the film did not share a common language, bad weather and the need to constantly rewrite a script no one liked, they didn't get back to the U.S. until 4/1/51.
It was a full year of disasters with the health of its stars chief among them. Laurel was sick, then Hardy was sick, then Laurel was sick again. Scenes were shot out of order so you can literally see Stan's weight change from scene to scene and Oliver's, as well.
The film was oddly edited in various configurations and released in different countries at different times under different names. It was called Atoll K when it came out in France in 1952. It was called Robinson Crusoeland in England in 1952. It was called Utopia when it got scant release in the U.S. in 1954. Some versions were longer than others and none were very good. Stan, it is said, disliked all of them.
Since the film went public domain, it received wide distribution on cheapo videotapes of dubious quality and completeness. I once owned a $3.99 Beta cassette of it that was actually missing an entire reel somewhere in the middle. Believe it or not, that didn't hurt the film much. At least it was over sooner.
Ah, but there's a new version now. A gent named Joe Ramoni recently did some recutting and rearranging and he has created what he calls "The Fan Edit." He threw out certain scenes and dubbed in new music by The Beau Hunks, an orchestra that re-creates some of the wonderful music heard in the films that Stan and Ollie made for the Hal Roach Studio in their glory days.
Did he turn it into a great movie? No but he made it into a better one. I watched all of it, which is something I don't think I managed with any of the previous cuts unless you count the one missing a reel.
His cut runs 75 minutes and I don't expect you to watch it now. But if/when you have time, here it is. And if at your own peril, you want to tackle one of the original versions, here's a link to one that runs 82 minutes. The only reason to watch the old one is to see what Mr. Ramoni managed to improve, much of which involved turning a Laurel & Hardy movie into a Laurel & Hardy movie.
I am generally against tampering with artists' work and as poor as it is, I hope the original version of Atoll K (to use its most-used title) is always available. But every so often, there's an instance where tampering seems appropriate and this is one…