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| lh1| Laurel & Hardy |
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"Eternal pals and eternal antagonists, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the great partnership of movie slapstick. They finally get their DVD due with Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection, a 10-disc orgy of pratfalls, slow burns, and slap fights--in short, a collection that truly qualifies as a must-have for connoisseurs of comedy. The collection contains the sound films that Laurel and Hardy made for producer Hal Roach, the man who teamed the simpering English vaudeville player and the rotund American actor in the first place (although their laughs are evenly divided, Laurel was the creative force and chief gag-inventor of the duo). Their track record is proof that it isn't merely the jokes that make for comic success; it's the personalities of the comedians. Thus, Stan's dimwitted innocence and Ollie's perpetually exasperated reactions (raised to an exquisite art by Hardy's comprehensive glances at the camera, assuring the audience's complicity in his misery) are the essence of their success. Some films are great, some merely passable, but all stick blissfully to character. This is on glorious display through these Roach pictures, whether it's the boys sharing one small train berth in Berth Marks, executing their famous synchronized dance in Way Out West, or laboring to get that piano up a very steep flight of stairs in the Oscar-winning The Music Box.
The films look as good as movies from 1929 to 1940 can reasonably be expected to look. Included in the boxed set are seven foreign-language films (six in Spanish, one in French), shot in order to keep the duo popular in overseas markets, before dubbing made that goal easier. Fascinatingly, these films often extend the English-language films they are ostensibly adapted from, with different gags and plot turns--and it's fun to hear Stan and Ollie speaking in another language. Special features include a ho-hum 40-minute tribute with testimonials from fellow comedians (especially talkative are Dick Van Dyke and Jerry Lewis); an ""Interactive Map"" with Los Angeles location sites from their movies; three Roach shorts in which L&H pop up in cameos; and a 1942 short produced for the Department of Agriculture (another L&H cameo). A few (not many) films have commentaries that include the informed Laurel and Hardy buff Richard W. Bann; Sons of the Desert has a track with Tim Conway and Chuck McCann, who don't seem to know how a commentary track works but have a nice time watching the movie. --Robert Horton" |
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| Director: |
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| Cast: |
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Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy |
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Select foreign language versions as Laurel & Hardy phonetically recite dialogue
Additional films of Laurel & Hardy guest appearances
Collectible, book, style packaging incorporating film guide
L&H Trailers: Pack up your troubles, A chump at Oxford, Saps at Sea
ON LOCATION WITH THE BOYS: TOUR FILMING LOCATIONS WITH INTERACTIVE MAP
A TRIBUTE TO LAUREL & HARDY |
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| Studio: Hal Roach Studios |
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DVD Region: |
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G |
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Discs: 10 (DVD) [] |
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Reviews: DISC 1:
UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE 1929
BERTH MARKS 1929
MEN O' WAR 1929
PERFECT DAY 1929 [original 1929 track]
PERFECT DAY 1936 [reissue with musical score]
THEY GO BOOM 1929
THE HOOSE-GOW 1929
NIGHT OWLS 1930
LADRONES (Night Owls, Spanish) 1930
BLOTTO 1930
DISC 2:
LA VIDA NOCTURNA (Blotto, Spanish) 1930
BRATS 1937 [reissue, new LeRoy Shield musical score]
BRATS 1930 [original score of stock jazz-band records]
BELOW ZERO 1930
TIEMBLA Y TITUBEA (Below Zero, Spanish) 1930
HOG WILD 1930
THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE 1930
NOCHE DE DUENDES (The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case & Berth Marks, Spanish) 1930
ANOTHER FINE MESS 1930
DISC 3:
BE BIG! 1931
CHICKENS COME HOME 1931
POLITIQUERIAS (Chickens Come Home, Spanish) 1931
LAUGHING GRAVY 1931
LES CAROTTIERS (Feature: Be Big! & Laughing Gravy, French) 1931
DISC 4:
LOS CALAVERAS (Feature: Be Big! & Laughing Gravy, Spanish) 1931
OUR WIFE 1931
PARDON US (Feature, extended version) 1931
COME CLEAN 1931
ONE GOOD TURN 1931
BEAU HUNKS 1931
DISC 5:
HELPMATES 1932
ANY OLD PORT 1932
THE MUSIC BOX 1932
THE CHIMP 1932
COUNTY HOSPITAL 1932
SCRAM! 1932
PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES (Feature) 1932
THEIR FIRST MISTAKE 1932
DISC 6:
TOWED IN A HOLE 1933
TWICE TWO 1933
ME AND MY PAL 1933
THE MIDNIGHT PATROL 1933
BUSY BODIES 1933
DIRTY WORK 1933
SONS OF THE DESERT (Feature) 1933
OLIVER THE EIGHTH 1934
GOING BYE-BYE! 1934
DISC 7:
THEM THAR HILLS 1934
THE LIVE GHOST 1934
TIT FOR TAT 1935
THE FIXER UPPERS 1935
THICKER THAN WATER 1935
THE BOHEMIAN GIRL (Feature) 1936
DISC 8:
OUR RELATIONS (Feature) 1936
WAY OUT WEST (Feature) 1937
SWISS MISS (Feature) 1938
DISC 9:
BLOCK-HEADS (Feature) 1938
A CHUMP AT OXFORD (42 min.) 1940
A CHUMP AT OXFORD (Feature, 63 min.) 1940
SAPS AT SEA (Feature) 1940
DISC 10:
SPECIAL FEATURES
A Tribute to Laurel & Hardy
On Location with the Boys: tour of set locations and interactive map
Laurel & Hardy Guest Appearances
Laurel & Hardy Trailers |
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