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| Cover art photo from: Clyde Bruckman: Leave 'Em Laughing (US 1928) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. At the dentist, they have overdosed on laughing gas. |
OFFICIAL INTRODUCTION FROM THE FLICKER ALLEY HOMEPAGE:
Laurel & Hardy: Year Two
Regular price €40,95 EUR
2-DISC BLU-RAY EDITION
Following their initial pairing in early 1927, Laurel and Hardy ended their first year on top. Their success moving into 1928 galvanized the efforts of everyone at Hal Roach Studios (including famed director Leo McCarey), who proudly upped their game in support of the winning comedy duo. Whether wreaking accidental havoc as a two-man band, doing battle against one another as millionaire and butler, or even becoming grave robbers for a mad scientist, Laurel and Hardy prove in their second year that they have what it takes to not only win over audiences in the twilight of the silent era, but generate enough momentum to make a successful transition to “talkies” in 1929.
Although their names are synonymous with the very idea of comedy, few of the original negatives for Laurel and Hardy’s early silent work survive, elements only available from scattered sources throughout the world, often in substantially less than pristine shape. It took the team at Blackhawk Films four years to gather all surviving film elements, to meticulously compare them shot by shot, and to complete the best digital restorations possible. Today, these beloved shorts look as new as they did nearly a century ago.
Featuring all new restorations sourced from best available materials contributed by archives and collectors around the world restored by Blackhawk Films® and FPA Classics, this comprehensive deluxe Blu-ray 2-Disc collection features their ten 1928 films as a team and additional films from the Hal Roach Studios that showcase their final solo short film appearances, as well as the shift from silent films to films featuring music and synchronized sound effects.
Shorts on the Laurel & Hardy: Year Two set include:
Leave 'em Laughing
The Finishing Touch
From Soup to Nuts
You're Darn Tootin'
Their Purple Moment
Should Married Men Go Home?
Early to Bed
Two Tars
Habeas Corpus
We Faw Down
Each film features a newly recorded score from some of the best silent film composers working today, including Andreas Benz, Neil Brand, Robert Israel, and Jean-François Zygel. The release is curated by film historians and Laurel and Hardy specialists; Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, Serge Bromberg, and Eric Lange.
BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:
Audio Commentary Tracks – For each film by historians and authors Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
Exclusive, Rare Audio – Featuring Anita Garvin, Thomas Benton Roberts, and Hal Roach, from personal interviews conducted by historian Randy Skretvedt
Additional Musical Scores – Alternate audio options, including fully restored original 1928 Vitaphone tracks on Habeas Corpus and We Faw Down, and vintage Blackhawk Films® scores on You're Darn Tootin' and Two Tars
Laurel & Hardy: On Location in Year Two – A video essay by historian John Bengtson on selected location exteriors
Now I’ll Tell One (1927) – A rare fragment of a Charley Chase two-reeler featuring appearances by both Stan & Ollie
Eve’s Love Letters (1927) – One of Stan Laurel’s final solo films, directed by Leo McCarey and written by Laurel himself, from rare 35 mm elements
Galloping Ghosts (1928) – Two surviving fragments of a rare solo Oliver Hardy comedy
A Pair of Tights (1929) – A short starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron, who were teamed to try and replicate the success of Laurel and Hardy
George Mann’s Home Movies – From behind the scenes of Hal Roach Studios, including the filming of Should Married Men go Home?
A Complete, 20-minute Interview – By Tony Thomas with Stan Laurel, recorded in January 1959, the year after Oliver Hardy’s death
Film Specific Image Galleries – Containing original publicity materials, press reviews, and rare production stills
Souvenir Booklet – Containing a new collection introduction by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange; A look at the supporting players and other creative personnel in the world of Hal Roach Studios by historian Sara Imogen Smith; A new essay exploring the development of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in 1928 by Randy Skredvedt; and comprehensive notes on each film
English SDH Subtitles
Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
All Region Encoding (A,B,C)
Release Date: October 29, 2024
Format: Blu-ray
Region: ALL REGION
Directors: Leo McCarey, Clyde Bruckman, Edgar Kennedy, Emmett J. Flynn, James Parrott
Year: 1928
Language: Silent (English Intertitles)
Length: 212 mins.
UPC: 6-17311-68869-0
Official data from the Flicker Alley homepage.
AA: I have just watched the ten films from the main menu of the Laurel & Hardy: Year Two blu-ray box set. I have previously blogged about Laurel & Hardy: Year One. It was a highlight of the year, and the same ranking is inevitable for Year Two. In a multi-year enterprise, a terrific team of experts (see above) has collected the best materials of the beloved movies which have been circulating for decades in often mediocre, sometimes terrible condition. Like a phoenix, they now rise from the ashes in the Flicker Alley / Blackhawk Films project.
These films are called slapstick, which they are, but even more they are masterful character studies. The actors are fantastic, the ensemble playing seamless.
"Laughter is infectious" is a favourite Laurel & Hardy situation, already refined to perfection in Leave 'Em Laughing. "Nauru pidentää ikää" is a Finnish proverb, meaning "laughter prolongs life". The English expression would be "laughter is the best medicine". It has been said that nobody has brought more laughter to the world than Laurel and Hardy, and their silent shorts are a candidate for the funniest films ever made in terms of sheer laughter.
The Finishing Touch is an old favourite of mine. This time my biggest laughter was in sequence of the final examination when the delighted home-owner has just paid a generous reward to Laurel and Hardy. Then a bird settles on the chimney, causing a chain reaction of disintegration, and this is just the beginning of the end.
