BD 294 Laurel and Hardy : The Silent Years (1927)

[Finch]

Standing tall alongside Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin as pioneers of cinematic comedy, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are two of the most beloved comedians in the history of moving pictures. Having acted alongside each other for the first time in 1921, they officially teamed up later in the decade in a series of shorts made for producer Hal Roach – launching a wildly successful partnership that would survive into the sound era and last for another quarter of a century.

This collection captures the duo’s earliest (mis)adventures on screen, chronicling their journey from their first films together – The Lucky Dog and the aptly titled 45 Minutes to Hollywood – to the dawn of their official partnership in thirteen shorts released throughout 1927. From Duck Soup and Sailors Beware! to Do Detectives Think?, Putting Pants on Philip and The Battle of the Century (once available only in incomplete versions until its missing scenes were rediscovered in 2015), these films show the development of two independent comedians into the most influential and celebrated comedy duo of all time.

The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present the early works of Laurel & Hardy – painstakingly restored from the best available materials held by collectors and archives around the globe – in a special two-disc Blu-ray edition for the first time in the UK from 2K restorations.

The set contains the following shorts: Lucky Dog, 45 Minutes from Hollywood, Duck Soup, Slipping Wives, Love ‘em and Weep, Why Girls Love Sailors, With Love and Hisses, Sailors, Beware!, Do Detectives Think?, Flying Elephants, Sugar Daddies, The Second 100 Years, Call of the Cuckoo, Putting Pants on Phillip, and The Battle of the Century

SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow
1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from new 2K restorations
Scores by a variety of silent film composers including Neil Brand, Antonio Coppola, Eric le Guen and Donald Sosin
Alternate scores on select shorts
Audio commentary tracks on all films
New interviews with silent film experts
Image galleries
Archival recordings and interviews
A collector’s booklet featuring newly written notes on each film by Paul Merton, and a new essay by Imogen Sara Smith

[therewillbeblus]

So is this just a UK version of the Flicker Alley set?

[MichaelB]

This is wonderful news; much though I admire Flicker Alley, their releases are insanely expensive for the likes of me thanks to the post-Brexit exchange rate and sky-high postage costs, so I'd been umming and aahing about this one without ever pulling the trigger.

[swo17]

So is this just a UK version of the Flicker Alley set?

It has all the same films, though this release makes no mention of Hats Off!, a lost film included by FA as a slide presentation. Also, the FA booklet featured contributions by Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, and Serge Bromberg, so the MoC booklet looks like it will be completely different. It's hard to say how the rest of the extras might compare, as MoC's descriptions are somewhat vague. For instance, both releases advertise commentaries for every film, but will MoC's be the same as FA's (all by Skretvedt)? The composers of the scores are identical between the two releases

[rapta]

Great to see Paul Merton involved in this, as he's somewhat known for his appreciation of silent comedy (see BBC 4's Silent Clowns, which aside from Laurel & Hardy, obviously also covered Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd).

I wonder, could Eureka acquire any Lloyd, or indeed Chaplin? I suppose Criterion and BFI have done a majority of the latter, but are there any left to release that I'm forgetting? Still waiting for Criterion to release some remaining Lloyd (The Freshman, The Kid Brother) and Chaplin (The Gold Rush, Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, and eventually A Woman of Paris) over here.

[Peacock]

This is wonderful news; much though I admire Flicker Alley, their releases are insanely expensive for the likes of me thanks to the post-Brexit exchange rate and sky-high postage costs, so I'd been umming and aahing about this one without ever pulling the trigger.

Flicker Alley titles work out around $21 for a single disc title if ordered during one of their website sales, which is fairly standard in the boutique world, although true that doesn’t factor in reshipment costs to the UK.

However I for one am delighted by this announcement!

[MichaelB]

Flicker Alley titles work out around $21 for a single disc title if ordered during one of their website sales, which is fairly standard in the boutique world, although true that doesn’t factor in reshipment costs to the UK.

Actually, looking at Eureka's proposed RRP - a fair bit higher than I was anticipating - it turns out that there's not much difference!

But buying locally (to me) makes things easier.

[Peacock]

Agreed re buying locally.

I wonder if this sells well if MoC will look at porting the other FA Laurel and Hardy sets past and future?

[Altair]

That would be great - for me, their early 1930s shorts are when they're at their absolute best. I also imagine this set will appeal to a different audience compared to other MoC releases, so hopefully will be a good seller.

