Search - Utopia on DVD

The final film from the great comedy team of Laurel & Hardy

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 05/30/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Utopia" was originally released in 1952 as "Atoll K" and later as "Robinson Crusoeland," and finds an aging Laurel & Hardy have inherited a yacht and an island. The boys set off to see along with a refugee as their cook and a stowaway. The yacht sinks in a storm, but a newly created atoll (hence the original title) emerges from the sea to give them a place to live. They are then joined on their new little paradise by Suzy Delair, who is running away from a jealous fiancee. Together they all create their own private little utopia, where everything is just perfect until uranium is discovered and all of the nations of the world begin to battle over ownership of the atoll. Just as the boys are about to be lynched, the atoll sinks back beneath the seas. Rescued by a passing ship, Laurel & Hardy make it to their own little island, only to discover the taxes are too burdensome and they must give up their dreams of paradise. Whatever its title, this final film from Laurel & Hardy certainly provides mixed feelings. The political satire angle is ambitious, but scarcely appropriate for comedians who rely so much on visual humor (compare with the Marx Brother's classic "Duck Soup"), although the sequence where Hardy distributes key political posts to every but Laurel (he gets to be "The People" is good. But most of the sight gags are not typical Laurel & Hardy routines and several people have claimed the best gags were cut from the film. The film also suffered because co-director John Berry was being investigated for being a Communist, which meant no major distributor would touch it. There is also the shock of the appearance of Stan Laurel, who had been ill before the production and looks like he is at death's door. "Utopia" is a sad farewell to the screen's greatest comic team."

A typical shabby print of UTOPIA

chriscellaneous | Toronto, Ontario | 03/04/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This product is listed as French with English subtitles, which raised the hope of it being the original French version of ATOLL K. Unfortunately it is just another shabby looking public domain disc. Avoid it and get the Goodtimes version, the only half-decent version available in North America."