What you get on this initial volume are four L&H originals (one featuring Max Davidson - "The Call of the Cuckoo" - where L&H are in more of a supportive role) as well as two super rare pre-L&H Stan Laurel shorts.
#Laurel and hardy collection dvd review series#
"Volume 1 in what is planned to be a 10 volume series of the early Laurel & Hardy films, most of which have been either unavailable on commercial video for years or have never been available before - that alone is reason to rejoice and praise the DVD format. For the over-stimulated times in which we live, these films are most welcomed." I can watch these movies any time and never tire of the subtly recurring themes, the "slow burns," the tit-for-tat exchanges, and, above all, the larger-than-life characters projected by L&H that do not simply please for the moment, in a given place or culture, but rather transcend all bounds to tell all of us - young, old, or in between, of any era and in any culture - something about what we are as people. Masterpieces are included (such as "Big Business"), but the whole grouping is also a delight: it is wholesome, it is clean, and it is funny, often hilariously so. While these films are silent, you will discover by them just how visual artistry alone has the power to delight. This is from the source (Hal Roach Studios), and it truly does bring back great films that, by their nature as short silents, could not easily have been separately marketed and have not therefore been otherwise accessible now for decades. Do not be misled by the unfortunate title of "lost films" - this is not a knock-off series (it is planned as an omnium gatherum of their films) nor is it "small town" in the sense of being simpleton comedy nor is it mere nostalgia (though it is a great throw-back to the past) nor is it a poor-quality series such as the many L&H offerings that have plagued the VHS market. These L&H films capture that sense of delight perfectly, because they have brought back the best available prints in DVD format of the whole range of 15-20 minute shorts that so captured the nation's fancy on a mass scale 70 years ago. People in small towns could scarcely wait for the next L&H film short, much as a child can't wait for his favorite uncle to pay him a day visit and then utterly delight in the magic of the time spent with that uncle. Although things don't go as planned, the inimitable comedy duo provide nonstop laughs from start to finish in this delightful caper."Laurel and Hardy were giants of the cinema in their day not only because of their immense talent but also because of the more leisurely paced times of the late 1920s and the 1930s. Suddenly chivalrous, the three orchestrate a sting operation using disguises - with Laurel dressed as Susan's disheveled aunt and Hardy as a rich Texan - to get the woman's money back. When the trio joins a carnival, they meet Susan, a naive young singer (Vivian Blaine), whose mother has been swindled by grifters. Stan and Oliver star as a traveling two-man jitterbug band, who operate out of a dilapidated jalopy and form an unlikely partnership with a likable con man (Bob Bailey). Of course, the Texas cavalry post to which they're all assigned is made far worse for the wear by the presence of these well-meaning troublemakers, and there is never a dull moment in this classic featuring two of the cinema's most revered comic actors!Ĭonsidered the best of the Laurel and Hardy projects filmed at Twentieth Century Fox, this energetic musical comedy also introduces singer Vivian Blaine.
Convinced that he needs them in order to survive in the service, they join up as well. In Great Guns, the comic team play a chauffeur and a gardener whose hypochondriac employer (Dick Nelson), a wealthy young man with little experience, is drafted. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy join the army to protect their country.but who will protect the army from them? Through a series of crazy misadventures, our heroes end up in a remote-controlled airplane, along with the bomb, and head straight for trouble. Meanwhile, next door is the biggest threat of all - a gang of crooks determined to get their hands on the inventor's deadly creation. However, the bomb's inventor has loaded his house with crazy contraptions that entrap and confuse the protectors.
The duo play janitors accidentally hired as sleuths to protect a new super-bomb destined for the War Department in Washington, D.C. The zany antics of legendary comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy come to life in this romp about two phony private detectives.
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