Tweet Laurel & Hardy Essential Collection

Hear! Hear!!

(....or is it Here! Here!! ?...anyway, I agree)

Also, it's starting to look like this back order of the L&H set isn't going to be lifted until after x-mas.

Boy, I just checked to to see where the glue problems stood. I didn't realize the thread had become unglued.

Back on that topic....

Most of my way through disc 2. I have half of one of the Spanish films and all of another to complete to finish it. No problems seen at all. Fortunately, the discs themselves seem to have been very well mastered and readable by the laser, and I haven't seen any flaws in them yet. If I can watch every film (do I have to do this with all of the commentaries or can I assume that if I can see a film I can listen to the commentary tracks without error?) on the two discs I will keep it and not exchange it.

[Mike Gebert]

I have removed non-Laurel and Hardy material from this thread and placed it in a new thread called Marketing Old Movies, which is now locked. Further posts which have little to do with Laurel and Hardy and anything to do with calling names will be sucked into a vortex of nothingness. Your cooperation is appreciated; now let's show some respect for the comedians whose films we claim to care about, and talk about them, or at least DVD issues directly related to this specific release, not the whole industry.

For those who are interested, I did see several copies of the Essential L&H Collection for sale today at a local Sam's Club, for $65.

That's evidence of some distribution of the set into common retail outlets, which is a good sign! SETH

I just realized today I had a bit of glue and some scratches on Disc 8. I peeled
them off and played all the films, and they played fine, so I guess I don't have
to worry about trying to replace it...I got it from J&R at the great discount.
All the other discs look fine.

And I followed suit and walked into a local COSTCO where they had 4 sets marked at $62 bucks. Now I just need to find someone with a COSTCO membership.

HEY RICHARD!! Do you or any of your Phoenix pals have a card I can borrow?

And I followed suit and walked into a local COSTCO where they had 4 sets marked at $62 bucks. Now I just need to find someone with a COSTCO membership.

HEY RICHARD!! Do you or any of your Phoenix pals have a card I can borrow?

If you don't have a COSTCO card, how'd you get into the store?


RICHARD M ROBERTS

By the same way I go through life - not obeying signs.

Amazon is back to selling the set themselves, at $67.99.

By the same way I go through life - not obeying signs.

At our Costco, you just go in through the out door, and nobody asks to see a card (I have a membership, but sadly I'm in Canada, where they don't stock the L&H set). I think that's so anybody can go and eat at their snackbar, whether or not they have a membership (also, the desk where you sign up for a membership is by the exit).

But before you pay for your purchases at the check out line, they will ask for your membership card.

But before you pay for your purchases at the check out line, they will ask for your membership card.

Oh, for sure. But at least there's a way you can sneak in and browse if you don't have a card (and then go hassle a friend who does have one).

LeRoyShield1930 wrote:

Has anyone looked at the documentary on disc 10? What the hell is Dean Martin's former partner talking about??? Where the hell is Gerry Louis [libel laws] getting his information? Hal Roach went to London to see Fred Karno's troupe and was so impressed with Stan Laurel that he brought him to America to star in pictures? And when he got here he did a test for Roach and Roach said he wasn't that good? And then Stan was walking near the studio commissary when he noticed a fat guy walking by with a pipe slung over his shoulder? This fat guy turned out to be Ollie and Ollie was working in the studio maintenance department and Stan said "Hey...how would you like to be in show business?"?

I watched this today and sat dumb (even though I knew it was coming) as the Errant Boy used this documentary as a platform to elevate his own status. Perhaps he thought he was on "The Sammy Maudlin Show".

I just started watching my set ( I bought the J&R $35 special) and the films look fine so far and very much of an improvement on the TV prints that I grew up with. I don't know if anybody mentioned this, but there's a terrific Thelma Todd-Zazu Pitts two reeler on the Disc 10 bonus material titled ON THE LOOSE (1931). The notes say it was restored from the camera negative and it is fairly stunning. Much of the film takes place at the Steel Pier subbing for Coney Island and many of the attractions had been filmed in 1927's SUGAR DADDIES so the two films make an interesting contrast. A nice surprise and another reason to purchase this set.

Steel Pier? Is there one near LA? Steel Pier to me means Atlantic City. Could it have been the Santa Monica Pier?

Steel Pier? Is there one near LA? Steel Pier to me means Atlantic City. Could it have been the Santa Monica Pier?

Rob, I think the person meant the Pike Amusement Pier that was located in Long Beach (where Charley Chase's LIFE HESITATES AT 40 was also filmed).

i checked the film notes in the L&H Essentials and we're all wrong. It states that ON THE LOOSE was filmed at the Venice Pier. I noticed that on the slide ride the same type of handheld camera was used as in SUGAR DADDIES. The effect is slightly avant garde but all the more welcomed.

How else would you shoot a slide ride? The same shot is in THE CROWD, is it not?

i checked the film notes in the L&H Essentials and we're all wrong. It states that ON THE LOOSE was filmed at the Venice Pier. I noticed that on the slide ride the same type of handheld camera was used as in SUGAR DADDIES. The effect is slightly avant garde but all the more welcomed.

SUGAR DADDIES and LIFE HESITATES AT 40 were both filmed at Pike's...the chutes slide you mention in ON THE LOOSE are not the ones seen in SUGAR DADDIES.

Yes, obviously the shots are different. I said the action was filmed the same way. To the earlier post, there's more than one way to film the action as is evident in the film itself.

I recently picked up a 16mm print of THEIR FIRST MISTAKE, struck directly from a 35mm negative. This print was made sometime in the 80's I believe. The quality is outstanding, especially as compared with all of the Film Classics versions out there. What surprised me was that the ESSENTIALS used a Film Classics 35mm print (including the tell-tale negative scratches in the lower right hand corner), with the MGM Main and End titles added from a DUPE 16mm print (also the Stan envelope). I wonder where the MGM neg is that was used to make the 16 that I have. Based on some brief focus issues that occur near the end of the first reel, my guess is that it has gone to vinegar heaven. What a pity.

I recently picked up a 16mm print of THEIR FIRST MISTAKE, struck directly from a 35mm negative. This print was made sometime in the 80's I believe. The quality is outstanding, especially as compared with all of the Film Classics versions out there. What surprised me was that the ESSENTIALS used a Film Classics 35mm print (including the tell-tale negative scratches in the lower right hand corner), with the MGM Main and End titles added from a DUPE 16mm print (also the Stan envelope). I wonder where the MGM neg is that was used to make the 16 that I have. Based on some brief focus issues that occur near the end of the first reel, my guess is that it has gone to vinegar heaven. What a pity.

There are several 16mm collectors like ourselves who have a print of THEIR FIRST MISTAKE, struck around 1983, from that same 35mm MGM negative...I was told back then that this particular neg came out of UCLA.

Well, if it's still there, there is yet another reason to look down that long winding road toward a restored collection of The Boys.

The most recent user reviews on Amazon (which again is carrying it for $65.99) report that the discs are now coming packaged in individual paper sleeves inserted in the cardboard pages.

Amazon has this set on sale for $40.49,that's 60% off.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BYBZKY/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ordered...!!!!

Thank you for the heads up.

RE: The inner sleeves... I bought mine during Black Friday a couple of months ago and there were no plastic sleeves. Still, there was no damage to the DVDs (i.e., scratches or glue).

Amazon has this set on sale for $40.49,that's 60% off.

Well that price has gone and it is now $61.