Customer Reviews

The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy: The Complete Collection, Vol. 6

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

 

 

Volume 6 of "The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy" continues to mix classic shorts with lesser works of historical note. In "That's My Wife," Hardy's wife has left him in disgust right before his rich uncle arrives and reminds him that he will inherit everything as long as he is happily married. The only logical thing to do is to have Laurel dress up as Mrs. Hardy. The happy couple take the uncle out for a nice time at a night club, where eventually the truth is revealed and a bowl of soup adds insult to injury. Of all the many times Stan ended up in a dress, this is the best of the bunch. Despite its title "Flying Elephants" (which has to do with a sight gag) this 1928 Hal Roach-Pathe film directed by Frank is the famous one set in the Stone Age where the King has declared all bachelors must get married or face banishment and/or death! Both Stan and Ollie are interested in the same woman, the daughter of James Finlayson, who has a toothache as an additional concern. Might be the only Laurel & Hardy film where one of the boys kills the other. "Putting Pants on Philip," directed in 1927 by Clyde Bruckman, has Hardy as J. Piedmont Mumblethunder who greets Laurel as Philip, his dimwitted nephew from Scotland. The entire point here is to replace Philip's kilt with a pair of pants and stop him from chasing every flapper in sight. This is another rare one where the boys work against each other. "45 Minutes From Hollywood" is the 1926 Hal Roach two-reeler in which the boys both appear for the first time, although not together. Actually, Stan is made up with a big moustache to look just like Jimmy Finlayson. You will see every contract player on note in the Roach stable except for Charley Chase. Chase and Hardy team in the 1926 short "Crazy Like a Fox," while Laurel is represented by another 1926 film, "The Soilers" in the solo efforts tacked on at the end of this DVD.

This DVD entry is heaven for fans of old time silent comedy. The three L&H shorts, though lesser-known are are brilliant in their way, especially "That's My Wife." "Flying Elephants" is a bit lame, due to the funny caveman bit seeming rather trite nowadays, but the Boys do their best with it. "Putting Pants on Philip" is always funny due to the superb comic acting of Stan and Ollie in roles other than their traditional personnas. "45 Minutes from Hollywood" is the weakest entry here, though it features Stan and Ollie in small -- but thankless -- roles. The bonus short "The Way of All Pants" is not only a nice surprise, but a little gem starring Charley Chase. Too bad it's only one reel (one suspects it was originally a two-reeler, judging from the jumpiness of it). Content of this disc rates the highest accolades, due to the stars. Quality-wise, most of the source material is fairly decent -- my main complaint is that the same old music track is repeated endlessly and gets annoying quickly. There has to be something else available.
Otherwise, this is a must for the L&H fan.

Though there are only two L&H films proper on this compilation, they're among their funniest silent output and two of my own personal favorites of their silent shorts. I'll admit it did take me awhile to really warm up to their silent work, since like most modern-day fans I came to them through their sound shorts and was very familiar with how uncannily their voices matched their personalities and all of the onscreen action. But we don't even need sound to laugh hysterically at 'That's My Wife' (one of quite a number of times Stan dons female attire in their career!) and 'Putting Pants on Philip.' People will probably never stop arguing over which was the first true L&H short, when they stopped just being together in the same film without being part of a planned team, but 'Putting Pants on Philip' is one the titles that comes up most often as the first true teamed effort. (The other two that most commonly are argued as being the first are 'Do Detectives Think?' and 'Duck Soup.') They're not wearing their bowler hats, and their screen personalities aren't the ones we know and love just yet, but for the first time they seem to be part of a team and not just in the same film together through happenstance. The other L&H short, 'Flying Elephants,' is just bizarre, and not really because it was made after their teaming despite how they appear as rivals. The subject matter itself, prehistoric days, is strange, to say the least, certainly one of the weirdest films they ever did.

'45 Minutes from Hollywood' is one of those early shorts where they're together but not yet a team, and indeed, apart from 'The Lucky Dog' (1919?), this is their very first time appearing together in the same film. The film itself is mildly entertaining but nothing special, and probably wouldn't even be remembered today were it not for the historic value. Overall it's just a vehicle for Glenn Tryon; based on the two Glenn Tryon shorts included in this series, it's hard to say just why Hal Roach, who was usually such a wonderful judge of funnyness, thought he had the potential to become a big-time comic leading man like Harold Lloyd. Glenn just doesn't seem like anyone special, indistinct from any number of minor would-be comic stars of the Twenties.