[What A Disgrace]

Full specs

• Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow
• 1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from new 2K restorations
• Scores by a variety of silent film composers including Neil Brand, Antonio Coppola, Eric le Guen and Donald Sosin
• Brand new audio commentaries on Lucky Dog, 45 Minutes From Hollywood, Duck Soup, Slipping Wives and Love ‘em and Weep by film historian and writer David Kalat
• Brand new audio commentaries on Why Girls Love Sailors, With Love and Hisses, Sailors Beware and The Second 100 Years by Patrick Vasey, editor of The Laurel & Hardy Magazine and host of The Laurel & Hardy Podcast
• Brand new audio commentaries on Do Detectives Think? and The Battle of the Century by film writer Chris Seguin and Kyp Harness (The Art of Laurel & Hardy: Graceful Calamity in the films)
• Brand new audio commentaries on Flying Elephants, Sugar Daddies, Call of the Cuckoo and Putting Pants on Philip by Glenn Mitchell (The Laurel & Hardy Encyclopedia)
• Brand new audio commentaries on The Second 100 Years and The Battle of the Century by silent film accompanist Neil Brand
Alternate Robert Youngson score on Putting Pants on Philip, newly restored by Stephen C. Horne
• Brand new interview with Neil Brand
Laurel & Hardy in the UK – 1932 recording by Laurel and Hardy to promote their UK tour, featuring footage of the duo visiting Tynemouth
• Turning Point: Stan Laurel – Extensive interview with Stan Laurel from 1957
• Stan Laurel talks to Tony Thomas – 1959 interview, featuring footage of Laurel & Hardy visiting Edinburgh as part of their 1932 UK tour
• Sailors Beware – Super 8 version with audio commentary by Chris Seguin and Glenn Mitchell
• The Bulldog Breed – Super 8 version of Do Detectives Think? with audio commentary by Chris Seguin and Glenn Mitchell
• The Mad Butler – Super 8 version of Do Detectives Think? with audio commentary by Chris Seguin and Glenn Mitchell
• The Battle of the Century Pie Fight – Super 8 version with audio commentary by Chris Seguin
• Stills Galleries for each short
• A collector’s booklet featuring newly written notes on each film by writer and comedian Paul Merton, and a new essay by silent cinema expert Imogen Sara Smith

[domino harvey]

All of these commentaries appear exclusive to this set, as Flicker Alley features a different historian covering all the films

[Jonathan S]

It looks like the booklet is completely different too. The FA has a 30-page booklet by three different authors. The restoration and on-location docs appear to have been dropped by Eureka. They add some visual extras, but a few of those have been previously available on other L&H releases. I think it's a good idea to have a variety of commentators; the FA commentaries turn into irritating chuckle-tracks too often for my liking.

I don't see much point in Eureka's Super 8 versions (is this a Blu-ray first for including alternate, deliberately abridged editions of any shorts?) but for people who didn't collect in the 1970s or earlier it will demonstrate how UK 8mm companies - unlike, say, Blackhawk Films - sliced up shorts and served them under new titles. A twenty-minute short could be offered in as many as ten different editions (2 reel, 2 x 1 reel, multiple 50ft segments) and neither the new titles nor 8mm catalogues gave a clue about the original title, presumably in the hope novices would unknowingly rebuy parts of the same films. The worst offender was a company called Mountain Films who themselves seemed to trade in multiple names. Even their 2 reel versions removed up to a quarter of the original length. (The Battle of the Century is a special case, as only a small edited section was known to exist in the 8mm era and I don't think even that was issued in the UK.)

[TechnicolorAcid]

I don't see much point in Eureka's Super 8 versions (is this a Blu-ray first for including alternate, deliberately abridged editions of any shorts?) but for people who didn't collect in the 1970s or earlier it will demonstrate how UK 8mm companies - unlike, say, Blackhawk Films - sliced up shorts and served them under new titles.

There have definitely been instances of shorter versions being presented on Blu-Ray like the Terror of Dracula version on some sort of Nosferatu release and while I’m not fond of it either it definitely provides some archival interest especially in understanding how films were distributed and presented in that time.

[Jonathan S]

There have definitely been instances of shorter versions being presented on Blu-Ray like the Terror of Dracula version on some sort of Nosferatu release and while I’m not fond of it either it definitely provides some archival interest especially in understanding how films were distributed and presented in that time.

Sure, shorter versions of features, but I was asking about precedents for shorter (alternate) versions of shorts.

[TechnicolorAcid]

There have definitely been instances of shorter versions being presented on Blu-Ray like the Terror of Dracula version on some sort of Nosferatu release and while I’m not fond of it either it definitely provides some archival interest especially in understanding how films were distributed and presented in that time.

Sure, shorter versions of features, but I was asking about precedents for shorter (alternate) versions of shorts.

Oh sorry misread that. Apologies.

[therewillbeblus]

Made my way through the Flicker Alley set's second disc today and only liked two: Sailors, Beware! gets mileage out of the man-baby device, which earns points for its absurdity in a vacuum but the ideas are fresh, especially once the dice game ends and the farce accelerates. Do Detectives Think?'s madcap antics were genuinely funny nearly every second in the mansion - truly the duo at the height of their slapstick talents. Unfortunately there's a long stretch of the runtime where the two participate in a forced unfunny gag involving retrieving hats and being afraid of shadows, which is obnoxiously trite and dilutes the star-rating of the whole affair. The rest were various degrees of bad-to-middling. I recall the first disc having a few gems as well, but it's been too long since I watched it to comment.