Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have been the subject of many books and articles, and it’s easy to assume that James L. Neibaur’s “The Laurel and Hardy Films” would cover territory that has been analyzed and reviewed too many times. But that is not the case with this marvelous work of film scholarship.
Neibaur, who has written more than 35 cinema-focused books, brings fresh insight into how Laurel and Hardy came together as a team and why their work is still funny today. Running nearly 600 pages, the book carefully traces the evolution of their performing style and addresses long-held negative assumptions regarding certain parts of their output.
