Tweet Laurel & Hardy Essential Collection

(&^*^%%I*$@#!!!!!!!

Sure enough, discs 2 and 8 have glue and minor scratches on them! (once I fix I know what I will see first then)

What is the proper technique recommended here for getting the glue off the disc safely so that it still works? Not sure I want to try and exchange via J&R.

Checked mine. No glue or scratches. How disappointing.

There is a collection oif Laurel&Hard DVDs that claims to use the best 35mm sources available, but apparently it's not deep true. For example, the babes in Toyland use a very contrasting print instead of the lower contrast source used in the computer colorized version..

There is a collection oif Laurel&Hard DVDs that claims to use the best 35mm sources available, but apparently it's not deep true. For example, the babes in Toyland use a very contrasting print instead of the lower contrast source used in the computer colorized version..

"Available" means available to THEM. The best version is the MGM version which IIRC is from the original negative.

Derek

All of which can be summarized as: We still need a goddam restored version of the complete films of Laurel and Hardy!!!

Jim

Well, so far this isn't bad. Restored would be better but this is very good with what they must currently have. So far I lucked out on Disc 8 and I am about halfway through disc 2, and no signs of unplayability. Impressed with the package to this point minus the glue.

All of which can be summarized as: We still need a goddam restored version of the complete films of Laurel and Hardy!!!

Jim

Isn't that what UCLA is working on??

Derek

UCLA is working on the sound shorts but not the silent films, which are under separate ownership.

All of which can be summarized as: We still need a goddam restored version of the complete films of Laurel and Hardy!!!

Jim

Or it can be summarized: STOP GODDAM WHINING ABOUT ALL THESE VERY MINOR PROBLEMS ON A SET THAT HAS NEEDED TO COME OUT FOR DECADES AND HAS FINALLY COME OUT IN AN UNFORTUNATE SALES MARKET FOR DVD'S AND HAD TO CUT A CORNER OR TWO JUST TO BE ABLE TO COME OUT SO TOO GODDAM BAD THAT THERE'S A BLEMISH OR TWO ON THE PREPRINT MATERIALS AND IT DIDN'T COME PACKAGED IN A BOX LIKE THE FORD AT FOX SET.

As always, my two reality check rules apply:

1. You're not actually entitled to see any of this stuff.

2. You're damn lucky to be getting to see as much as you are.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Nice attempt Richard, but I don't believe that will curtail the whining. It's part of the fabric here...

As always, my two reality check rules apply:

1. You're not actually entitled to see any of this stuff.

2. You're damn lucky to be getting to see as much as you are.

Excellent! Can I use this?

We are very lucky to have access to as much of this material as we do. If you told me twenty years ago that Harry Langdon's extant silent canon would be readily available, I would not have believed it. If you had told me there would be a five-disc set of Lloyd Hamilton shorts, I would have dismissed it as wishful thinking. The Laurel & Hardy set is long overdue, and I'm grateful that it includes commentaries, and foreign versions that frankly, I would not have otherwise seen. Anyone who can't support this project because it won't look like a blu-ray of AVATAR is clearly incapable of appreciating the transcendent magic captured on the Roach lot so many years ago. I hope those Nostalgia Merchant tapes are holding up.

Yesterday the L&H set was selling for $225 on amazon! Demand well-exceded supply.

Over on the Home Theater Forum, Scott MacGillivray made a post concerning the apparent reason behind the Amazon situation:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/313141/vivendi-and-rhi-press-release-laurel-hardy-the-essential-collection/270#post_3877095

It's still available at more reasonable prices. Search Google Shopping for "Laurel & Hardy Essential." For example, Barnes & Noble still lists it for $59.99.

L&H set was selling on amazon (sellers) at $225 on Dec 6th and $195 on Dec 7th. (Better than any stock I know.)

It may be that amazon pulled the set due to high rate of defectives? That happened with a Hitchcock Collection, packaged the same way as the new L&H.

J&R apparently is not selling the set right now, either.

Anybody know what's going on?

Anybody know what's going on?

See my last post about four up.

This is packaged like that Hitchcock set? YIKES. That's the worst packaging ever, and must never be used again. They should have used slim cases and stuck them in your basic cardboard box sleeve, and they wouldn't be getting so many returns.

