Customer Reviews

The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Whomever wrote the scathing review of this disc from "Southern California" must be blind or was watching a different disc than the one I purchased. Volume Three contains several of the finest Laurel and Hardy comedies ever made, and all are copied from visually brilliant material--including some original 35mm camera negatives and fine grains. "LIBERTY" is, in fact, complete, and features the original Vitaphone soundtrack--it was originally issued on 16" discs back in 1929. The gentleman also must be hard of hearing, in as much as all of the soundtracks are quite different, although each was made up of essentially the same music used by Victor in creating all of their Hal Roach Vitaphone accompanyments in 1928-29. WE FAW DOWN features R-2 of the original Vitaphone soundtrack (apparently, R-1 was shattered) and is one of the most entertaining such tracks ever produced. The film is a complete, stunning, 35mm fine grain. LOVE 'EM AND WEEP is pictorially brilliant, also from a rare 35mm, BROMO AND JULIET is hysterical, and THE LUCKY DOG, the rare, complete film which first paired The Boys in 1919, is half comprised of the 35mm camera negative, half copied from famed historian Wm. K. Everson's original 1919 print. Anyone can read all of this info on the beautiful jacket, and your eyes will confirm the truth of the excellence of this Volume. You'd best buy the whole set of Ten while they're still available. (And--despite the Amazon note to the contrary, these discs are NOT regionally encoded and will play anywhere.) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

A previous reviewer noted Jean Harlow is NOT in the Laurel and Hardy comedy "Liberty". In fact, she is. The Boys are running from the cops trying to swap their trousers. There is a series of shots showing them in various venues atempting to accomplish this relatively simple task--behind a store, in an alley, behind some boxes. Finally, a guy and a pretty babe open the door to get into a taxicab--and out come The Boys, pulling up their pants. The Babe: Jean Harlow, in her first L&H appearance. INCIDENTLY, THIS DISC IS NOT REGIONALLY ENCODED AND WILL PLAY ON ANY DVD MACHINE (as it says right on the package). Also, the disc is produced by Hal Roach Studios, which is why the material is so pristine.

Volume 3 in this series continues to present silent shorts from the early days of Laurel & Hardy. The first two on this DVD have the distinction of being two of the three Laurel & Hardy comedies directed by the great Leo McCarey. "Liberty" (1929) is an absolute classic. The boys escape from prison whereupon they are picked up by friends in a car and change into civilian clothes. The simple premise for this classic comedy is that Stan and Ollie have on each other's pants, and they spend the rest of the time trying to change clothes, ending up on the high girders of a skyscraper. Obviously this is a very large tip of the hat to the work of Harold Lloyd, although the gags are all perfect for Laurel & Hardy. It is also a very risque film for its day, with the boys always being discovered lowering their pants in strange places. In "We Faw Down" the boys announce to their wives they are going to a show when they are really heading out for a poker game. When they hear the theater burned down, the wives are understandably distraught. But Stan & Ollie, having fallen into a mud puddle, have been taken by two pretty young flirts to the girl's apartment. Of course, as the boys are leaving the apartment without their trousers, their wives show up with shotguns. The film's climax is the best gag in "We Faw Down" and one of the funniest endings to a Laurel & Hardy two-reeler.

This DVD collection also invludes the very first on-screen pairing of Laurel & Hardy in 1919's "The Lucky Dog," although they are certainly not a team at this point. "Love 'Em and Weep" from 1927 is another one of the Hal Roach-Pathe comedies featuring James Finlayson in which Stan Laurel is the second comic lead and Oliver Hardy has a more minor role. All three are henpecked husbands whose lives are complicated by the return of Finlayson's old flame, Mae Busch. This particular story line is used by the boys to much better effect in their talkie "Chickens Come Home," so track it down after watching this silent version. This time around the bonus shorts reveal Oliver Hardy teamed up with other comics in a pair of 1926 two-reelers: "Along Came Auntie" with Glenn Tryon and "Bromo and Juliet" with Charley Chase. These are more interesting than the Stan Laurel shorts on the first two volumes because they provide cinematic proof that the boys were perfectly matched comedic partners.

