Stan & Ollie: Their Last Dance

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Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2018
Original Running Time:
97
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
78
Time Cut:
19
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
Removed narrative clutter for a more fitting tribute to these legendary comics.
Intention:
My whole family loves Laurel and Hardy and we all enjoyed their biopic upon seeing it at the cinema in 2018, but we were also in unanimous agreement that the scenes of conflict and “betrayal” between the two felt formulaic and unnecessary. Apart from such events depicted appearing (as far as I can tell) to have little basis in fact, it should be enough for the story that they are dealing with the rapidly approaching ends of their careers without having to neatly resolve disagreements from over fifteen years previously.

The offending scenes have thus been removed, the story remains much the same and artistic licence is still taken, there are just fewer bumps in the road as we progress along it.
Additional Notes:
Prompted to do the edit after trimming down their first feature "Pardon Us" into a short.
Other Sources:
2019 blu-ray
Special Thanks:
Many thanks to my grandparents for introducing me to Laurel and Hardy as a child with County Hospital, hardly remember any other times where I laughed so much!

Also many thanks to Wraith and Dwight Fry for providing guidance on the B&W grading, learned that there is a lot more to it than simply a matter of setting the saturation to zero!
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
• Desaturated nearly the entire film, Laurel and Hardy appear (almost) exclusively in black and white so this feels appropriate to me, grading was greatly assisted by Wraith and Dwight Fry, who took my initial attempts and provided examples of how it could be improved. In general, boosted gamma to brighten the image and slightly increased the contrast.
• Exported 1920x804 with 5.1 audio, total runtime of 78 minutes.
Cuts and Additions:
• Removed Ollie’s line during his phone call to Lucille about he and Stan getting to know each other again, makes it sound as if they’ve been apart for a long time.
• Removed Stan’s flashback to 1930s where Laurel has approached Fox for a new deal and Ollie takes the part in Zenobia.
• Removed Ida saying that Laurel could have left Hardy and Laurel saying that’s all in the past.
• Removed argument and scenes of hostility, cut from dressing room discussion about Robin Hood to the contest prize-giving (no tea scene).
• Faded from Stan leaving Ollie’s room to him returning two days later and added explanatory card, Stan no longer has breakfast with Delfont and Nobby Cook is no longer a part of this film.
• Remove dialogue at Ollie’s bedside concerning the argument, Stan stands up and starts to talk but is quickly cut off by Ollie saying that he’s retiring.
• Cut final part of bed conversation, no talk of Nobby Cook or the argument.
• Kept the Robin Hood visualisations in colour, replaced the cutaway shot to Stan alone in his dressing room with a now-unused shot of him and Delfont at breakfast (from the cut scene where the idea of Nobby Cook is introduced).
• Removed Stan preparing to go on stage with Nobby Cook and not going through with it, cut from end of Robin Hood visualisation to Stan waiting to talk to Ida.
• Removed end of Laurel’s conversation with Ida after “I love him”, no talk of him continuing on to Ireland.
• Second part of Lucille’s dialogue (concerning the Laurels continuing) is removed and the remaining sections spliced together, necessitating the shortening of the shot of Ollie that this plays over.
• A section of Ollie reminiscing still contains excerpts from scenes I cut, two characters who we no longer see expressing their fondness for Laurel and Hardy, but I don’t think this is too distracting since they would have met a lot of people in their tour.

User reviews

2 reviews
Overall rating
 
9.9
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0(2)
Audio Editing
 
10.0(2)
Visual Editing
 
9.5(2)
Narrative
 
10.0(2)
Enjoyment
 
10.0(2)
(Updated: July 16, 2022)
Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
THIS IS HOW I WANT TO REMEMBER the gretaest double act in history.

The BBC have over the past decade or so made a slew of biopics, mostly 60 min features for TV broadcast and they all have many things in common. Superbr production, excelent performances that draw you in and a consistent obession with showing us the conflict and dark side of their lives. Barbar Windsor, Kenneth Williams even Eric and Ernie did not escape some opobrium and Stan and Ollie was no exception.

I was enthralled by this movie when it was released, so much so I saw it twice in theatres, but each time I was left with a bad taste...that feeling that I had just had a custard pie slapped in my face...you know the expression!.

I am now delighted to say that the pie has been left in the cold box, and I can finally watch this withou wincing.

The recreation of the set pices is meticulous, and I even made a sis by side comparison.

My only qualm isthat it was shot with a far too wide aspect ration 1:1.85 would have been enough for me but this one is tough to re-frame. Having it it however in B&W was a touch of genius...I'd expect a 16:9 broadcast open frame at some point (so keep an eye on the listings).

ParanoidAndroid has done a great job surgically excising those sadder moments of conflict and hubris and left us with a gem of a film to enjoy and delight.

This has been addded to my Laurel and Hardy Box Set!

"another fine edit"!

SUPERB!

Owner's reply July 17, 2022

Wonderful, that is truly an honour!

Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 1 0
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
This is exactly how the theatrical cut should have played. Biographical films too often feel the need to invent made up conflict, without any actual regard to the real people depicted and not caring whether the narrative needs it to work. And in this case it absolutely didn't. Once that extraneous material is excised, what's left is a heartfelt, nostalgic, and sweet look at the last years of two comedy giants and two very dear friends, which as Hardy says in the film, were two peas in a pod. All sustained on two wonderful performances who really inhabit the characters. After a while, you forget that those aren't the real Laurel and Hardy you are watching.

Also, making it black and white makes it feel much more authentic. I always imagine the boys in monochrome anyway. It's a pity that so many modern releases are so afraid of black and white, like someone interested at all in Laurel and Hardy to begin with would have any problem with watching a movie that's not in color!

This is the film Stan and Ollie deserved, and thanks to ParanoidAndroid's magnificent work, they finally got it. Applause!
Owner's reply July 17, 2022

Delighted that you enjoyed the edit so much, absolutely agree on your assessment of the original.

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