I've only been on the board for the past three years, so my questions may have already been discussed.
I've heard that the best surviving elements of the Laurel and Hardy silent films are from the 1950's. Who undertook this transfer and what is the status of these films today? Who owns them? Will they every get a HD restoration?
Thanks,
Bill
Laurel and Hardy Silents
Re: Laurel and Hardy Silents
With three or four exceptions, Blackhawk Films acquired distribution rights to the L&H silents in 1952 and made fine grain masters from the surviving original negatives at that time. We still have these elements but our rights are limited to substandard dimension (8mm and 16mm) nontheatrical film and nontheatrical closed circuit television, so our distribution is no longer active.
Richard Feiner & Company acquired Western Hemisphere rights to these films (excluding the Blackhawk and theatrical rights) on lease, and made their own elements on most of the films. Feiner produced a series of "Lafftoons," short clips with good music as TV "fillers" and sub-licensed home video distribution on the films to someone who proved less than honest, and even less reliable than that. Mr. Feiner's son managed to recapture those rights and relicense them to Corinth Films, that have so far not exploited them, perhaps because he remaining term of their license is too short for the project to make a lot of economic sense.
The silent L&H films are on DVD in Europe (Eastern Hemisphere) although the DVDs I have seen of the silents are mostly poor quality -- they look as if they were mastered from well-used Blackhawk prints gathered on eBay. There is good preservation material in Germany. The whole Hal Roach library is presently for sale, the Eastern and Western Hemisphere owners having united their assets for this purpose, and if they find a buyer perhaps the situation will improve.
David Shepard
Richard Feiner & Company acquired Western Hemisphere rights to these films (excluding the Blackhawk and theatrical rights) on lease, and made their own elements on most of the films. Feiner produced a series of "Lafftoons," short clips with good music as TV "fillers" and sub-licensed home video distribution on the films to someone who proved less than honest, and even less reliable than that. Mr. Feiner's son managed to recapture those rights and relicense them to Corinth Films, that have so far not exploited them, perhaps because he remaining term of their license is too short for the project to make a lot of economic sense.
The silent L&H films are on DVD in Europe (Eastern Hemisphere) although the DVDs I have seen of the silents are mostly poor quality -- they look as if they were mastered from well-used Blackhawk prints gathered on eBay. There is good preservation material in Germany. The whole Hal Roach library is presently for sale, the Eastern and Western Hemisphere owners having united their assets for this purpose, and if they find a buyer perhaps the situation will improve.
David Shepard
Re: Laurel and Hardy Silents
David, what would you expect the purchase price on this (presumably) massive library to be?DShepFilm wrote:The whole Hal Roach library is presently for sale, the Eastern and Western Hemisphere owners having united their assets for this purpose, and if they find a buyer perhaps the situation will improve.
David Shepard
Jim
(running out to buy a lottery ticket)
Re: Laurel and Hardy Silents
Thanks Mr. Shepard for your reply. Your work in film restoration is highly appreciated.
Re: Laurel and Hardy Silents
Hopefully if the BBC film happens it might revive some interest in Laurel & Hardy enough for some bright spark to buy the library and restore them.
http://deadline.com/2016/01/steve-cooga ... 201685254/" target="_blank
http://deadline.com/2016/01/steve-cooga ... 201685254/" target="_blank
Peter