I think calling this DVD "Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy" is somewhat misleading, because only 3 out of the 6 shorts feature the boys as the pair that most fans are familiar with.

"Bromo and Juliet," for example, has Oliver Hardy, buried under a thick mustache, in a small role as a dinner guest of Jimmy Finlayson, and Stan Laurel as one of Jimmy's employees; the two never meet in the film. In another short, Hardy shows up for a few minutes as a taxi driver.

In addition, the picture quality is not always good, but that's to be expected in films so old. And as another reviewer mentioned, the same soundtrack is used over and over, which can get a little monotonous after awhile.

Depsite the fact that this DVD wasn't exactly what I expected, however, I still enjoyed it. It was interesting to see Laurel & Hardy in roles other than "the boys" and the rest of the casts (Charley Chase, Mae Busch, Vivian Oakland, to name a few) gave hilarious performances. I recommend it to fans of Laurel & Hardy (and other silent stars as well), but be aware that not all the films may be what you might have expected.

This volume of the "Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy" series starts off with "Liberty", which, while going into Harold Lloyd territory slightly, is an utter masterpiece. Some of the stunts performed on the construction site still inspire gasps after the fourth or fifth viewing.
The second and last of the genuine Laurel and Hardy shorts on this volume is "We Faw Down," which is a delightful little comedy which, like many other Laurel and Hardy films, involves the boys trying to hide their latest fling from their wives.
Other shorts presented here are either solo-efforts ("Bromo and Juliet," "Along Came Auntie") or very early pairings, such as the hilarious "Love 'Em and Weep" and "The Lucky Dog" (which is their first film together).
The DVD looks very good, especially in "Liberty" and "We Faw Down," which are clearer than you'd expect. The others can be scratchy at times but are all very sharp. The shorts have been digitally mastered from original 35mm material, or in some cases from the original nitrate camera negatives. Like most silent films released through Image Entertainment, this is quite satisfactory.
There are no special features, other than some liner notes.

This is another superb installment in this Laurel and Hardy DVD collection. The DVD begins with one of Laurel and Hardy's finest silent films, "Liberty". This short finds the boys in "high and dizzy" situations that were more accustomed to Harold Lloyd, but they pull it off with hilarious results. "We Faw Down" is the second short and it too is another classic. The basic storyline was later used in Laurel and Hardy films such as "Be Big!", "Sons of the Desert", and "Block-heads". This DVD also gives us a look at another performer at the Hal Roach Studios, Charley Chase in "Bromo and Juliet". The film picture quality in this short is not up to the high standards set by the first two shorts, it seems scratched and faded at times, but the comic material is equally hilarious. The rare short "The Lucky Dog" is also included and we are able to see the first screen appearance of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy together even though they are not a team at this time. "Along Came Auntie" is a slaptstick/farce comedy that features Oliver Hardy, Vivian Oakland, Glen Tryon, and Lucy Beamont. It is a very entertaining short, but the first reel has a "worn looking" picture quality due to the fact that the first reel of the original nitrate print has already decomposed and lesser quality material had to be inserted, but the second reel is still around and looks great. We are very lucky that the film was found before it could be further damaged by nitrate decomposition. The final short, "Love 'Em and Weep" is one of my favorites from this DVD. It is the original silent version of Laurel and Hardy's "Chicken's Come Home (1931)", but this version has Jimmie Finlayson playing the part Ollie did in "Chickens Come Home" and Ollie plays the judge invited to Tillsbury's (Finlayson's) house The picture quality is excellant and the film is must see for any fan of Laurel and Hardy, especially fans of "Chickens Come Home" Just for a side note, you might have noticed Vivian Oakland, the talented actress who appears in three films on this DVD. She is Stan's wife in "Love 'Em and Weep", Ollie's wife in "We Faw Down" and the leading lady in "Along Came Auntie" She would also appear several years later in Laurel and Hardy's film "Scram." Fans of Our Gang (The Little Rascals) will also recognize Mae Wallce (Ollie's wife in Love 'Em and Weep) from her part as Jackie, Mary Ann and Wheezer's mother in the short "Love Business" a few years later. This is a great DVD and it contains some great films and I would highly recommend it.

