Customer Reviews

Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy #

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4 star:		(1)
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First of all, why title this review,WHEN WILL WARNER HOME VIDEO FOLLOW SUIT? - - well as most people know Warner Bros. bought up TURNER a few years ago and thus inherited all the old MGM films, including Laurel and Hardy's sound shorts and features.

I would think the great quality of the IMAGE releases and incredibly strong reception from us home viewers should be inspiration enough to start releasing some other Laurel and Hardy treasures.

As far as this DVD is concerned, it is great as are the rest in the series. I highly recommend them to all Laurel and Hardy fans.

I think calling this DVD "Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy" is somewhat misleading, because only 3 out of the 6 shorts feature the boys as the pair that most fans are familiar with.

"Bromo and Juliet," for example, has Oliver Hardy, buried under a thick mustache, in a small role as a dinner guest of Jimmy Finlayson, and Stan Laurel as one of Jimmy's employees; the two never meet in the film. In another short, Hardy shows up for a few minutes as a taxi driver.

In addition, the picture quality is not always good, but that's to be expected in films so old. And as another reviewer mentioned, the same soundtrack is used over and over, which can get a little monotonous after awhile.

Depsite the fact that this DVD wasn't exactly what I expected, however, I still enjoyed it. It was interesting to see Laurel & Hardy in roles other than "the boys" and the rest of the casts (Charley Chase, Mae Busch, Vivian Oakland, to name a few) gave hilarious performances. I recommend it to fans of Laurel & Hardy (and other silent stars as well), but be aware that not all the films may be what you might have expected.

This volume of the "Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy" series starts off with "Liberty", which, while going into Harold Lloyd territory slightly, is an utter masterpiece. Some of the stunts performed on the construction site still inspire gasps after the fourth or fifth viewing.
The second and last of the genuine Laurel and Hardy shorts on this volume is "We Faw Down," which is a delightful little comedy which, like many other Laurel and Hardy films, involves the boys trying to hide their latest fling from their wives.
Other shorts presented here are either solo-efforts ("Bromo and Juliet," "Along Came Auntie") or very early pairings, such as the hilarious "Love 'Em and Weep" and "The Lucky Dog" (which is their first film together).
The DVD looks very good, especially in "Liberty" and "We Faw Down," which are clearer than you'd expect. The others can be scratchy at times but are all very sharp. The shorts have been digitally mastered from original 35mm material, or in some cases from the original nitrate camera negatives. Like most silent films released through Image Entertainment, this is quite satisfactory.
There are no special features, other than some liner notes.

This is another superb installment in this Laurel and Hardy DVD collection. The DVD begins with one of Laurel and Hardy's finest silent films, "Liberty". This short finds the boys in "high and dizzy" situations that were more accustomed to Harold Lloyd, but they pull it off with hilarious results. "We Faw Down" is the second short and it too is another classic. The basic storyline was later used in Laurel and Hardy films such as "Be Big!", "Sons of the Desert", and "Block-heads". This DVD also gives us a look at another performer at the Hal Roach Studios, Charley Chase in "Bromo and Juliet". The film picture quality in this short is not up to the high standards set by the first two shorts, it seems scratched and faded at times, but the comic material is equally hilarious. The rare short "The Lucky Dog" is also included and we are able to see the first screen appearance of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy together even though they are not a team at this time. "Along Came Auntie" is a slaptstick/farce comedy that features Oliver Hardy, Vivian Oakland, Glen Tryon, and Lucy Beamont. It is a very entertaining short, but the first reel has a "worn looking" picture quality due to the fact that the first reel of the original nitrate print has already decomposed and lesser quality material had to be inserted, but the second reel is still around and looks great. We are very lucky that the film was found before it could be further damaged by nitrate decomposition. The final short, "Love 'Em and Weep" is one of my favorites from this DVD. It is the original silent version of Laurel and Hardy's "Chicken's Come Home (1931)", but this version has Jimmie Finlayson playing the part Ollie did in "Chickens Come Home" and Ollie plays the judge invited to Tillsbury's (Finlayson's) house The picture quality is excellant and the film is must see for any fan of Laurel and Hardy, especially fans of "Chickens Come Home" Just for a side note, you might have noticed Vivian Oakland, the talented actress who appears in three films on this DVD. She is Stan's wife in "Love 'Em and Weep", Ollie's wife in "We Faw Down" and the leading lady in "Along Came Auntie" She would also appear several years later in Laurel and Hardy's film "Scram." Fans of Our Gang (The Little Rascals) will also recognize Mae Wallce (Ollie's wife in Love 'Em and Weep) from her part as Jackie, Mary Ann and Wheezer's mother in the short "Love Business" a few years later. This is a great DVD and it contains some great films and I would highly recommend it.

