DVD REVIEW - LAUREL AND HARDY VOLUME 1 Released by Hallmark Home Entertainment Region 1 (U.S., Canada) Formal Review by John V. Brennan Commentary by John Larrabee and John V. Brennan THE FILMS (Use the links in each title to access our Original Reviews in a new window). SONS OF THE DESERT (Feature, 1933): The Boys tell a tall tale to their wives in order to sneak out to a convention in Chicago, and are caught in a tangled web of lies when they return home.  One of Laurel and Hardy's best features. Busy Bodies (Short film, 1933): The Boys go to work at a factory, where they play with tools, much to the destruction of Ollie's clothes and personhood.  A genuine four-star comedy classic. The Music Box (Short film, 1932): The only Laurel and Hardy film ever to win an Oscar.  Stan and Ollie must deliver a piano up a long flight of stairs.  Perhaps the most famous L&H short. County Hospital (Short film, 1932): Stan visits Ollie in the hospital.  Mayhem results.  An excellent short up until the final two minutes, where back-projection destroys what should have been a fun runaway car ending. Another Fine Mess (Short film, 1931): Vagrants Ollie and Stan pose as the Master (Ollie), maid and butler (Stan) of a mansion they are hiding in.  Based on a sketch originally written by Stan's father.  A genuinely amusing short, based more on plot and situation than most L&H films, but not in the same league as the other films on this disc. OVERVIEW      In the 1990s, during one of their Film Preservation drives, the cable station American Movie Classics showed beautifully restored prints of most of Laurel and Hardy's best talkies.  Since then, fans have been hoping these prints, owned by the Hallmark company, would be released to the public.  Finally, in 2003, Hallmark Home Entertainment has released Volume One of what may or may not be a continuing series of Laurel and Hardy DVDs.  Anticipation amongst hardcore L&H fans quickly turned to disappointment when it turned out that the prints on the DVD were not the versions shown on AMC but rather, for the most part, the same old crappy prints we have been seeing for years on television and home video.  Laurel and Hardy, being comic geniuses, are still funny, even in lower quality prints, but there is a growing sense of frustration amongst American fans that we will never get to see those restored prints again. THE DVD       SONS OF THE DESERT, Busy Bodies and The Music Box were obviously chosen for the reputations, so it seems as if somebody somewhere had more than a passing knowledge of the Boys when it came to compiling this disc.  County Hospital seems to be a fine if somewhat randomly-chosen film, and Another Fine Mess, a fun short that is never quite as good as it should be, was most likely included on the basis of its title alone, a (misquoted) phrase that instantly makes people think of  Laurel and Hardy.      The major selling point of this DVD is SONS OF THE DESERT, chosen by many fans and critics to be their best feature.  We at Laurel and Hardy Central, ornery cusses that we are, disagree, but we do place it in the top three or four, so it is an excellent choice for a first release.  If I were putting together a DVD of the Boys, I would probably have chosen this film myself as a kickoff, just for its reputation amongst critics as their best film.  But I would have chosen a better print.     As good a film as SONS is, it will never be known for outstanding cinematography.  This is an old film, and even the print on this DVD, which apparently is the the television master of the print restored for The Laurel and Hardy Show in the 1990s, looks fuzzy and suffers from flickering, where the picture changes from light to dark.  I have seen these defects in two separate VHS prints I have of this film taped from television, but DVD unfortunately exacerbates any flaws in an old film.  There is also a noticeable hair in the projector during the opening titles, but this is a flaw that goes back to every print of SONS I have seen.      However, it is inexcusable that Hallmark used the television print that has built in fadeouts and fade-ins for commercials and additional music added to the soundtrack.  For example, in the famous scene where Stan eats the wax fruit, there is music playing, most likely Ronnie Hazlehurst's recreations of LeRoy Shield music.  Luckily, the music is mixed so low that it is almost inconsequential.  But still, it is irritating that this film, a comedy classic in every way, has been tampered with in this way.      The film itself is little more than a typical "Laurel and Hardy versus the Wives" short, expanded to an hour. Not a groundbreaking film, but it was the first of their features to hold together as one piece, without subplots or extended musical sequences.  The story is simple: the Boys create an elaborate subterfuge in order to sneak out on their wives and attend a wild convention in Chicago.  