Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy: Early Silent Classics, Volume 1

NOTHING NEW HERE, save your money if you have the other DVD sets listed below!

**WARNING** 3 films are re-issue 10 minute cut downs of 25 minute shorts! PAPERHANGER'S HELPER; LUCKY DOG; and ENOUGH TO DO!

A word about this DVD: UN-RESTORED.

However, this first DVD from Alpha/Gotham is nicely mastered from 16mm film. Most of these titles are available elsewhere from restored 35 mm prints (Image & Kino). The picture is watchable. I would have given this 4 stars (****) had there been some video restoration, like freezing short title cards so that we can read them. You may find yourself hitting the 'Pause' button to read some title cards.

One other problem: The 'Menu'. It only shows frame grabs from the shorts and you have to guess what the title of the short is. The menu for Volume #1 also only offers access 6 of the 7 shorts on the DVD. To watch the 7th short, you must select the 6th short and hit the 'Fast Forward' button to get to the 7th short. An oversight in the DVD authoring.

While still classic films, these are Oliver Hardy's solo films, with Stan starring in one of them and directing another.
The Oliver Hardy-Bobby Ray shorts play more like the classic Laurel & Hardy films. "Babe" and Ray work as a team, sharing the spot light and forshadowing what "Babe" will later do with Stan.

The Larry Semon shorts just star Larry, Ollie is a supporting player sometimes hard to recognise under the make-up.

The other films have Oliver Hardy in more character roles, being the villian or heavy.


1) THE PAPER HANGER'S HELPER (Cut down from original 2 reel title: STICK AROUND)- Oliver Hardy & Bobby Ray (1915), Hardy and his helper (Bobby Ray) answer the emergency call of a sanatorium. It is obvious that the middle of the short has been removed when cutting it down to one reel.- THE COMPLETE 25 MINUTE VERSION IS AVAILABLE ON THE KINO "OLIVER HARDY COLLECTION".

2) LUCKY DOG - Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy (as a camoe villain) 1st time together! (1917) - Sigh! The same EXCERPT available from everyone else! The ONLY COMPLETE version is on the "LOST FILMS OF LAUREL & HARDY Volume 3" DVD release.

3) THE SAW MILL - Oliver Hardy & Larry Semon (1921)- This is the worst quality in the set. The picture is soft and contrasty making it hard to find "Babe" who is heavily made up. THE KINO "OLIVER HARDY COLLECTION" DVD restores this from 35mm.

4) HOP TO IT, BELLHOP (original title "Hop To It") - Oliver Hardy & Bobby Ray (1922)- A fairly sharp copy, but THE KINO "OLIVER HARDY COLLECTION" DVD restores this from 35mm with the original titles.

5) KID SPEED - Oliver Hardy & Larry Semon (1924)- Decent sharp copy (Also Available on the Passport "Laurel OR Hardy Collection").

6) YES, YES, NANETTE - Oliver Hardy & James Finlayson (Stan Laurel directed this)(1926)- Decent sharp copy, but a superior copy is available from KINO on their "STAN LAUREL COLLECTION" DVD.

7) ENOUGH TO DO (Cut down from original 2 reel title: WANDERING PAPAS) - Oliver Hardy & Clyde Cook (1926) A nice sharp copy. It is obvious that the second half is missing, the short just fades out abruptly! The complete version is on THE LOST FILMS OF LAUREL & HARDY volume 9!

This was highly entertaining. All segments were equally good. They move along- are clearly undestandable even without the captions. The captions were brief in time and that was good. I was amazed to learn that Laurel also directed and quite extensively.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars