Tweet Wanted: Hats Off, The Rogue Song and other lost L&H material

These Laurel and Hardy titles Wanted: -

HATS OFF (1927)
THE ROGUE SONG (1930)
THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (1927) - complete version
NOW I'LL TELL ONE (1927) - complete version

Yes I know most other L&H fans want these titles too! I strongly believe that at least one of the above is in someones private collection, desperately hanging on to it, and waiting for it to become PD and then making loads of money. Well the truth is these will probably never be PD films, the longer they are considered lost, the more valuable they become to the copyright owners. So the copyright owners will just keep renewing the copyrights, just like The Rogue Song was renewed in the 1990's. If you have one or more of the above films, the only way you can make money from it is by contacting the copyright holder, you will be able to negotiate a price. And in the case of other film finds, you will get paid by the copyright holder and get a restored print given back to you. If you have a print, it is legally yours and no one can do anything about it, a copyright holder cannot demand it back without paying for it.
So this is a plea on behalf of everyone in the world who wants to see these films, please come forward. Remember these films were made for one purpose, to entertain everybody not one person!

Are you basing this belief on anything other than blind hope?

[silentfilm]

I have the Blackhawk one and a half-reel restored version of Battle of the Century, but I'm not selling it.

There is a seller in this month's Classic Images selling the three-minute surviving clip of The Rogue Song in color in 16mm.

Seriously, I doubt anyone is hoarding these. If any of them turn up, they will be on a shelf in a little-known archive somewhere in the world, or in someone's little-used basement.

Are you basing this belief on anything other than blind hope?

Having done quite a bit of research into this over the last few months aswell as recently starting a worldwide hunt, I am trying to gain maximum exposure for these films. I have read on more than one occasion that some private film collectors may have a fear of going public if they have a film in their collection which is unique. Believing that if they say they have a copy of a lost film, the copyright holder will then take them to court and demand it back. I just wanted to dispel this myth in the hope there may be someone out there in this situation. Out of the four films I've listed, I'm sure that someone has a copy of The Rogue Song. This is just based on bits and pieces of information obtained and also over the years fragments of footage have been found.

I'll take two of each.

Bob

Paging Al Detlaff! Mr. Detlaff! Oh wait a minute...


Jim

"The Rogue Song" EXISTS! One (1) of the Copies, WAS, in the Hands of Lawrence Tibbett. Allan Jones, supposedly 'saw' Same,
one (1) Night, while Visiting LT. Wikipedia Reports, there WAS a Copy in East Germany, sent to the USSR (then), &, then,
dubbed in Russian. I eMailed East Germany, &, "they" Categorically "Deny!" I've let-out the "LH Portion & the Harriet Hoctor
Ballet Segment. Lastly, Lawrence Tibbett "Singing, Lustily," while in the "Stocks," IS "Hysterical!" Also, Catherine Dale Owen,
"IS," DEADLY!
As 4 'Al Detlaff,' HIS, "Frankenstein," a VHS (I DON'T HAVE a DVD Player, nor, do I Want!!!), resides in My Bedroom Closet.
Sid Bloomberg

"The Rogue Song" EXISTS! One (1) of the Copies, WAS, in the Hands of Lawrence Tibbett. Allan Jones, supposedly 'saw' Same,
one (1) Night, while Visiting LT. Wikipedia Reports, there WAS a Copy in East Germany, sent to the USSR (then), &, then,
dubbed in Russian. I eMailed East Germany, &, "they" Categorically "Deny!" I've let-out the "LH Portion & the Harriet Hoctor
Ballet Segment. Lastly, Lawrence Tibbett "Singing, Lustily," while in the "Stocks," IS "Hysterical!" Also, Catherine Dale Owen,
"IS," DEADLY!
As 4 'Al Detlaff,' HIS, "Frankenstein," a VHS (I DON'T HAVE a DVD Player, nor, do I Want!!!), resides in My Bedroom Closet.
Sid Bloomberg

why would you not want a dvd player? or should i not even ask!

Yes.
Sid B.

is that "yes i should ask" or "yes i am right not to ask?"

"The Rogue Song" EXISTS! One (1) of the Copies, WAS, in the Hands of Lawrence Tibbett. Allan Jones, supposedly 'saw' Same,
one (1) Night, while Visiting LT. Wikipedia Reports, there WAS a Copy in East Germany, sent to the USSR (then), &, then,
dubbed in Russian. I eMailed East Germany, &, "they" Categorically "Deny!" I've let-out the "LH Portion & the Harriet Hoctor
Ballet Segment. Lastly, Lawrence Tibbett "Singing, Lustily," while in the "Stocks," IS "Hysterical!" Also, Catherine Dale Owen,
"IS," DEADLY!
As 4 'Al Detlaff,' HIS, "Frankenstein," a VHS (I DON'T HAVE a DVD Player, nor, do I Want!!!), resides in My Bedroom Closet.
Sid Bloomberg

The Rogue Song exists??? I know that a few minutes of footage have been found over the years aswell as the sound discs and trailer, but there is no complete copy around that I know of. Prove what you are saying!

