Well, lessee, half the year has come and gone already, and I don't
think it's too soon to review all the very good Laurel and Hardy news
that has come out in the past six months. Let's take stock:

1. Time Warner released FRA DIAVOLO/THE DEVIL'S BROTHER with BONNIE
SCOTLAND in a two disk "TCM Archives" set, along with a bunch of L&H
clips ranging from THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 through PICK A STAR
(note that they released the two _Hal Roach_ L&H features they own the
rights to, not the later MGM L&Hs!);

2. "Those Fox people" FINALLY saw the light (a changing of the guard
in their home entertainment division?) and released DVD editions of
GREAT GUNS, JITTERBUGS (for the first time ever, anywhere!), and THE
BIG NOISE in a nice boxed set, with the other three to come soon (was
it planned, or just coincidence, that they released the first, third,
and fifth L&H Fox features, with the 2nd, 4th, and 6th to come?);

3. Wounded but game, Michael Agee carries on with his planned Greatest
Silent Laurel and Hardy Set Ever, with some hope that it may come out
by the end of THIS year (Mr. Agee, more power to you!); and

4. Perhaps the best news of all: "Those" Hallmark "people" are no
longer associated with the Hal Roach films in any way!

Jim wrote:
And last year, I was AMAZED to learn that they released

I think there has been, probably helped by seeing what Warners has been
doing. In Old Arizona has been out for quite a while though. You'll
notice that like MGM did with Karloff's The Ghoul, there's nothing on
the box that would lead you to believe that it's a 77 year old film.

Off-topic- but Universal has a 5-movie Boris Karloff collection coming
out in September.

thebobster 7/5/06 7:30 PM

Y'know this is a REALLY good time to be an old movie buff

Let's add:

5. The re-emergence of the Hal Roach package on TCM! After a rocky start
with the decolorized version of Way Out West back in April, it now appears
as if we will be getting all the shorts as well.

To follow up on Jim's comment, I have long held that we are living in the
second golden age of classic film. We have access to more wonderful and
rare material than anyone at any time since the stuff was released. And back
in the day, if you missed the latest Laurel and Hardy short on the week it
was originally released, the odds of ever seeing it again were nil. Further
proof: over on alt.movies.silent someone bitterly ranted about bits of
decomp on the only known print Swanson and Valentino's Beyond the Rocks.
Did you ever think you'd live to see the day?

Rob Farr
www.slapsticon.org
July 20-23

"Jim" comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1152120984.617135.312860@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

Rob Farr 7/6/06 2:00 AM

For some time there was reason to lament the lack of older films on DVD, as
it was a mainstream market unlike laser discs, which was more of a
collector's market. But for the past few years, major studios...

James Neibaur wrote:

It really is when you just look back 15 years, how hard it was to see
films that we have a chance now to see about every day on tv, not to
mention DVD.

James Neibaur wrote:

This would be very good indeed. But how long does it take to restore a
film? Two or three reeler as well as features? If I remember correctly
the Kirch Group began their restoration of the Laurel and Hardy shorts
and features around 1990 and it took what about ten years to complete?
Of course they also had the silents and RHI only has the talkie shorts
and features, but still that takes considerable time.

The first DVD release from Kinowelt was BEST OF LAUREL AND HARDY in
1999, a compilation of scenes from Laurel and Hardys comedies. Even
that contained a few scenes of footage from unrestored films. For
example footage from BRATS was the 1936 reissue and not the original
1930 version that was later issued restored on DVD.

Maybe they could strike a deal with the Kirch Group to use their
materials. I wonder if the material that Hallmark had that's now at
UCLA is better than the material that Kirch was working with?

Jim Reid wrote:

You're right. Maybe they can. According to Dick Bann at
www.laurel-and-hardy.com he says all the restored 35mm materials have
been sent and stored in Germany film vaults. I don't know how these
matters are worked out between the two parties but anything can be
possible. A good example is when the Spanish phonetic versions of
several Laurel and Hardy shorts were discovered in the 80's here in the
states, the Kirch Group made arragements to have copies of these films
sent over to them as part of their Laurel and Hardy package.

Another question. During the 90's many of the Laurel and Hardy shorts
and features were restored at UCLA, I remember seeing these with the
front logo at the beginning of many shorts, etc when they aired on AMC.
Does UCLA still have these 35mm elements? If so these can also be used
also.