Simply Perfect

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

yes, the original full length version finally came out a few years ago and strangely it has (suddenly) become rather scarce! the fan is certainly encouraged to look for that edition...it puts every single previous edition to shame. (yes, a Public Domain print was used all over the place).to the film: it was made in France in 1950-51 and the backstory is very well known at this point, even to casual fans.if the viewer just watches L & H then he/she is treated to the real L & H, albeit older and "playing hurt". Stan looks terrible (once back home he quickly recovered!) for most of the shoot and Ollie is heavier than ever. BUT...let's all enjoy the boys "back in character"...first time in a decade! we can easily say that the backstory makes a funnier movie..with a multi language cast and a script girl who must have gone bonkers before the shoot even took place! but not so fast: there are a lot of very funny bits and pieces and intelligent dialogue > Laurel & hardy's only politically-charged film, with plenty of jabs at government and taxes. on their way to their inherited island they barrel onto a new atoll...Ollie becomes President! (along the way they have acquired a few "passengers" on their broken down yacht, another gift from Stan's Uncle).when uranium is found by a rescue ship, the whole world heads for this..."utopia".for what it's worth, we must assume that the creator of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND watched this mixed up but funny mess of a movie, more than once.buy this DVD now! you can bring all the earlier issues to the Library. :)

After leaving 20th Century Fox when their last American made feature film was completed in 1945, Laurel and Hardy took a long rest due to Stan's health problems. Oliver Hardy did take two featured roles in The Fighting Kentuckian and Riding High, but Utopia marked Stan's return and final film and the team's final film. Would they have gone out on something like Sons Of The Desert.The film is about Stan inheriting an island in the South Seas and a yacht to sail there with Ollie. They do land on an uncharted island and declare it home along with Max Elloy and Adriano Rimoldi who sailed with them. Later on the boys add some female population in the form of French cinema star Suzy Delair. Of course this is Laurel and Hardy so they're gentlemen, but what was wrong with other two?A survey party eventually comes and uranium is discovered. The boys were lucky it wasn't oil, but uranium turns their little paradise into a nightmare.Two things are terribly wrong with this film. Both Stan and Ollie were ill during the making, especially Stan and I guess it's a matter of opinion as to whether they were lucky to finish it at all. Laurel aged terribly from when last seen on screen and Ollie wasn't looking too good either. But Laurel and Hardy's comedy is simply not built for political satire. Possibly a Marx Brother or three could have made something of Utopia. Can you see Groucho as head of the new island that Ollie dubs Crusoeland?Utopia also doesn't have the production values of Hal Roach Studios let alone one of the American majors. The dubbing is terrible and the sound even worse.I think this would be a painful film for fans of Stan and Ollie to watch.

It is a crying shame that of all of Laurel and Hardy's films, this one is by far the easiest to obtain, at least in North America, along with "The Flying Deuces" (They're nearly always packaged together!). A word of advice to anyone who has never watched a Laurel and Hardy film who happens to purchase one of these DVDs: Watch "The Flying Deuces" first! It is a very enjoyable film released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1939. Seeing Stanley looking obviously and profoundly ill is not the way you want to start your L&H experience! It'll probably be your last!! With that said, this film does indeed have some merits, the premise of Stan and Ollie forming their own island government certainly had potential! Sadly, a number of things sank it: 1/ A director who seemed more interested in filming scenery (Leo Joannon spent three days filming a lake because he thought it was a suitable photographic subject!). 2/ Stan fell ill shortly after production finally began. In many scenes that might have otherwise been funny, his profoundly sickly appearance makes me feel like his trials are inhumane rather than amusing. Stan was reputed to be ill during the filming of "Swiss Miss," but there is no need to be informed of it in "Atoll K." It is all too painfully evident! What could have been done with this story at Roach ten years earlier, or at least with Stan in better health, with or without a better director makes the end result all the harder to bear!

Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) are together in film for the last time in Atoll K (1951), which is also known as Utopia.This comedy duo, that had the thin Stan and the heavy Ollie, worked together as a team since 1926 (even though they appeared together in a movie five years earlier).And this was their last collaboration.In 1955 the pair had contracted with Hal Roach Jr., to produce a series of TV shows based on the Mother Goose fables.Unfortunately Hardy's stroke prevented that from happening.Also Billy Wilder had a plan to make a film with the boys.So in the early 50's they went to France to shoot this French/Italian film, which took a whole year to make.In the beginning the pair is in the offices of a London law firm, where Laurel is to inheritance left by a wealthy uncle.He inherits an island, so the boys head for the island on a rickety yacht.On the yacht with them they have a stateless refugee and a stowaway.A storm breaks and they shipwreck on an atoll, which they name Crusoeland.The island gets a new resident from Chérie Lamour, a nightclub singer who is fleeing her jealous fiancée, a naval lieutenant.Hardy becomes the president of the island while Laurel represents "the people".The place seems like a paradise at first, a place without taxes or legal fees.But then Chérie's fiancée finds uranium deposits from the island.People keep coming from all over the world.The new immigrants start a rebellion and want to hang the original inhabitants.Is this the end of Laurel and Hardy? As the movie's director is credited Léo Joannon, but much of the work was done by the blacklisted director John Berry.This movie was painful to make for Laurel and Hardy.They both had some major health issues.Stan even required hospitalization.But the boys still got their job done, and what a great job they did.The on-screen chemistry is still there, and the capability to make 'em laugh.The leading lady of the movie is played by French singer/actress Suzy Delair (b.1917).She does a wonderful job as Chérie Lamour.The rest of the casting is also good.Max Elloy plays Antoine, the cook.Adriano Rimoldi is Giovanni Copini, the stowaway and a bricklayer from Italy.Luigi Tosi is Lt. Jack Frazer.The movie has pretty much of good stuff and great gags.It's funny when the boys are enjoying a meal and Stan's food keeps disappearing from his plate.The stowaway keeps reaching down and taking it.Stan blames Ollie and that means an argument.The storm sequence is amazing to watch.Stanley struggles with the life raft, crying and screaming for help.And he shrieks when those bats arrive.The ending is pretty much a perfect ending for a Laurel and Hardy movie.Boys have arrived to the right island, when their land and supplies are impounded for failure to pay back taxes.Ollie says to Stan "That's another fine mess you've gotten me into."And what does Stan do? He starts to cry, of course.This movie is better than most people give it credit for.Of course the boys came up with better than this in their earlier years.One of those nine stars is for the life and work of Laurel and Hardy.There will never be a comedy team like Laurel and Hardy.