To the point: for much better quality, buy the U.K. version. Not only is the picture clearer, but the synchronization between picture and sound is maintained to end of Liberty. Yes, you'll have to buy an inexpensive Region 2 DVD player, or use your computer, but sooner or later you'll have to do this anyway if you want to see your favorite films before you die. In this LOST series version of "Libery", for some reason the title "I wasn't nipping!" was re-filmed 3 times for a grand total of 17 seconds, putting the sound way, way ahead of the picture for the rest of the movie. How could the distributors not notice this? I always wonder how people stay in business these days with incompetence so rampant, and no one ever double-checks their work...

For historians, this is an interesting collection to watch once, mostly because it contains the first film L&H were in together.

I adore Laurel and Hardy comedies, both silent and sound shorts. But Volume 3 of THE LOST FILMS OF LAUREL ANDHARDY from Hal Roach Studios is a major disappointment. The prints are gorgeous studio prints with lively Jazz Age music scores. But too few of the six silent shorts are true Laurel and Hardy comedies.

LIBERTY (1929) is up first and a true Laurel and Hardy classic. They are escaped convicts who end up with each others' pants on and fish inside on top of an under construction building site in Culver City. Leo McCarey directed and George Stevens photographed this comedy gem.

The other five shorts are a mixed bag. WE FAW DOWN (1928) has a variation on the SONS OF THE DESERT (1934) plot, where the boys tell their wives they are meeting with The Boss at a theater, then getting hilariously involved with two women in a plot too convoluted to describe here. Suffice to say, the theater burns down and Laurel and Hardy have wet clothes in the apartment of the two beautiful women. The wives find that out and wait for the boys to confess. It is good fun.

BROMO AND JULIET (1926) has Oliver Hardy as a chauffeur in one of Charley Chase's funniest comedies, a parody of ROMEO AND JULIET with seemingly everyone drunk except the leading lady. Of course, it has a happy ending and is a very good introduction to Chase's comedy persona.

THE LUCKY DOG (1919), the first real Laurel and Hardy movie, has Laurel starring and Hardy in a small role as a crook. Shown for decades in only a heavily cut version, we owe this complete 24 minute print to the late William K. Everson. It is a rare and fascinating curio, not bad.

ALONG CAME AUNTIE (1926) stars someone named Glenn Tryon, along with Oliver Hardy without Laurel. Tryon is the current husband and Hardy the first husband of a woman who will inherit a fortune from a rich aunt if she can prove she has never been divorced. So Tryon has to masquerade as a roomer and not a husband. Again, not a real L & H comedy at all, but with hilarious slapstick moments.

The film that gives me the most trouble here is LOVE `EM AND WEEP (1927). If you did not know this was a Laurel and Hardy comedy, you would swear it was a full-fledged film noir--happily married Jimmy Finlayson is being blackmailed by nasty Mae Busch, with whom he had a fling in his younger days. Busch wants money, or she will tell the wife everything. Laurel plays Finlayson's secretary, and Hardy has a small role. Laurel and Hardy remade this as a sound short called CHICKENS COME HOME a few years later, with Hardy in Finlayson's role and Busch repeating her villainous role. I did not laugh very much and would love to see LOVE `EM AND WEEP in a theater with an audience to see if they laugh at it.

Again, the print quality is magnificent in this whole LOST FILMS OF LAUREL AND HARDY series, and the music scores are nostalgic. Volume Three is wildly uneven, but sometimes great. Don't start your collection with this one, unless it sounds wonderful to you from my review. There are better volumes.

First of all, why title this review,WHEN WILL WARNER HOME VIDEO FOLLOW SUIT? - - well as most people know Warner Bros. bought up TURNER a few years ago and thus inherited all the old MGM films, including Laurel and Hardy's sound shorts and features.

I would think the great quality of the IMAGE releases and incredibly strong reception from us home viewers should be inspiration enough to start releasing some other Laurel and Hardy treasures.

As far as this DVD is concerned, it is great as are the rest in the series. I highly recommend them to all Laurel and Hardy fans.