I bought the DVD set for reference purposes - the foreign versions, the MGM Lion music on BLOCK-HEADS, etc. But I continue to maintain and, when possible, upgrade my L&H 16mm collection. I just bought an MGM printdown (struck from 35mm negative) of THEIR FIRST MISTAKE. The DVD set has a Film Classics print (with the telltale negative scratches in the lower right hand of the frame) with dupe insertions of the original titles and Stan's address-envelope. The print I picked up looks and sounds way better than the DVD. And our Sons members really appreciate screening the Boys et al on film.

http://www.themtharhills.org

I don't know about other posters on this thread -- apparently I completely missed a thundering war of words, with planes exploding and ships crashing until Mike conveniently hit alt-control-delete -- but my point was never about having a "right" to see anything at all. In fact, I don't believe I have ever once participated in any of the numerous discussions on NitrateVille that have centred around that argument ... all those postings about Colleen Moore movies, for example.

My thought was simply that here is one of the seminal legacies of motion pictures in general and comedy (silent and sound) in particular, and it is not being treated with the respect, love, care, and yes money that it deserves.

Most of us from the Boomer generation who love silent comedy got started watching L&H on TV as children. With the exception of a few Chaplins and Keatons, L&H were the only silent clowns whose films were repeatedly shown in great prints. We literally owe our passion for silent films to The Boys.

In my case, it was L&H on CBC every Saturday at 5:30 or 6:00 pm throughout the summer months, with Horace Lapp on the piano. Beautiful prints. This tradition continued just barely long enough for me to capture a handful of them on Beta tapes, which I still have and continue to watch occasionally (I made a VHS copy of most of them 20 years ago).

Where are those films since the late 1970s? I'm not inviting arguments about Hallmark or other rights holders. Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Langdon have all had their legacies polished and produced in lovely box sets. I'm not sufficiently interested in the minutiae of technology to give a flying eff about "artifacting" images or fps speed or the other nitpicking that NV regulars greet any major release with. I just enjoy wonderful films in wonderful prints. And wonder why L&H are the only major silent clowns not to merit this kind of respectful treatment.

Yeah, I know about the series of "Lost Films". Not good enough. I had hopes for this new release, but what I've read on this thread suggests it doesn't get the job done, either, and besides it's half useless to me if the talkies don't have captions.

I've supported silent film productions from the days when Paul Lisy (sp?) ran Videobrary and would custom-package selections of one- and two-reelers for me. I bought tonnes of stuff from Grapevine, Video Classics, Unknown Video, Milestone, and all the others. I've never felt I had a "right" to see these things, and I remain eternally grateful to those who made it possible for me to see them once I had paid them my "ticket" (I never got any silent for free except one from, ironically, RMR himself) (oh, and one from, I think, Bruce C.) Many were in almost unwatchable condition, especially those old Grapevine VHS's -- but at least I had them.

Laurel and Hardy deserve the best, nothing less. And I don't have Blu-ray, so I never carp about Blu-ray versions!

Jim

P.S. After posting my last comment, I happened to glance in a mirror and was reminded that I'm wearing my Laurel and Hardy tie today. Kismet!

Jim

[Mike Gebert]

L&H deserve the best and slowly they're getting better, I guess is the only answer. RHI/Hallmark/whoever saw no value in them and only put out two desultory collections of old broadcast prints because a buyer at Wal-Mart apparently used his muscle to demand them out of them, because so many customers were demanding them of him, apparently. (One to remember the next time reflexive Wal-Mart bashing erupts around you.)

This set does a nice job-- the transfers look better than the Kinowelt ones, if not perfect; too bad it was bungled in the manufacturing stage, apparently, but it sounds like they're rectifying it. Somewhere off in the future, the UCLA restorations will be better yet, but my kids won't be kids by the time those come out on Cloud-Streaming or whatever, so I'm happy to have these now, as I was happy to have the Kinowelts before them.

I mean, you could be waiting for Michael Agee's set...

I moved to NYC (from Ohio) in 1986, and one of the first things I discovered in haunting video stores (which didn't exist to any great extent in Akron) was the Nostalgia Merchant 9-tape VHS set of Laurel & Hardy films, plus some Hal Roach Classics tapes and the Charley Chase bonus films included on the L&H feature tapes. I wore those darn things out over the next 15 or 20 years, until I started getting the German DVDs. People love - LOVE - Laurel & Hardy and they were glad to see them whenever I showed them, and it's just delightful that they're available once again in the U.S. for the masses. That's where they belong.

