By Steve Crum
As a guy who wallows in the nostalgia of vintage show business, I am having anticipatory palpitations. The condition is purely fan-based, gushy, and driven by a slate of soon-to-be-released motion pictures. In other words, FINALLY…the lives of Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, and Gilda Radner will be headlining the world’s multiplexes. 
LOVE, GILDA is all about the gifted, beloved comedienne, Gilda Radner, who died of cancer at 42 young years in 1989. Directed by Lisa D’Apolito, the documentary features Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Chevy Chase, Lorne Michaels, Laraine Newman, Martin Short, Paul Shaffer and Melissa McCarthy. They will speak to Gilda’s private persona as well as comedic influences on their careers. Opening Sept. 21, Love, Gilda will feature clips from her Saturday Night Live days as well her celebrated concert film. Gilda’s own words, culled from her diaries, will be interspersed with previously unheard audio tapes and family home movies.
THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION, a documentary written and directed by Peter Bogdonovich, opens Oct. 5., the day after Buster Keaton’s birthday. For my money, Buster remains the most brilliant film comedian of the silent era. No doubt the movie will mention his 1895 birth in Piqua, Kansas. Besides clips and behind-the-scenes interviews and remembrances about Keaton’s masterworks The General, Steamboat Bill, and the like, I hope there is at least mention of the yearly celebration of Keaton’s life and works held near his birthplace, in Iola. (I made the annual journey there over the last two decades.) Bogdonovich’s film includes recent interviews with Mel Brooks, Quentin Tarantino, Bill Hader, and others.
STAN & OLLIE, opening Jan. 11, 2019, is a biographical dramedy based on one year (1947) in the personal and professional lives of arguably the greatest movie comedy team of all time, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. (No argument by me. The Boys ARE the greatest.) The focus is on Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy’s tour of postwar Great Britain, accompanied by their wives. Jon S. Baird directs a screenplay written by Jeff Pope (Philomena). Pope has long considered Laurel and Hardy his “heroes.” 
John C. Reilly (Chicago) is Ollie; Steve Coogan (Philomena) is Stan. There are no other box office names filling out the cast. That includes the actresses portraying the duo’s wives, Ida (Mrs. Laurel) and Lucille (Mrs. Hardy). Others depicted include names early movie fans will recognize: Hal Roach, James Finlayson, James Horne, and Joe Schenck. Music is by the prolific composer, Rolfe Kent, probably most famous for his Sideways score. 
This is one film that I, a Sons of the Desert member, can hardly wait to see. Early reports say it is Oscar worthy. Considering how previous Hollywood “biographies” slaughtered the images of Buster Keaton (The Buster Keaton Story), W. C. Fields (W.C. Fields and Me), and Abbott and Costello (Bud and Lou), Stan & Ollie could deliver big time.
Please do not make this one “another fine mess.”
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