Customer Reviews

The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Laurel and Hardy were giants of the cinema in their day not only because of their immense talent but also because of the more leisurely paced times of the late 1920s and the 1930s. People in small towns could scarcely wait for the next L&H film short, much as a child can't wait for his favorite uncle to pay him a day visit and then utterly delight in the magic of the time spent with that uncle. These L&H films capture that sense of delight perfectly, because they have brought back the best available prints in DVD format of the whole range of 15-20 minute shorts that so captured the nation's fancy on a mass scale 70 years ago. Do not be misled by the unfortunate title of "lost films" -- this is not a knock-off series (it is planned as an omnium gatherum of their films); nor is it "small town" in the sense of being simpleton comedy; nor is it mere nostalgia (though it is a great throw-back to the past); nor is it a poor-quality series such as the many L&H offerings that have plagued the VHS market. This is from the source (Hal Roach Studios), and it truly does bring back great films that, by their nature as short silents, could not easily have been separately marketed and have not therefore been otherwise accessible now for decades. While these films are silent, you will discover by them just how visual artistry alone has the power to delight. Masterpieces are included (such as "Big Business"), but the whole grouping is also a delight: it is wholesome, it is clean, and it is funny, often hilariously so. I can watch these movies any time and never tire of the subtly recurring themes, the "slow burns," the tit-for-tat exchanges, and, above all, the larger-than-life characters projected by L&H that do not simply please for the moment, in a given place or culture, but rather transcend all bounds to tell all of us -- young, old, or in between, of any era and in any culture -- something about what we are as people. For the over-stimulated times in which we live, these films are most welcomed.

Volume 1 in what is planned to be a 10 volume series of the early Laurel & Hardy films, most of which have been either unavailable on commercial video for years or have never been available before - that alone is reason to rejoice and praise the DVD format. What you get on this initial volume are four L&H originals (one featuring Max Davidson - "The Call of the Cuckoo" - where L&H are in more of a supportive role) as well as two super rare pre-L&H Stan Laurel shorts. Having these "bonus" films from before the advent of Stan and Ollie is almost more than a fan could ask for! I'm shocked to see actual reviews of this series here on Amazon actually COMPLAIN (! ) about them being silent or missing frames or not up to the film quality of "The Matrix" - these folks are simply missing the point and denying themselves the rare beauty and enjoyment of these truly maverick film-makers. Hal Roach Studios in tandem with Image Entertainment (and Richard Feiner and the Nostalgia Company) have done a splendid job on this series - restoring these titles from the original 35mm material and in the case of "Big Business", from the original nitrate camera negative. In addition to the lovingly remastered films, you get some excellent DVD packaging as well. The case features a fold-out section with the original movie posters for the three team films ("Call of the Cuckoo"'s poster is missing and replaced with a couple of stills) as well as detailed source information and full descriptive notes on all six films. I would NEVER say that if you consider yourself a casual Laurel & Hardy fan, that these DVDs are for collectors only - because just about every second of film with the boys should be essential viewing. Fans who are "more than casual" obviously need no review to tell them they need these discs. However, for those who are merely interested in Laurel & Hardy, there really can't be a more wonderful introduction as these films are presented in as close to original form as possible, and it's the magic of Laurel and Hardy's screen presence that will infect your life with sincere joy and laughter.

As a film scholar fan of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy sound shorts and features, I am frustrated that there seems to be no outlet in the United States for high quality DVDs. One should not have to go to Britain or Germany to buy decent prints of SONS OF THE DESERT, WAY OUT WEST, THE MUSIC BOX, and the rest of the Laurel & Hardy sound gems.

So it is with great pleasure that I announce a superlative site for at least the long-unseen silent shorts of Laurel & Hardy--and a few friends like Charley Chase and Jimmy Finlayson. THE LOST FILMS OF LAUREL & HARDY is a ten volume DVD and VHS series from Image Entertainment and Hal Roach Studios. The stunning print sources are gorgeous 35mm nitrate camera negatives that sound as if they were recorded yesterday. This is your definitive source for silent Laurel & Hardy treasures and curios.