As always, whenever Laurel and Hardy attempt to pull the wool over anybody's eyes, the only ones who will be fooled in the end will be themselves. Unlike earlier features such as PARDON US, the comedy sequences in SONS are not just disjointed setpieces following one after the other, but rather they are skillfully written to advance each segment to the next plot point, leading to one of the funniest endings in all their work as the Boys try to work themselves out of a horrible morass of lies they have been telling their better halfs. Busy Bodies is an acceptable print complete with animated buzz-saw titles. There are occasional specks and lines as will always be found on old films, but I did not find them distracting.  However, there seems to be some strange madness going on near the beginning of the film where Stan and Ollie fall on the platform while trying to get to their workstations.  In the upper portion of the frame, part of a pile of planks of wood in the background keeps jumping, while the rest of the frame doesn't.  I have been informed that this defect is a worldwide phenomenon (though probably not as well known as, say, Anna Kournikova) and not specific to this DVD. As for the film itself, it is Laurel and Hardy playing with tools.  A surefire set-up resulting in one of their best sound shorts.     County Hospital is, unbelievably, an old Film Classics television print from long ago rather than the restored print (with original Hal Roach title cards) shown on AMC a few years ago.  For purists, this is annoying, and even the average viewer might notice the obvious scratches that run down the center of the film all throughout (the exact same scratches as can be found an old Nostalgia Merchant video print.) We waited so long for Laurel and Hardy sound films to come out on DVD in the United States, and we are still stuck with watching an old Film Classics prints. I know this is a family page, but I can't help but say, "What the fudge?"      County Hospital has some light and dark flickering that goes back to every other print I have seen of this film, and again, DVD makes this more noticeable.  But the film itself is an exceptional exercise in slapstick, with Stan visiting Ollie in the hospital and making things so chaotic that Hardy is soon thrown out broken leg and all.  Ah, for the good old days when, if a friend visited you in a hospital and causes trouble, a doctor had every right to kick you out.  It was the same period of time in American history when, if you accidentally sat on a hyperdermic needle full of sedatives, the nurse would simply point and laugh at you and not bother warning you about the dangers of driving a car later on that day.      The one major fault with this film is the extremely obvious use of back projection during the final runaway car scene.  Some fans say this was actually a satire on movie-making, while others think that the Boys make this part funny in their closeups, but I still think it is a horrible ending.     The Music Box is obviously another major selling point for this DVD.  I am extremely relieved that Hallmark didn't use the colorized print with the extraneous music that was released in the late 80s, and, begrudgingly, Hallmark/Artisan at least must be commended for steering away from colorization all together, considering their previous video releases were all colorized and contained the same kind of TV fadeouts SONS OF THE DESERT has.  But again, this print seems to be the same one as used on the old Nostalgia Merchant tapes released in the 1980s, which leads to the same old questions: why, why and why? The Music Box itself has been talked about so much over the years, that all I will say to new fans who are seeing it for the first time is: you'll enjoy it.      Another Fine Mess begins with the strange "Dear Ladies and Gentleman" opening, where two twins speak the opening credits.  This one of producer Hal Roach's less-inspired ideas, but it is always a kick to see this kind of stuff, and thankfully it remains in this print.  The print is probably the best one I have seen, but my only other copies of this film are a Nostalgia Merchant video which seems to have been dubbed from a home movie release, and Hallmark's previous colorized version of this film. The film itself is not one of my favorites, being more plot-based than I care for in L&H shorts, and extended to three reels, it is just a tad too slow, even for Laurel and Hardy.  Still, there are lots of memorable moments in this one, including Ollie giving a tour of "his" house and a very bizarre and visual chase ending.      At the end of each film, we are exposed to not one but two separate copyright warnings before being taken back to the Select a Film menu.  Next time, I hope they place this warning at the beginning of the disc instead of after every film. PRESENTATION      Only in an age where we are spoiled beyond belief by constantly evolving technology would we be reviewing "presentation" and "special features" of half-a-century old films.  It used to be you could pop in a VHS of W.C. Fields and not even think about anything else, especially presentation. Usually, you were just happy to have access to the film. But this is the age of DVD, so I must comment.      After about 30 seconds worth of company logos for Artisan, Hallmark and Family Home Entertainment (and no advertisements), we are treated to beautiful looking faux title cards based on the opening credits of SONS and the curtain from the beginning of Another Fine Mess.  "Hal Roach Presents Laurel and Hardy" is followed by a quick montage of visual moments from the films on the disc itself.  These eventually turn into the Main Menu itself, which shows a still shot of Laurel and Hardy in their car from County Hospital while piano music from The Music Box plays on the soundtrack.  On the car itself are the choices "Select a Film", "Special Features" and "Audio Features".      All of the lettering on the menus are in an Art Deco font, which enhances the period-look of the menus, but also makes some words difficult to read.      The navigational system is passable though sometimes pressing the Menu button on your remote control will not take you to a main menu but to a previous section of the disc that you were looking at. SELECT A FILM      Not surprisingly, when you choose "Select a Film", you are taken to a screen where you can choose from any of the five films, and with each film you can go to a "Select a Scene" menu.  Each film is divided into about 10 or 12 scenes which you can access immediately.  Unlike many DVDs, there are no still pictures to go along with the scene selections, so newcomers will probably not make much use of this feature, but fans will recognize chapter titles such as "A Close Shave" (Busy Bodies) or "Heave-Ho" (The Music Box).      If you start a film from the beginning, you are treated to a nice bit of animation where a scene from the film you select plays you into the film itself.  For example, when you chose The Music Box, Stan and Ollie carry a piano across the screen leading to a black screen that then wipe into the opening credits. SPECIAL FEATURES      There are several special features included on the DVD.  "King of Laughter" is a short, somewhat perfunctory tribute to Hal Roach and the Boys, narrated, I am almost sure, by Penn Gillette of Penn and Teller fame, whose distinctively authoratative voice has made him a natural for voice-over work and narration.  (I'm betting he and his partner, the Stan Laurel/Harry Langdon-lookalike Teller, are big fans of the Boys.)  The good thing about this short tribute is how several Laurel and Hardy scenes play out almost in full, so that the true spirit and rhythm of their comedy shines through.  There is the eating scene from One Good Turn and Ollie carrying Stan in BLOCK-HEADS, as well as shorter clips from other movies.  Judging from the clips, some of the prints look wonderful (BLOCK-HEADS is particularly crisp) while other look fuzzier. Dom DeLuise, the late Steve Allen, Mel Brooks and director John Hughes (SIXTEEN CANDLES and the Laurel and Hardyesque PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES) are all on hand to say nice things about the Boys.      "Then and Now Location Tour" is a series of captioned stills that show what has become of the County Hospital Building and The Music Box stairs.  It should be more interesting than it is.  It ends, somewhat morbidly, on stills of Stan and Ollie's graves.  (Oh, boy, now I'm ready for comedy!)      "Hal Roach Articles" is really one article, an interesting interview with Roach from 1987.      "Photo Montage" is a nice slide show featuring stills from all five movies, plus some very nice shots of Hal Roach himself.  "Honolulu Baby" from SONS OF THE DESERT plays in the background, eventually giving way to piano music from The Music Box and finally, some neat jazz tune that I don't recognize (John "Jazzbo" Larrabee, are you there?)      It may have been better to have a still appear and then use the remote control to go to the next one, but the pause button will work fine if you want to linger over some of the more interesting shots.  None of the shots are identified beyond what movie they are from, and the slide show ends on a few stills of a woman whom I do not recognize.      "Tent Societies" is a listing of how to contact the Sons of the Desert tents names after all five movies.  If you don't live near one of the tents, I suppose you'll have to wait until Hallmark releases a DVD with a film title that has a tent near you.      Finally, there are biographies of Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Hal Roach.  All I will say about this section is that whoever wrote it seemed to "enjoy" not only John Larrabee's excellent article "The Golliwog and the Lobby-Watcher" found in the Articles section of L&H Central, but also on my article "Hal Roach: A Man and His Studios" for the Silents are Golden Page (a page you can find through our links section).  Check it all out yourself if you don't believe us. AUDIO FEATURES      There are two choices - Original 1.0 Dolby Monaural or Restored 2.0 Dolby Monaural.  I'll leave it to people with two good ears to figure out what the difference is.  Unfortunately, there are no subtitles or foreign language tracks available, and no commentary tracks.     JL: Why, why, why?  Why does this much-anticipated disc arrive with all the quality one would expect from a home-burned DVD-R?  In fact, if you have the proper software and VHS copies of the prints broadcast on AMC in the mid-'90s, you could probably make a better-looking disc yourself.  In an age when consumers are increasingly aware and appreciative of the picture quality offered by DVDs, it is baffling that a corporation would use inferior source materials, especially when that same corporation owns high-quality prints.  Given Hallmark Entertainment's callous disregard for Laurel & Hardy fans during the past decade, the cynic in me suspects that it was done intentionally to keep sales low, thereby justifying no further releases.  But that's just the cynic in me.      It's ironic that Hallmark apparently considers this disc to be "good enough for Laurel and Hardy fans," when in fact fans of classic cinema tend to the ones most particular about things like picture quality and faithfulness to the source.  This is why a small label such as the Criterion Collection has flourished, despite the high price tag on its DVD releases.  People are usually willing to pay more when they know they're getting quality in return.  I have to believe that sales of this disc would not be adversely affected by an increased price, especially when fans have been clamoring for Laurel and Hardy video releases for many years.      Because John B. has provided an exhaustive review of the disc (and because, for once, he and I agree on practically everything), most of my comments are brief tidbits, nit-picks, and a few thoughts on matters that John B. has pondered:     -"Another Fine Mess" is the only film on the disc for which an RHI-restored print was used.  Unfortunately, the transfer is off-center, resulting in a loss of information on the left and bottom of the screen, while the rounded corner of the film frame is visible in the upper right for much of the film.  Easily corrected, they just didn't bother.     -A video glitch in "The Music Box" indicates that the master for this film is the same one that was used for the earlier Nostalgia Merchant VHS release and the 3M laserdisc release.  A newer remaster of this film restores several missing seconds of footage, and offers a much-improved audio track.  Again, they couldn't be bothered.     -A few fans have observed that "Another Fine Mess" seems to have added sound effects.  I haven't noticed this yet.     -John B. mentions the jazz tune played under the Hal Roach photo montage.  I could be wrong, but it sounds like a sax player improvising to the changes of "Blame It on My Youth."  Corrections appreciated.  We'd also like to identify the woman who appears in two photos at the end of the montage.     -At the risk of becoming too technical, the disc is also marred by the rather puzzling choice of mastering the films at 30 fps interlaced, rather than 24 fps progressive, which is the standard for most NTSC-region video.  (For a full explanation of "interlaced" and "progressive," see http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm)  The interlacing process relies on alternating scan lines to produce a composite picture, whereas the progressive method scans the entire image at once and employs a "line doubler" to increase the number of scan lines and, hence, the quality of the picture.  Interlacing is the reason for some of the digital artifacts on the disc, such as visible streaks across the screen during moments of fast action.  So we have inferior source prints mastered in an inferior manner.     -The 2.0 audio track offers a slight separation of the sound into two channels.  The effect is barely noticable, but it's an improvement over the original 1.0 track, as it cleans up some glitches and dropouts.     All that said, I'm nevertheless recommending this disc to fans in the U.S.  It is, at present, the only readily available source for some classic L&H films in this country.  If you're nostalgic, the prints might even remind you of the way the films used to look, back in the glory days when Laurel and Hardy were easy to find on television.  In other words, the quality of the disc is entirely acceptable by 1975 standards. JB: At least two-thirds of the team creating this disc did an outstanding job.  The designer of the menu system should be commended for caring enough to use elements of the films themselves as backgrounds and using a period font for the lettering, even if this makes it difficult to read some of the smaller type. Whoever actually chose the five films also knew what they were doing.      However, all this fancy presentation amounts to little when the actual prints used are an insult to fans.  The average movie-buyer, interested in seeing Laurel and Hardy again, may not care much, and in truth, many fans (myself included) have lived with these prints for years.  But that is the problem.  Why are we still living with them when all that work was done to strike up newer prints complete with original titles?  What happened to those prints?  Why are they not being released?  Have they been lost or damaged?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?      Having any Laurel and Hardy talkies on DVD is a good enough reason to hold out hope for further volumes, but we have got to get the message to Hallmark that if they are going to produce Laurel and Hardy DVDs, they should use the best prints possible in their possession. Copyright © John Larrabee, John V. Brennan 2003. All Rights Reserved.