I have purchased Vol.3 and now have the whole Lost Films set. I live in the UK and have also obtained the 21 disc collection released by Universal. I have compared the silents of both sets back to back and I have to say that 'The Lost Films' set has many good points but the negatives out-weigh the positives.

The Silent films presented on the Universal set for the most part have been digitally cleaned, restored, mastered and scored with music from the band Beau Hunks who do a fantastic job of re-creating/scoring the soundtracks from the L&H talkies.

The problem with the 'Lost Films' set is that it has constant niggling problems throughout which, if were left out would make this set better than the Universal set.

Negatives:

Freeze Frames; Constantly the films picture freezes for a second either just before a change of scene/shot or before the title card is about to appear, an example of this is in the film Liberty, which is presented in this volume. Frozen pictures are used to fill in where there is perhaps missing footage, if the footage is lost, then it would be better not to use it at all rather than use freeze frames of existing footage, e.g The Second Hundred Years. Also there are a few scenes in certain films where the same bit of footage is repeated e.g Their Purple Moment.

Music; There are several shorts in this collection that uses the original Vitaphone Record scores that were made to be played along with the film. That is all very good and a great bonus, but what is incredibly annoying is when the films that don't have their existing Vitaphone Record sountracks use elements from the various Vitaphone sountracks and mish-mash them together, this particularly irritating when sound affects of car honks, horse nays and piana keys bashing is played over the top of a film that doesn't even require the sound effect. Also a lot of the music is not in sync, particuarly Wrong Again and Liberty.

Print Quality; A lot of the prints in 'The Lost Films' set are the same as the Universal collection but some of the materials used in the Lost Films are from better 35mm/16mm prints. This is the case for From Soup To Nuts and Wrong Again and Angora Love which has elements of better footage over the Universal set. The annoying thing is that the footage changes constanlty from excellent quality to very good quality to poor quality. This wouldn't be so noticable if the changes weren't so frequent and random, particularly with Angora Love. One minute you are viewing a very nice 35mm print then right in the middle of the same scene it cuts to a lesser 16mm print. The switch should occur on a change of scene and not in the middle of it. I'd rather watch a very good print all the way through than an excellent print that randomly changes to inferior quality all the way through. Also a hurrendous error by the producers of these films is the terrible grey square in the right hand corner of the films Flying Elephants and Habeas Corpus, it is distracting, ugly and unnesessary. Although the print of Flying Elephants overall is better than the Universal version, I keep watching the Universal one because unlike the Lost Films version it doesn't distract me from what I am watching. Another nagging factor is the constant change of film speed, some scenes are slowed down in order for us the viewer to catch the short flash of footage, this, like the constant changing of picture quality is distracting and doesn't need to be done.

Video Transfers; I think these prints are overall gorgeous, if not a little too greyscale. What ruins them and makes them less superior over the Universal set is that they in fact haven't been digitally remastered for DVD release at all. The versions presented on DVD are from the VHS/Laserdisc masters. If they hade been digitally cleaned, upscaled and restored I would think that they would look better than the Universal prints, but unfortunetely they haven't been so although they are excellent prints they are just not as good as they could have looked. Another case in point is the constant video lines that appear throughout the films, e.g 45 Minutes From Hollywood, Putting Pants on Philip and Leave Em laughing and many more. This is amateur-ish and should never be present on DVD masters, the Universal set certainly doesn't suffer from this.

Positives:

Frame; These films are not cropped as much as the Universal set so with these prints you do see more of the picture which is a great plus.

Footage: Other than Putting Pants On Philip and Love Em & Weep a lot of the Lost Films shorts contain missing footage and intertitles that are not included on the Universal set but are present on the Lost Films DVDs.

Intertitles: Although freeze frames are annoying I don't mind freeze frames of intertitles it's nice that they are presented, but I do very much like the re-created titles on the Universal set.

So overall I think the Universal set wins by some margin, the saddest part is, if a little more care and attention was paid to these prints the Lost Films collection would have been better than any previous release of Laurel & Hardy's silent films. Maybe next time.