Description: Mastered from the original 35mm material, this third volume of lost films from the great comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy includes all silent shorts: "Liberty" (1929, 20 min.), "We Faw Down" (1928, 21 min.), the very first on-screen pairing of Stan and Ollie in "The Lucky Dog" (1919, 24 min.), "Love 'Em and Weep" (1927, 24 min.), the Glenn Tryon/Oliver Hardy short "Along Came Auntie" (1926, 24 min.), and the Charley Chase/Oliver Hardy short "Bromo and Juliet" (1926, 24 min.).
Out of Sync 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.
Disappointing and misleading silent comedy volume
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.
The Laughs Continue! We all experience many important "firsts" in our lives that stay with us. First love, first kiss, first Christmas..ect. Well one of the things I remember was the first thing I saw that made me laugh. It was Laurel and Hardy. It wasn't one of the shorts presented here but their movie "Way Out West". From a young child I've always been a fan of their comedy. Knowing this recently I was given several of these DVD collections featuring Laurel and Hardy's silent works, and even solo pieces. I will review each short individually.
LIBERTY (1929, 20 Mins.) - The "boys" were known for their "mixed-up" derby gag, well here they play a variation of it, the "mixed-up" pants gag. While escaping jail the two mix up their pants in a get-a-way car. Only afterwards do they realize what they have done that they seek a place to change pants. This leads the two to find themselves high above a construction site where they are several stories high. In a way the piece is like "Puttin' Pants On Phillip", a short the team made in 1927. But many claim it resembles a Harold Lloyd short. Back in the 1920's daredevil or "thrill" comedies were quite popular and Lloyd, along with Buster Keaton, were known for these comedies. In fact Lloyd did appear in a short where he too was atop a construction site, "Never Weaken (1921)". While the daredevil comedy is not really Laurel and Hardy's strong suit the "boys" turn this into one of their best silent comedies. I'd say one of the top three. *** 1/2 (out of *****)
WE FAW DOWN (1928,21 MINS.) - "We Faw Down" has the boys lying to their wives in order to go out to a poker game. They tell the wives they are going to meet THE BOSS at a theater. Well as things turn out that very theater burns down but the wives see the "boys" with two women whom they innocently helped out when one of the ladies lost their hat. The theme was later reused in the 1933 film the team made "Sons of the Desert" and the ending was also reused in "Block-Heads (1938)". In fact what Laurel and Hardy did, along with other silent comedians, was simply repeat all of their material for sound, not that there's anything wrong with that. Here is a good idea that simply doesn't seem developed enough, maybe it just needed to be seen in a longer format, but it does have some laughs. *** (out of *****)
BROMO AND JULIET (1926,24 MINS) - On these "Lost" DVD'S not all of the shorts star Laurel and Hardy as a team, this is one of them. These DVD'S sometimes have Charley Chase shorts which Oliver Hardy acted in. I'm glad that we can see some of Chase's shorts, but keep in mind not all of them are good. Though there is a good one on volume 5 of the series. This one can get kind of boring and doesn't really show Chase at his best. ** (out of *****)
THE LUCKY DOG (1917,24 MINS) - The DVD says this was made 1919, IMDB says 1917, I'm going with IMDB, you can chose which one you like.
"The Lucky Dog" has Laurel and Hardy appearing together in a short for the first time, though they are NOT a team. They are rivals. In seems this piece has never been available in its "complete" form until now, aren't we "lucky"? Actually though the short is funny. It moves along briskly, at times I was a little confused as to what exactly was going on, but I went along with it and had some mild fun. Plus fans of the team I'm sure will be curious to see this if only for "historical" purposes. *** (out of *****)
ALONG CAME AUNTIE (1926, 24 MINS) - Harold Lloyd once said that between Stan and Oliver, Stan would have made it as a single. Having seen more shorts with only Stan I think he may have been right. "Auntie" shows how Oliver didn't really have a fully developed persona until Laurel came along. Stan could carry a short by himself I think, but Oliver couldn't. "Auntie" is pretty funny at times, and has a really good situation, sometimes though the slapstick comedy gets in the way, too much beating each other up. But I laughed enough to recommend it. A little crude but funny. *** (out of *****)
LOVE 'EM AND WEEP (1927, 24 MINS) - Like "Auntie" this is a fast-paced comedy that doesn't waste any time getting into things. It was remade in 1931 as "Chickens Come Home". If you've seen that one, James Finlayson plays the Oliver part with Stan playing the same role in both. Oliver has a brief role as a guest at the party. This is actually pretty funny, but I think dialogue was needed. Between the two I think most people will agree "Chickens" is better. Also worth mentioning is Mae Busch plays the same part in both versions. *** (out of *****)
So there you have it. A pretty solid collection of early Laurel and Hardy shorts and solo pieces. Some of the stuff on here is really funny, and the Chase short kind of disappoints. In the end though this is worth seeing, especially if you're a fan. This DVD'S were really designed for us, the devoted fans of the greatest comedy team of all-time. It is very interesting to see how the team grew and chemistry was put in place the more they worked together.
Bottom-line: Mostly good collection of early Laurel and Hardy shorts. These are really essentials for the devoted fans, others I'm afraid may not be interested enough to watch all of them. "Liberty" is the best in the set.
STUNNING! 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.
Good material with only minor flaws The shorts presented herein are very fine and funny material, even the shorts that aren't real L&H shorts per se because they either appeared together but hadn't been teamed yet or because only one of them were appearing. The strongest material of course comes from the two proper L&H shorts, 'Liberty' and 'We Faw Down'; I also very much like 'The Lucky Dog,' the film in which they first appeared together, even though they were nowhere near getting teamed yet. 'Love 'Em and Leave 'Em' is the original silent version of what later became 'Chickens Come Home'; but for the difference of roles (Ollie and not Jimmy Finlayson plays the blackmailed husband running for mayor in the sound version), it's such a practically word-by-word and gag-by-gag retelling it's uncanny. 'Bromo and Juliet,' the Charley Chase short in which Ollie appears as a police officer, is very funny and enjoyable too; it's a criminal shame that today this great funnyman and performer is all but forgotten. 'Along Came Auntie,' which was rescued from near-decomposition, is also enjoyable, but overall I'd peg it as the weakest of the six shorts presented here. Of course the material on the discs in this collection are fantastic, but it just seems like they were assembled without rhyme or reason, like by theme or chronological order.
There are however a few minor flaws; it appears that this DVD is like the others in this collection in that it just starts playing right away, or at least it does so on my computer's DVD player. You have to click the Menu button on the control bar to be brought to the main menu to select the short you want to see yourself, and if you're only interested in seeing one, four, and six, say, you have to repeat this every time instead of having it automatically start and the beginning and not display the menu by itself until the final short is over. The background music, even if some of it may have been the original backing soundtrack in theatres, can also become repetitive and monotonous. Sure it's not EXACTLY the same throughout every short, but it's not very varied either.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
