Utopia
About Utopia
Stan inherits a yacht and a South Seas island, then finds the taxes have eaten the money. He and Ollie sail with Antoine, a stateless refugee, and Giovanni Copini, an Italian mason who hid aboard. The engine fails, a storm wrecks them on an uncharted atoll, and they settle in. Nightclub singer Chérie Lamour drifts ashore after fleeing her fiancé, navy lieutenant Jack Frazer. Tired of tax men, Stan and Ollie declare the place Crusoeland, with no laws and no taxes. Uranium and a flood of newcomers bring a revolt that nearly hangs the founders, until another storm drives the crowd off. Back in the world, a collector again seizes their goods for unpaid taxes.
Cast & crew
More about Utopia
A French-Italian company offered Laurel and Hardy $1,500,000 to star in a film made in France. Shooting, meant to take twelve weeks, ran from the spring of 1950 into April 1951. Léo Joannon is the credited director. Blacklisted American John Berry joined during production and went uncredited. Laurel, who spoke no French, had Alfred Goulding and Monty Collins brought in to work on the gags.
Themes
Background
After Fox and MGM, Laurel and Hardy were idle in Hollywood and still popular in postwar Europe, which is why the offer came from a French-Italian consortium.
Making
Berry's share of the direction was left off American prints. William K. Everson named him in 1967, and Suzy Delair later confirmed the credit to Norbert Aping. Laurel and Hardy had stand-ins, Julien Maffre and Victor Decottignies.
Reviews
Journal du Dimanche asked what had lured Laurel and Hardy onto the atoll and said the adventure added nothing to their fame. Paolo Locori wrote in Hollywood that their presence could not lift the film out of mediocrity. Kinematograph Weekly called it bogged down in obvious slapstick. In the Los Angeles Times in 1955, Philip K. Scheuer found a few early misadventures amusing and then watched the comedy fall apart.
Audiences
Exploitation Pictures brought the 82-minute English cut to the United States in December 1954 under the title Utopia. A later attempt to reissue it as Escapade also failed.
Look
Armand Thirard shot the picture, including the yacht scenes on a boat moored in France and the island material on the Côte d'Azur.
Music
Paul Misraki composed the score.
Preservation
No U.S. copyright was filed on Utopia, so that English-language version is in the public domain. A restored cut near 100 minutes was shown on ARTE on 1 January 2012. Fun Factory Films issued a DVD on 3 January 2013, Gaumont a French DVD on 10 October 2012, and a 93-minute Blu-ray appeared in the UK in 2018.
Notes
- Released in France and Italy as Atoll K, in Britain as Robinson Crusoeland, and in the United States in December 1954 as Utopia.
- It is the last film Laurel and Hardy made together.
- Laurel, ill with diabetes, colitis, dysentery, and a prostate ulcer, dropped to 114 pounds and could work only twenty or thirty minutes at a stretch. Ida Laurel changed his bandages on the set.
- Hardy, then about 330 pounds, was treated for an irregular heartbeat and a severe flu.
- Adriano Rimoldi, who plays Giovanni, fell from the docked yacht and was out for about a month.
- Joannon spent three days filming a lake he called the most photogenic he had ever seen.
- Antoine hides in a lion's cage to dodge the police and is eaten. Giovanni goes home to Italy and builds fences. Chérie marries Jack at a quarrelsome ceremony.
Scenes
- Stan and Ollie name the atoll Crusoeland and abolish taxes, then watch strangers pour in once the rule is published.
- A government man confiscates their food for unpaid tax, and Ollie delivers the old 'nice mess' line.
Influenced by
- Robinson Crusoe
Also available
- Internet Archive (utopia)
- Fun Factory Films DVD (3 January 2013)
- Gaumont DVD (10 October 2012)
Quotes
Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!