Jim, that was a heart felt plea over your love of Laurel & Hardy and I feel for you. Mike summarized the situation to a tee - that the rights to L&H had the misfortune to fall into the hands of merciless corporate pirates (not even business-savvy pirates like Somali Pirates, who at least negotiate over the release of their hostages...) - which is why many of us grabbed up the various L&H European collections over a decade ago. When the UCLA restorations are finished I will purchase their set as well, but in the meantime I have purchased the Essential Collection to give as a gift to an ardent L&H fan who grew up with them just the same as most of us. Hopefully there is a Christmas elve up in Canada who will do the same for you.

Jim, that was a heart felt plea over your love of Laurel & Hardy and I feel for you. Mike summarized the situation to a tee - that the rights to L&H had the misfortune to fall into the hands of merciless corporate pirates (not even business-savvy pirates like Somali Pirates, who at least negotiate over the release of their hostages...) - which is why many of us grabbed up the various L&H European collections over a decade ago. When the UCLA restorations are finished I will purchase their set as well, but in the meantime I have purchased the Essential Collection to give as a gift to an ardent L&H fan who grew up with them just the same as most of us. Hopefully there is a Christmas elve up in Canada who will do the same for you.

The point is Kids, this Essential Collection set is most likely the best and only one you'll get certainly in the next decade or so (and don't hold your breath on the UCLA restorations, unless you are willing to fork out the approximately twenty to forty grand each that it will cost to do proper print and digital restorations per short that is going to be required on the material, and they're already canvassing the dimes and dollars of the general populace for that funding), it has taken a lot of time and effort first to wait for the films to emerge from that corporate hostage taking (and the reason I didn't buy a Hallmark card for years), then the work it also took to convince another corporate entity to release the set (which word has it had to be produced on a budget that was a quarter of the Our Gang set) in a time and economy when major DVD sets are not going to sell like the hotcakes they would have sold like a few years ago. The Essential Collection set gives Laurel and Hardy a chance to actually not be completely forgotten by another new Generation of Fans, is selling amazingly well and beyond the expectations of it's Producers and Distributors, and when all I hear here is that your virgin eyes are offended by a negative scratch or two (which affects the comedy not one whit)and you're so put out by the thing being in a cardboard wrapper that you're throwing your pablum against the wall, you need a whack up the side the head from yours truly (and that includes you Roots, despite your heartfelt backpedaling, you threw a tantrum).

Now just watch the damn things and laugh once or twice for chrissakes!


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Yo Roberts,

RE: the rotten packaging (cardboard wrappers, pablum throwing, etc.) which has caused so many returns that Amazon took it down, it's a bit difficult to watch and laugh if there's glue on the DVDs. I'm afraid that's a legitimate complaint, and you'll just have to come to terms with that. As for the rest of your rant, I largely agree. Sounds like a definite step up from what we had, at least.

Yo Roberts,

RE: the rotten packaging (cardboard wrappers, pablum throwing, etc.) which has caused so many returns that Amazon took it down, it's a bit difficult to watch and laugh if there's glue on the DVDs. I'm afraid that's a legitimate complaint, and you'll just have to come to terms with that. As for the rest of your rant, I largely agree. Sounds like a definite step up from what we had, at least.

Yo Waveyboy!

Legitimate complaint or no, the packaging is one that will be resolved and you'll get your defective replacement and get on with your life. It's great news that there's a Laurel and Hardy set finally in America, and that it's selling well. So there.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Just pointing out that you were ridiculing people for making said legitimate complaint. Just trying to help you stay on message, and don't worry, I'll waive my usual fee.

[Danny Burk]

FWIW, my set has glue on disc #2. B&N is sending a replacement; I'm hanging onto this set till it arrives, and unless disc 2 is also defective in the new set, I should be able to put together a good set from the two.

Decent marketing would easily find an audience for "Graves" and "Miracle Woman," just to name two.

"Decent marketing" costs money.

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

alt.movies.silent has had 10 new subject postings in the last month, 3 of which seem to be for sex videos. As for disparaging comments here, you should have heard what a guy said to me after I beat him to a parking space last night (I was there first, but he seemed to think his seeing the space from a distance meant it was his no matter what). I find this interplay here interesting, a sign of life unlike the dreadful state of Google groups these days.