Whomever wrote the scathing review of this disc from "Southern California" must be blind or was watching a different disc than the one I purchased. Volume Three contains several of the finest Laurel and Hardy comedies ever made, and all are copied from visually brilliant material--including some original 35mm camera negatives and fine grains. "LIBERTY" is, in fact, complete, and features the original Vitaphone soundtrack--it was originally issued on 16" discs back in 1929. The gentleman also must be hard of hearing, in as much as all of the soundtracks are quite different, although each was made up of essentially the same music used by Victor in creating all of their Hal Roach Vitaphone accompanyments in 1928-29. WE FAW DOWN features R-2 of the original Vitaphone soundtrack (apparently, R-1 was shattered) and is one of the most entertaining such tracks ever produced. The film is a complete, stunning, 35mm fine grain. LOVE 'EM AND WEEP is pictorially brilliant, also from a rare 35mm, BROMO AND JULIET is hysterical, and THE LUCKY DOG, the rare, complete film which first paired The Boys in 1919, is half comprised of the 35mm camera negative, half copied from famed historian Wm. K. Everson's original 1919 print. Anyone can read all of this info on the beautiful jacket, and your eyes will confirm the truth of the excellence of this Volume. You'd best buy the whole set of Ten while they're still available. (And--despite the Amazon note to the contrary, these discs are NOT regionally encoded and will play anywhere.) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

As a huge admirer of L&H, I was looking forward to buy this entire series. In fact vol. 3 was the first DVD we purchased because Liberty is such a masterpiece. I expected some of the other films to be filler, but so be it. Hal Roach studio re-release is a fraud. The copies used are horrible at time, especially in Liberty. In a film where timing is crucial, missed frames kill several scenes. The worst part is the soundtracks or rather, soundtrack since there is only one for all six films, constantly repeated and almost always incongruous. The result is boredom for something which should be close to pure joy.

A previous reviewer noted Jean Harlow is NOT in the Laurel and Hardy comedy "Liberty". In fact, she is. The Boys are running from the cops trying to swap their trousers. There is a series of shots showing them in various venues atempting to accomplish this relatively simple task--behind a store, in an alley, behind some boxes. Finally, a guy and a pretty babe open the door to get into a taxicab--and out come The Boys, pulling up their pants. The Babe: Jean Harlow, in her first L&H appearance. INCIDENTLY, THIS DISC IS NOT REGIONALLY ENCODED AND WILL PLAY ON ANY DVD MACHINE (as it says right on the package). Also, the disc is produced by Hal Roach Studios, which is why the material is so pristine.

I have been looking for the movie Shoe Shine Girl for about 12 years now and i can't find it anywhere.I used to watch it all the time when i was a little girl but i don't really remember the main characters names. I heard somewhere along the line that it is a Laurel and Hardy flic. If you have any info. PLEASE email me at skylucor@aol.com. Thanks! :)

These guys were definitely among the best physical comics ever! You should definitely check out "Liberty" where the two caper around scared witless on top of an unfinished skyscraper (incidentally, it inaccurately states Jean Harlow is in this picture; she's not, but the picture's still great!).