LAUREL & HARDY: The Definitive Restorations - BLU-Ray

[Monsters For Sale]

Laurel and Hardy:  The Definitive Restorations - BLU-Ray - Kit Parker Films - Scheduled Release Date:  June 16, 2020


      The Amazon listing:

STAN AND OLLIE LOOK AND SOUND BETTER THAN EVER!

New 2K and 4K digital restorations from original 35mm nitrate, Laurel and Hardy's classic comedies are here in the best quality since their first release! Two features and 17 shorts, including the legendary pie-fight silent film The Battle of the Century, making its video debut and nearly complete for the first time in over 90 years!

Restorations by Jeff Joseph/SabuCat in conjunction with the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Library of Congress. Using careful photochemical and digital techniques, these classic films are restored to pristine condition. In these stunning new transfers, they look and sound as beautiful as they did when they were first released.


FEATURE FILMS:

     Sons of the Desert
     Way Out West

CLASSIC SHORT FILMS:

     Berth Marks
     The Battle of the Century (with new music track by Donald Sosin and virtually complete and restored)
     Brats
     Busy Bodies
     The Chimp
     Come Clean
     County Hospital
     Helpmates
     Hog Wild
     Me and My Pal
     Midnight Patrol
     The Music Box
     One Good Turn
     Scram!
     Their First Mistake
     Towed in a Hole
     Twice Two

SPECIAL FEATURES:

     L&H off-camera pix from Hardy's collection
     That's That (restored/first time on video)
     Tree in a Test Tube (restored from 16mm Kodachrome)
     Ships Reporter Oliver Hardy Interview (restored)
     Alternate Soundtracks
     Huge collection of rare photos, stills, posters, scripts and studio files
     Commentaries by Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
     Never before seen video interviews & audio interviews with L&H co-workers
     Restored Trailers and more!
     English Subtitles
 

Amazon Pre-Order: https://tinyurl.com/r547mja


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _



FINALLY!  After all these years of broken, jumpy, scratchy images that had been copied so many times that all the actors looked like mimes and sounded like feeding time at the zoo, we have some serious, professional restorations that do the boys proud:

 Here's "Me and My Pal," - Universal/Vivendi DVD from 2011 on the left, and new transfer on the right:   https://youtu.be/BP6iG4k4zoQ
 
Here's "Their First Mistake": https://youtu.be/HCSELv-koGo

Here's "Hog Wild" : https://youtu.be/jDjaDaELXO0

Here's "One Good Turn": https://youtu.be/UbcV9hfMo_0


I contacted my friend Randy Skretvedt, THE authority/historian on all things to do with Laurel & Hardy and author of "Laurel & Hardy: The magic behind the Movies", who ran all the meetings of the Unaccustomed As We Are Tent of the Official Sons of the Desert Club and enhanced every showing with detailed, live presentations about each, just off the top of his head.  He spent many years interviewing L&H co-workers and family.  Stan Laurel's widow even visited our tent.  Randy also set up projectors and did showings at libraries.  Hell, he lived Laurel & Hardy more than anyone.  I asked him if the new restorations were really worth buying these films yet again.

Randy provided me with the clips above and responded with this:
                              _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Obviously, this is not a complete set of L&H films. Each of these transfers takes a long time and lots of money. UCLA sees what the condition of available materials is and preserves the best ones first as they will take less time and dough. After Scott MacQueen and his team at UCLA do everything they can photo-chemically, a 2K or 4K digital scan is made and sent to Thad Komoroski in New York, who then does a digital clean-up, removing spots and scratches. Another group of folks works on rehabilitating the sound track. So -- this is what UCLA has done so far, with the exception of "Perfect Day," which was completed (in film, anyway) after we began work on this video release.

I do commentaries on both "Sons of the Desert" and "Way Out West" and all of the shorts except for "The Battle of the Century" (now nearly complete and making its debut on any home video release ever) and "The Music Box" (looking and sounding gorgeous, with a sound track from pre-mix original elements -- you can hear the wind rustling when Ollie asks Charlie Hall where he can find 1127 Walnut Avenue. I also did the commentaries for bonus films "The Tree in a Test Tube" (spectacularly clean and sharp and with strong, vibrant color) and "That's That" (an odd "trims and outs and bloopers" reel also making its home video debut). I also contributed segments of audio interviews and snapshots of several L&H co-workers, as well as three filmed interviews with producer Joe Rock, actress Anita Garvin and special-effects wizard Roy Seawright that I did on Super 8 sound back in 1981. So -- there's a lot of me in the almost nine hours of exclusive bonus material, along with 2,000 stills (I contributed many which were from Babe Hardy's personal collection), studio files, posters, lobby cards, press sheets and other great material. Yes, the new set is worth buying."

                    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I guess it's obvious I am excited about getting these restorations.  I am even more excited by the fact that almost all of the films have commentaries by Randy.  He has a strong, clear voice that has spent countless hours hosting radio programs and encyclopedic first-hand knowledge gained from going right to the sources and not just quoted from others' books.  His commentaries are a HUGE plus to already great picture and sound restoration.

I wish Stan & Ollie were here today, to see their work finally getting the love and respectful treatment it deserves.


I will be buying 3 copies.  One for a friend much older than me (even though it will mean getting him a BLU-Ray player, too), one to try to interest my young friends in the best of old, B&W comedy, and of course, One for ME!

[Mike Scott]

They look really nice! 

[Monsters For Sale]

They look really nice! 

Even better, they SOUND really nice.

The old sound was miserable.  Made it hard to really enjoy the films.

[Mord]

Even better, they SOUND really nice.

The old sound was miserable.  Made it hard to really enjoy the films.

It's very nice of you to keep the classics alive (even if it means buying a friend a BR player). Good for you!

[Doh!]

Great!

A few years ago, I was able to snag a swell reproduction of a "Sons of the Desert" fez from Fez-O-rama. They don't carry them right now, but sometimes will reissue designs:

https://fez-o-rama.com/blogs/news/sons-of-the-desert-fezzes

I went the color route.

[Mike Scott]

A "silver screen" fez?    Should you don greyscale clothes and use grey makeup when you wear it?

[Sir Masksalot]

L & H are so difficult to find nowadays and their comedy so classic, it doesn't matter to me what technical format they come in. Just get them out there!

[Mike Scott]

Just get them out there!

They're out there. The 10 disc Universal/Vivendi set has all the (existing) sound Hal Roach shorts and features. It seems like somebody put out a set of the silent shorts? I think all of the MGM features are available.

[Doh!]

Keaton is by far my favorite of the silent era, but the few L &H ones I've seen are REALLY funny!

[Mike Scott]

Keaton is by far my favorite of the silent era, but the few L &H ones I've seen are REALLY funny!

L & H are twice as funny with sound!

[Haunted hearse]

Laurel and Hardy may be the most successful Silent comedy teams, to transition into sound. Their voices just fit the characters so perfectly.  I still have the 1/25 scale Model T Ford Larry Harmon productions put out, which had the two, in the front seat.

[Monsters For Sale]

DeepDiscount.com has the BLU-Ray for $44.99 and the DVD for $33.49.

Orders over $25.00 ship for free.

(Buy 3 or more items and get 10% off with the promo code TIGER.)