All New Adventures of LaureL & Hardy: For Love or Mummy
D: John R. Cherry III, Larry Harmon (1998); with Bronson Pinchot, Gailard Sartain, F. Murray Abraham. With his alleged screwing of Stan Laurel out of the Laurel & Hardy name on the diminutive funnyman’s deathbed, Larry Harmon (aka Bozo) became known to many showbiz aficionados as the greediest corporate clown this side of Ronald McDonald. What he’s done to the L&H name since has been even worse than Bela Lugosi’s offspring have done to the legacy of the Three Stooges (but that’s another story). Cheap cartoons, shoddy merchandising, and now an inept feature film have come along to soil the memory of a duo that should have been allowed to die peaceful — and permanent — deaths. In For Love or Mummy, Bronson Pinchot is Stan Laurel and Gailard Sartain is Oliver Hardy — both of whom are the great-nephews of the legendary vaudevillian team, and who for no readily apparent reason not only look and talk like their famous forbears, but also still dress in their early-1900s fashions as well. And no, that fact is not played for irony, à la The Brady Bunch Movie, nor for any discernible comedic purpose. This Stan and Ollie are simply here to trudge through old, anachronistic routines amid a cliche-ridden plot about cursed sarcophagi, an elderly archaeologist, his beautiful daughter, and the kidnapping and rampaging mummy hoo-hah that inevitably follows. Pinchot and Sartain give it the old college try, which is more than can be said for the scriptwriters and director, and by the end of the film “Laurel & Hardy” even manage to come out somewhat likable, if bland, but it’s telling that “Hardy” only manages to truly be funny during a scene in which he’s in disguise — with Sartain out of costume and pretty much completely out of character as well! And even for those who would try to give this the old “it’s for the kids” defense, try to explain to me what young children would find funny about two outdated characters they’ve probably never heard of bumbling about while undead creatures terrorize those around them. For Love or Mummy would fare well in a double feature with the real duo’s last and least-loved film, Utopia, aka Atoll K. Just retitle this one No Laughs Atoll.This article appears in March 17 • 2000.