VOLUME ONE starts off with its crowning gem, BIG BUSINESS (1929), with the boys trying to sell Christmas trees in mid-Summer in Los Angeles. When Jimmy Finlayson won't buy a tree, the boys proceed to demolish his house bit by bit, while Finlayson goes to work destroying their car piece by piece. This uproarious 21 minute masterpiece is my favorite Laurel & Hardy silent short and close to their funniest ever.

DO DETECTIVES THINK? (1927) has the boys as inept bodyguards to a judge who has sent a convict named Noah to prison. Noah escapes and heads for the judge's house with plans to kill him. This early teaming of Laurel & Hardy is a fun masquerade romp with dueling butlers.

CALL OF THE CUCKOO (1927) has an incredible collection of comics for an 18 minute short--Laurel & Hardy, Max Davidson, Charley Chase, and Jimmy Finlayson. Max was always referred to as "The Jewish Comedian" by Hal Roach, not really uncruelly. It is his movie as his dopey family moves into a house where nothing works. Doors collapse, sinks turn on stove gas jets and vice versa, lights turn on the wrong lights, and you don't want to know about Max taking a bath while guests are seated directly below him in the dining room. This one is hysterically funny and the only Max Davidson comedy I have seen. I'd like to see more, if they are this good.

THE FINISHING TOUCH (1928) has Laurel & Hardy offered $500 if they can build a rich man's house next to a Quiet Zone hospital in one week. Edgar Kennedy guests in this one. It is predictable--nothing goes as planned, and the boys make tons of noise. But I still laughed my head off.

ON THE FRONT PAGE (1926) has a solo Stan Laurel right before he teamed up with "Babe" Hardy. In the Jazz Age, a flapper countess tries to turn the tables on tabloid publications and a publisher's son will lose his job if he does not come in with a story more sensational than his rival newspaper.

Finally, HUSTLING FOR HEALTH (an early 1918) has an unrecognizabld Stan going solo for Hal Roach during a Summer away from vaudeville. He is a frantic mess of a person, nothing at all like his immortal later persona. Familiar face Bud Jamison is the neatness freak who lives next door. Bud and Stan drive each other nuts for 15 minutes.

All six of these delightful shorts are from 35mm studio prints or nitrate camera negatives, and it shows in the stunning image clarity. And they all have lovely new music scores or original Vitaphone music with sound effects. Total running time is about 125 minutes, but you might want to ration them out over a few days to play after a lousy work day. Slapstick comedy does not get any better, both as movies and the print sources. THE LOST FILMS OF LAUREL & HARDY in ten volumes from Hal Roach Studios and Image Entertainment. A random glance at plots at Amazon.com indicates that all ten are worth owning, if you like silent slapstick comedy. Some of the later volumes have Stan or "Babe" alone, Charley Chase, or Jimmy Finlayson mixed in with traditional Laurel & Hardy..

I will not go into a synopsis of the material as that is readily available but will comment on the series itself having viewed them all.

This is a stunning collection of the early work of the `boys` and is presented from restored 35mm material much of which is taken from the original surviving negatives. Several of the titles in the series, have until fairly recently, been considered lost forever.

Each disc has detailed information on the titles and every film is presented with either the original vitaphone sound on disc (again recently discovered) synchronised with the picture or with a composite vitaphone soundtrack.

Even for those who don`t normally view `silent` movies these are astounding prints of what is now the historic formation of one the most inventive and forever lasting comedy teams ever to grace the silver screen.

Each disc deserves five stars for content, quality and value.