We also have the Stan solo film 'The Soilers' (which is also included on 'The Stan Laurel Slapstick Symposium'; I wasn't keen on buying another copy of a film I already own); it's pretty good but demonstrates that alone Stan was just lacking that special something to make him a big-name star and recognisable screen presence. The final two shorts are some quite funny ones from the forgotten star Charley Chase, 'Crazy Like a Fox' (which also briefly co-stars Ollie) and the bonus short 'The Way of All Pants.' Unlike the few Glenn Tryon shorts included in this series, based on the Charley Chase shorts included on these discs I've become a big fan. Hal Roach was being a good judge of humor when he often said that Charley was the funniest fellow he'd ever known.

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.

I just recently broke down and ordered two volumes out of this 10 set series of "Lost Films of laurel and Hardy"(Volumes six-this one-and three):of Laurel and Hardy and Laurel and Hardy-related silent shorts.When I viewed them,I,nearly broke down.What a disappointment.
This series has been on the market for about eight years now.I had already purchased quite a number of just the Laurel and Hardy shorts by themselves on VHS(VERY pricey!),which explains why I hesitated so long to buy them again on DVD.But I took the plunge,and definitely regretted it after what I saw.
It seems it is getting harder and harder these days to trust ANY kind of marketing relating to any DVD releases,particularly when it comes to older films like these, and these releases just reinforce that distrust.
To begin with,absolutely NONE of these films have been remastered in any way whatsoever visually,only a scant few have had part or all of their soundtracks remastered.All sources that have been used in the making of these films have been taken from existing master tapes of various origins from which only the producer Michael Agee knows for sure,but some of which we can be fairly certain of as you will see.About the only "new" thing about these films and apparently in reality about THE ONLY good selling point is the added soundtracks taken from the original Vitaphone sound discs.But they even had to push this too far by adding the Vitaphones to every other short in this collection that never had them in the first place!
The two best that come closest to complete prints and in pretty decent shape are "That's My Wife" and(with a BIG reservation) "Flying Elephants".
Let's start the ball rolling with the latter.The print of "Elephants" as I say is overall pretty darn good BUT except for an annoying square box in the right bottom area of the film....from beginning to the end!! I had to rub my eyes,thinking I was seeing things.And it isn't small,it distracts you constantly throughout the watching of the film. Whoever put it there is obviously hiding something,probably a "banner" of some kind on the tape this film was produced from.My guess would be Blackhawk films,but your guess is as good as mine.
"Putting Pants on Philip" is in not too bad of shape but I was disappointed in the film footage gaps that were extant.It's one of my all time favourite Laurel and Hardy shorts too.
"Crazy like a Fox" is a Charly Chase short and in poor shape;not a good print.
"The Soilers" is a Stan Laurel short and in God-awful shape.This short should run around 23 minutes.This truncated version runs a scant 10 and the print looks like something picked out of a garbage can.
Lastly there is "45 Minutes from Hollywood".If "The Soilers" didn't get my goat bad enough this one topped them all.If you didn't believe me when I said these films are taken from existing master tapes THIS is the proof.Less than a minute into the film and continuing throughout the picture are very visible and annoying VIDEO LINES!! Yes that's right,those lovely little annoyances I just recently took the creators of the newly produced "McHales Navy",Shout Factory,to task on in their release of that series third season.And we can't forget also the Hallmark Laurel and Hardy DVDs that also have video lines.
As I have said before;video lines are absolutely unforgivable.It shows a complete lack of respect for:
1)The product,and
2)The consumer.

