tavm I just watched Atoll K-Laurel and Hardy's last movie together and known here in the states as Utopia-on Internet Archive expecting to see some extra footage since the IA version had a running time of 2 hours and 21 minutes. Turns out that it's basically the same version I previously watched on the bargain basement VHS tape from Goodtimes Home Video that ran an hour and 23 minutes (with the exception of no product placement of the Welch's Grape Juice label being inserted when a bottle was shown) with the rest of the running time devoted to dark blank space. While Stan does look like he might be dying anytime soon, he still performs fine physical comedy with Ollie during much of the first 45 minutes or so. Then the plot of taking a yacht with a stowaway and a man with no country aboard-not to mention a charming female French singer also coming to inhabit an uncharted island they all end up on-takes over with eventual complications that pretty much bogs the comedy down and never really recovers despite the familiar ending of Ollie saying for the last time to Stan, "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" before Stan cries uncontrollably before the fade out. In other words, if you're a die-hard Laurel and Hardy fan, this movie is recommended for you to see at least once. Anyone else wanting to get familiar with this classic comedy team should seek their earlier work they did for Hal Roach from the '20s up through 1940 when they completed their final Roach film, Saps at Sea. Come to think of it, even some of the L & H Fox flicks (have yet to see the two they made for M-G-M) from the '40s are better than this one...Update-8/29/09: Just watched some missing scenes that appeared in the Italian version on YouTube. Cherie sings in one and has a conversation with the Captain. In another, that Captain's wife pulls a gun on Cherie. In one more, Giovanni explains why he left his country with a flashback scene. Stan is dubbed in high pitch here!

MartinHafer When the movie begins, it's obvious just how old and sick the boys are. Although Oliver Hardy is enormous, it is Stanley that looks like death warmed over. Apparently, he was deathly ill during production and had obviously lost a lot of weight. Although he would eventually recover and live another decade and a half, here he looks like a dying man. Additionally, as I watched the film I was shocked how many pratfalls Stan took--I half expected his to drop dead from the exertion. I really can't understand WHY they came out of retirement considering their health--especially when the story and production values are as poor as they are with this film. Stanley inherits an island and a boat. He and Ollie are ready to leave when Antoine, a stateless man, is literally dropped into their boat and they begin their voyage to find the island. Along the way, they discover that Giovanni has stowed away, but despite this the four men become friends and land on a different island. It seems like paradise and they are all very happy. A bit later, a pretty young lady joins them and everything looks grand.Unfortunately, uranium is discovered on the island and the place becomes flooded with riffraff. Eventually, the mob decides to hang the four men and take over--at which point the island sinks back into the sea and the men are spared.I will give the film some credit for being original and for being interesting. However, one thing it is not is FUNNY--and that is unforgivable for a Laurel and Hardy flick. While not a bad film, it certainly isn't a good one. A sad end to their brilliant careers.All the actors, except for the duo, are dubbed into English, as the movie was made in France. While it may not be the very worst film they made (this would be THE BIG NOISE), it sure is close!! Watching this film is painful and like watching people clean up after a severe accident.

estabansmythe "Atoll K" aka "Utopia" is one of Hollywood's saddest swan songs. Filmed in France in 1950 and released the following year after a five-year layoff, Laurel & Hardy are in bad shape physically. However, they aren't in nearly as bad a shape as the script.This movie is one of the un-funniest "comedies" I've seen & that's a real shame.It's painful to see this legendary team, the funniest duo in the history of motion pictures, the twosome that made "The Devil's Brother"(1933), "The Music Box," (1932),"Pack Up Your Troubles" (also 1932), "Babes In Toyland" (1934), "Bonnie Scotland" (1935), "Flying Deuces" (1939) and so many more gut-wrenching, laugh-til-you-choke classic comedies, in a film such as this.Fighters and ballplayers do it all the time: they stay in the game one season or one fight too many. In this case, while it's morbidly fascinating to see Laurel & Hardy at this late stage in their legendary careers, they, too, stuck around for just one too many.

classicsoncall By 1951, Laurel and Hardy were showing their age. Their last film together, "Utopia", to my mind was a sad send off for the boys who were so brilliant in films like "Way Out West" where they were not only funny but broke out into song and dance in creative fashion. There are glimpses of their trademark humor here, but by and large the film failed to satisfy this viewer whose memories of Stan and Ollie recall an earlier vintage.Perhaps part of the problem here is saddling the duo with cast members who share close to equal billing and screen time. Max Elloy as the cook/mechanic, Adriano Rimoldi as the man without a country and Suzy Delair as the nominal love interest for all of them don't have enough personality among them to complement the story in a fulfilling way. Delair's Cherie in particular can't make up her mind about old boyfriend Frazer (Luigi Tosi) and by the end of the movie winds up flip flopping yet again.Most of the film's humor takes place in the first third of the story, as Stan and Ollie learn of their inheritance from Stan's uncle who has passed on. The obligatory dismantling of the fortune by way of government fees and taxes leaves them only a derelict yacht in Marseille and an island in the South Pacific. That set up at least allows them to fashion their own government on the island that doesn't rely on laws or taxes of it's own. The inevitable onslaught by the outside world following the discovery of uranium is enough to spell doom for the island's Utopian ideal, which it lost as soon as it became Crusoeland.There are redemptive moments few and far between like the bit with the life raft and Stan's friendship with a pet lobster. Yet even as far back as 1951, crass commercialism reared it's ugly head with an extreme close up of a bottle of Welch's Grape Juice. You'll have to search long and hard for such a blatant product endorsement in another film of the era. Of course today, virtually every film displays a branded name.I'd like to be more positive about "Atoll K" as my admiration for Laurel and Hardy's body of work is very much one of appreciation. They provided loads of laughs while I was growing up, and still do today. At least with their earlier films, one didn't have to see an optimist.