This is the finest presentation of what is arguably Laurel and Hardy's finest silent short, Big Business, from its original nitrate negative. The Buys are Christmas tree salesmen in Southern California when, after a couple of false starts, they tangle with the immortal James Finlayson. That alone would be enough to recomment it, but there is more. The Finishing Touch is the forerunner of Busy Bodies and a number of slapstick classics, as they are carpenters attempting to finish a house--and they do... Do Detectives Think? is a surprisingly important addition to the Laurel and Hardy canon as well, showing the Boys had refined their relationship earlier than many had suspected. And all of these three are from the original nitrate negative, so the print quality is terrific.

That alone is enough to recomment this great selection of their silents, but there's even more.

The Boys cameo in Call of the Cookoo, while Stan solos in On the Front Page (another nitrate negative), and there is even a rare 1918 Laurel short called Hustling for Health, which features a treat for Three Stooges fans--a guest role by Bud Jamison.

This is an often overlooked series for Laurel and Hardy fans, but it shouldn't be! Check out this and all the others in the series!

Barring a legitimate restoration, these discs are a tolerable way of viewing some of Laurel and Hardy's silent films, but any potential buyer should be warned that these are far from "flawless" prints. A few films (such as "Big Business") are in pretty good shape, though visual artifacting suggests they are derived from older masters (perhaps prepared for a VHS release?). And the majority seem to be cobbled together from a variety of materials in varying states of wear and resolution, and display a lot of characteristics of amateur restoration (such as the use of magnified freeze-frames for lead and inter-titles). A good example of this is "Angora Love" on Volume 2, which switches dizzyingly from fine-grain 35mm to worn 16mm in a totally unpredictable way.

While I understand that some silent films do not survive in accessible high-quality materials, the potential purchaser should be aware that these are far from "flawless" presentations.

Most problematic of all is the recycling of a few musical elements, evidently taken from other period L&H shorts, OVER and OVER and OVER for the soundtracks in this series. Rather than provide distinctive musical accompaniment for each, they have elected to reuse a few scores AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN (occasionally with the seeming addition of badly synchronized sound effects). I can only liken the effect of this to seasickness.

They are that funny! I bought it because it had "Big Business" - a film that was always shown on Christmas when I was a child in Sweden. I was so glad that I still find it funny. The other films are a bit uneven. They are, of course, all funny, but not as funny as "Big Business." The other favourite is "The Finishing Touch." This is suitable for anyone with the slightest sense of humour. They are the purest examples of Stan Laurel's special brand of slapstick. It goes a bit like a Greek drama: we know it will all end in chaos, we just do not know how. The scene is set at the beginning of the short, the characters are introduced, and slowly the small disasters and misunderstandings build up and amplify. Smiles, lead to chuckles, lead to howles, and finally to tears, stomach cramps, and frantic grasps for air as the short gets more and more unbelievably funny.

The rest of the material in this collection isn't quite on the same level of genius, but "Big Business" may be the funniest 20 minutes ever recorded on film.

I just want to say I have just received my ninth installment of this must have DVD series Hal Roach Studios Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy. The meticulous restoration process and background information makes this so enjoyable to watch. (Films as early as 1915, can you imagine?) Being re-introduced into the silent era was such a joy. Only knowing Laurel and Hardy through the talkies and TV. This DVD series brought to me a new level of enjoyment watching the golden age of comedy. I have even joined a "Sons of the Desert" tent so I could group discuss and see the other L&H movies (105 total). I just wanted to say here on Volume 1 that it is a great beginning and an introductory synopsis was necessary for this L&H DVD series. Laughter through visual comedy is the devine genius of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. They are truely kindred spirits that we can now enjoy for a life time.

Big Busniness, which from start to finish is either a chuckle or belly laugh non-stop is worth the price all by itself. And the other five two reelers are not just obscure, they are also very funny and fun. I'm sure there are more than a few Block Heads that have not viewed some of the final five films, but they are excellent. If you know you want Big Business but don't want to pay the price for just that film. Don't worry the other five are also wonderful.