Let's move on and look directly at what is printed on every one of these releases.
"...their original Vitaphone soundtracks have been restored from vintage 16" phonograph recordings made in the 1920s".Sounds great,right? Every silent film buffs dream come true?
If you look closely at the notes for the indiviudal releases for each movie they mention the Vitaphone soundtracks included.Some will actually tell you that the Vitaphone disc is specifically from and for that particular movie;for example,"Original Vitaphone music and Effects soundtrack".Those are the ONLY ones to believe.Any others that say something like " Vitaphone soundtrack and effects" or just "music and effects" are NOT from or for the movie you are watching;which appears to be the case with the majority of shorts in this series,whether Laurel and Hardy or not.They found some original discs for some films but the majority are lost and have used an amalgam of what discs they do have to provide accompaniment for the rest of the shorts in this series.It does get stale very quickly listening to the same music over and over and over again.
"These vintage films have been meticulously digitally restored from the original 35mm negatives,dupe negatives or new safety fine grains".Another piece of great restoration right?
Remember what I said about "45 Minutes from Hollywood"? That's right,TAPE LINES!! What this tells us is NONE of this material has been remastered...none.It has been digitally transferred;that's it.What movie hasn't in recent years since the advent of digitalization?? Transferred from....?? Master Tapes."45 Minutes.." proves that beyond a shadow of doubt.You have to read between the lines here.When they restored from 35 mm negs and dups you have to ask "When were they restored"? My answer would be many,many years ago for most of this material,if not all, by people not even associated with the current producers of this DVD compilation.Want proof? If the covering up of the logo in "Flying Elephants" in this volume isn't enought to convince you,then go to Volume Three of this series.The first film on that DVD is "Liberty".A very good print one must admit.However what does one see in the opening credits? The good old Hal Roach plaque!! The same plaque used for all TV releases for the 1950s and onwards!! So the impression they give that these are NEWLY restored films is plain bunk,through and through.You can bet these films were transferred to tape years ago,taken from sources sometimes good(35 mm negs)and very bad(terrible mutli-generational dupes) and thrown together to get as close as they can to complete prints.Sometimes it works nicely,other times you just want to throw the DVD out the window.
"These films have never been shown on television and most have never been released for home video".
I think the above example of "Liberty" destroys the first point of never having been shown on TV before;completely.Most if not all HAVE been seen on TV since the 1950s(the Laurel and Hardys in particluar) and I personally recall having seen them.Then they say that most have not been released on home video.Technically I suppose the Laurel and Hardy-related films out number the actual Laurel and Hardys so I guess they can claim that "most" of the films haven't been on home video( even that is arguable).But if we are speaking of just Laurel and Hardys,Hal Roach themselves released all of them themselves on home video(VHS) before putting them onto DVD!I bought them as did many others.The fact that they just didn't bother to change the package blurbs from VHS to DVD is the culprit here.
Some of the releases mention that these DVDs couldn't have been released without the "assistance of...",usually film historian and preservationist David Shephard(who has done tremendous work in his field,especially on Chaplin material) and,on this Vol.6 release,by Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films in Paris.I have reviewed two DVD releases by Serge and Lobster films,"Flying Deuces-the Restored Version" and "Slapstick Emporium-The Stan Laurel Years,Vol#1 and both are highly recommended.I mention this because I think both David and Serge held back ,kept the good stuff for themselves and gave Michael Agee the leftovers for this release."The Soilers" is a good example.As I said above it is an absolute truncated abomination of a print.Want an excellent,full print? Get Serges' Stan Laurel "Slapstick Emporium" release where it sits in all its' full(24 minutes) and crisp,glorious splendor for all to see.
In conclusion this DVD of "Lost Films",which were not lost(ANOTHER misleading statement) is a complete disappointment and an unmitigated failure on the part of the producer Mr.Agee.The liner notes give us false and misleading statements throughout leading the potential buyers of these products assuming they are getting one thing when they are actually getting something altogether different.Under close scrutiny they just do NOT hold up at all.
Let me be clear.As one of the Boys most devoted and biggest fans,there is nothing I'd rather do more than give them a ten star rating(if it was possible) for their great performances in these films;as they deserve nothing less.It is the visual aspect(as opposed to the performing aspect)of these releases that so degrade my appreciation that I can not in good conscience give this release any more than I have.Not only is it an insult,as I have already stated,to the product and the consumer it is the greatest insult to the memories of the greatest screen comedians there have ever been;Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.And in their name I will never accept such shoddy workmanship as the producers of this release,and others that have come before would have us do,as any where near "acceptable".....NEVER!The only releases acceptable and worthy of appreciation are the recent MGM and Fox films(see my reviews for those).
Avoid these releases altogether.The Laurel and Hardy product in North America AGAIN gets short shrifted.Will it never end?

This series is a great treat for fans of silent comedy. The package covers have rather poor art but inside is a small booklet with color repros of the posters and little writeups on each pic with a color lobby card repro on the back. #6 even had a surprise bonus of a Charley Chase 1 reel. He is a wonderful talent who should be better known. Well worth the price.

There is another pants-related short on this disc starring Charley Chase.