In From Soup to Nuts, Anita Garvin, already a familiar presence in Laurel & Hardy films, rises to equal stature and comic energy. As the newly rich Mrs. Culpepper, the hostess at a high society dinner, she struggles with elementary etiquette and the ordeal of catching an elusive cherry. The distinction is that we are not laughing at her but with her, sharing her horror, pain and suffering.
In You're Darn Tootin' the exceptionally fine visual quality of the copy serves as a reminder and rises to a defining moment of the standard in which all the films should be imagined.
Their Purple Moment is the first movie in which Laurel and Hardy are married. The harridan wives are immediately at their blood-thirstiest. ("I'll carve him". The other carries a revolver). A favourite story concept, brilliantly recycled in Blotto.
Should Married Men Go Home? has been digimastered from brilliant source materials. It is a comedy of daringly long and embarrassing waits balanced with mudslinging galore. The switch between a piece of wet turf and Edgar Kennedy's toupée... what a stupid but irresistible gag!
Although the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy characters were firmly established, remarkable variations were possible. In From Soup to Nuts, after Hardy's second slip on the banana peel, Stan slips out of character, loses his temper and turns arrogant towards the high society dinner guests.
In Early to Bed, when Hardy inherits a fortune, his character changes - or his hidden character is revealed. He turns into a bully, like the villains he used to play. He becomes mean and evil. He's not funny anymore. Stan starts to cry and would like to leave. It is not clear if this film is even a comedy.
Two Tars belongs to their epics of destruction. The demolition derby concept was already decades old, even Georges Méliès had excelled in it. This movie also foreshadows Godard (Weekend) and Tati (Trafic). One of the greatest "tit for tat" stories of all times, full of brilliant performances of excess. The oeuvre of Laurel & Hardy is an allegory of our world today, here at its most explicit.
Habeas Corpus to me is a minor piece, but it was the first Hal Roach film released with recorded sound (sound on disc), and the original Victor sound discs have been successfully synchronized. The soundtrack is a real bonus. It consists of popular classics, all detailed in the souvenir booklet. They make special sense in this context and the humoristic vintage arrangements of pieces like "Danse macabre" by Saint-Saëns, "Marche funèbre d'une marionnette" by Gounod and the seventh "Humoresque" by Dvořák sound right. It does not harm that they carry cinematic associations with Renoir, Hitchcock and Borzage.
The all-seeing and all-punishing wives return in All faw down. It is based on a familiar concept, later refined into perfection in the feature film Sons of the Desert. After coming home, before the boys learn that the theatre that they were supposed to visit has burned, Oliver entertains the wives with a run of its production numbers in pantomime, prompted by Stan behind their backs. The sequence parallels one of the greatest scenes in Pass the Gravy, also directed by Leo McCarey.
The marriage story is perplexing in a way similar with Early to Bed. There is not a drop of love. Instead the marriages are based on pure, undiluted hate. Even Oliver's hula hula dance does not help.
The spectacle of Hardy's expressions is at its most amazing.
When the truth finally comes to light, Stan is released from his agony and starts to laugh uncontrollably. Ollie tries to restrain him but can't help joining him in Homeric laughter. This only stops when the wives produce shotguns.
A giant effort has been taken to restore full versions, maximal visual quality and smooth transitions. All this makes better sense of rhythm and duration, and the dynamics of action and contemplation.
I have just read Laurence Leamer's assessment in Hitchcock's Blondes (2023) of Janet Leigh's performance in Psycho, mostly without dialogue. During the long ride into the night, we focus on her face. "Her face reads like a novel, telling tales within tales, exposing Marion's fear and guilt as she slowly realizes the magnitude of what she has done". Hitchcock encouraged Leigh and granted her an exceptional freedom to pursue her ideas. This resulted to a veritable adventure of the face behind the rainswept windshield. It was pure magic and pure silent cinema.
To me the most rewarding experience of the new L&H restorations concerns the exceptionally long facial close-ups, including Ollie's unique camera-looks. The fine visual quality helps appreciate them more, and the smoothness of the edit does justice to the duration.
Oliver Hardy's mastery in facial expressions has always been justly celebrated. In this viewing I paid more attention to Stan Laurel. His mercurial vitality is equal to Hardy's quicksilver talent.
...
My remarks on Leo Kirch based releases of Hal Roach comedies:
Laurel & Hardy Collection Vol. 1-21 (Universal / Canal Plus / Kino Welt / KirchMedia) (2009 in Finland)
Hal Roach: Female Comedy Teams and Leo McCarey: Max Davidson Comedies (Edition Filmmuseum 2011)
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Wolfgang Jacobsen & Hans Helmut Prinzler: Hal Roach : Hommage zum 100. Geburtstag. Berlin: Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek / Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, 1992. - For his centenary, Roach traveled to the Berlin Film Festival to receive the honorary award of the Berlinale Kamera for Lifetime Achievement. Based on Leo Kirch's Hal Roach Library, a tribute to Roach was mounted, which, alas, I failed to see, as I focused on the giant Babelsberg 80th anniversary retrospective. - Leo Kirch had established the Hal Roach Library in 1985. To the 1200 films of the Hal Roach productions, he owned the international rights - all except the American rights. Heinz Caloué and Richard W. Bann represent the KirchMedia in the book. - Richard W. Bann contributes also to the Blackhawk Films project.
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