Support Laurel & Hardy

[Ralph Celentano]

I'm glad to see the L&H films are being preserved and finally released here on DVD.

That said, here are 4 of my petty gripes that will happen when the films are finally preserved.

1. BERTH MARKS 1929 has 1970s music at the train station. Sacrilege . My print has the correct 1929 bare track with announcements and train sounds. Impressive for their 2nd talkie.

2. MEN O' WAR 1929 - R1 Vitaphone disc exists in a private collection. The correct opening and band shell music could be restored. If the R2 disc is found, Stars & Stripes Forever may be heard during the climatic scenes. (Correct me Finegan, if I'm wrong.)

3 All the 1929 end titles should have a scripted The End with Victor and Lion cub logos at bottom. Sacrilege.
Not to mention that some MGM NRA logos are on the wrong titles and vice versa.

4. MIDNIGHT PATROL 1933 - Proper head credits restored, BUT The End title should be scripted with MGM logo as used in features. I found a couple of other 1933 Roach shorts re-released by Film Classics with that aforementioned end.

[Richard Finegan]

I'm glad to see the L&H films are being preserved and finally released here on DVD.

That said, here are 4 of my petty gripes that will happen when the films are finally preserved.

2. MEN O' WAR (1929) -... If the Reel 2 disc is found, Stars & Stripes Forever may be heard during the climatic scenes. (Correct me Finegan, if I'm wrong.)

Who, me?
Oh yes, I did do some research into this several years ago.
According to both the Cutting Continuity Script and the Music Cue Sheet for MEN O' WAR, in the original 1929 release of the film the battle in the boats in reel two is accompanied by the march "The Stars and Stripes Forever". I've never found a print that includes that music, even when the short was (almost) restored back in the 1980's or early 1990's.

I wrote a detailed article on it for The Sons of the Desert newsletter "The Intra-tent Journal" back in the mid-or-late 1990's.