"The Rogue Song" EXISTS! One (1) of the Copies, WAS, in the Hands of Lawrence Tibbett. Allan Jones, supposedly 'saw' Same,
one (1) Night, while Visiting LT. Wikipedia Reports, there WAS a Copy in East Germany, sent to the USSR (then), &, then,
dubbed in Russian. I eMailed East Germany, &, "they" Categorically "Deny!" Sid Bloomberg

Lawrence Tibbett died in 1960. If he did have a print, what happened to it? It's had 51 years to appear, and has yet to pop up its head.

And, with all due respect, don't believe anything Wikipedia says... especially if it is new "I never heard that before"-type information.

Wikipedia is notorious for having inaccurate information--their contributors don't have to prove their information sources.

Laurel & Hardy collectors and societies have been looking for those lost titles for over 50 years--most collectors of the 40s and 50s that would have had access to those titles are long passed away. We can only hope, but if someone is savvy enough to be on Nitrateville.com, they would know if they had a very rare film and by now would have gotten it into the right hands for lots of money.

Recently, three clips of The Rogue Song were posted on YouTube from the newly discovered Czech archive material. Please see below for the clips.

Recently, three clips of The Rogue Song were posted on YouTube from the newly discovered Czech archive material.

Check out this NitrateVille thread for comments on these YouTube clips:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13361

From what I hear, Lawrence Tibbitt was not a compelling screen presence despite his fame on stage. From the clips that have turned up, THE ROGUE SONG seems like a very forgettable film. Even the Laurel & Hardy sequence available isn't all that endearing.

I have mentioned before that it wasn't until early 1933 that Hollywood learned to put some "zip" into their product making it palatable for modern audiences. Most features I've seen from the early years of talkies ('29 to '31) have been fairly slow moving. (exception: Paramount Marx Brothers)

I concur that if a print exists, it is buried in a foreign archive somewhere. The old timer collectors I knew in the 1980s that hoarded 35mm nitrate are pretty much gone from the land of the living now.

I still believe "The Rogue Song", if it survives is somewhere in the former Soviet Union on 16mm - not 35mm - in either a private or film club collection.

I posted my theory awhile back, but the jist of it is that someone with the Sons of the Desert turned up documentation that the film was subtitled in Russian in an East German lab in the 1960s for television or showing to armed forces. I conjectured that the print was probably an original that was bootlegged or simply kept in the USSR in the 30s during the original release of the film, a not uncommon practice at the time with foreign titles. The 35mm print used in the 1960s lab work probably disintegrated or got lost in the shuffle with all the changes in the region over the ensuing decades. I feel if it surived in 35mm, it would have probably turned up by now in one of those archives.

Distribution of the film for television showings or armed forces would have been on 16mm. If the prints weren't completely destroyed, it's likely sitting in some private collection and the person or persons just doesn't realize what they have.

I am most dreadfully embarassed! In order to conserve space, I was told to eliminate one whole letter from my film collection, and I'm afraid that the letter I plucked was "H". So HATS OFF went into the bin, along with THE HOLY TERROR, HIT HIM AGAIN!, HER FRIEND THE BANDIT, and HUMOR RISK, as well as complete features like HEART TROUBLE and HIS DARKER SELF. I would have responded sooner, but I had to wait for the first of April to arrive, the only valid date for this entry.

If it's any consolation, the postman may or may not have slipped HIS LORDSHIP'S DILEMMA into his carrier bag when nobody was looking.

I am most dreadfully embarassed! In order to conserve space, I was told to eliminate one whole letter from my film collection, and I'm afraid that the letter I plucked was "H". So HATS OFF went into the bin, along with THE HOLY TERROR, HIT HIM AGAIN!, HER FRIEND THE BANDIT, and HUMOR RISK, as well as complete features like HEART TROUBLE and HIS DARKER SELF. I would have responded sooner, but I had to wait for the first of April to arrive, the only valid date for this entry.

If it's any consolation, the postman may or may not have slipped HIS LORDSHIP'S DILEMMA into his carrier bag when nobody was looking.

Oh, so those are your prints! I was lucky enough to do a little dumpster diving that day, but being a nasty collector, I'm going to make sure that nobody but me ever gets to see them!

Here the complete ROGUE SONG soundtrack here:

https://archive.org/details/VitaphoneSo ... Collection