Another Fine Dress: Role-play in the Films of Laurel and Hardy (Lesbian and Gay Studies)

This is a book which takes the comedy of Laurel & Hardy seriously in much the same way that the films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin have been analysed. The author, Jonathan Sanders, regards Stan Laurel and, to a lesser extent, Hal Roach, as the 'auteurs' of the films, creators who, consciously or unconsciously, are involved in making serious social comments on the age, particularly on the Great Depression and its after-effects. This is not the first time Laurel & Hardy have been treated in this fashion. Graham Green, in an essay, equated 1932's The Music Box to the Myth of Sysiphus and compared the mutually escalating destruction the team are often involved in with the likes of James Finlayson (you destroy my car while I destroy yours) to the proliferating arms race and the Mutually Assured Destruction - M.A.D. - of nuclear war. L&H fans may not be entirely happy with this treatment but there are plenty of books which merely retell the jokes and the details of the lives but a study such as this raises the films of L&H to serious art which makes its point through laughter and provides more evidence as to why their films are still relevant almost 80 years on.

This has to be the oddest and most obscure book on the Boys that it's ever been my displeasure to read. The author seems obsessed with reading something into the films that most of us wouldn't even consider was there in the first place. I bought it because I am a big L & H fan and like to collect books on them, but I don't think it'll ever get a second read.I gave it no stars, but was unable to proceed without rating it, so it gets a reluctant one star.