Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Laurel & Hardy: Year One -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[gregstaten]

This is a set I've been eagerly waiting for since it was announced. What a herculean effort to put these sets together! Can't wait to watch - and to show to my kids.

 

[Traveling Matt]

Finally got a chance to scan through a few of these and, man alive, the restorations are remarkable. What an achievement.

 

[Skretvedt]

Your commentaries?

That was from me, Randy Skretvedt, but typed on Rob Ray's computer.

 

[madfloyd]

Amazon isn't delivering this until late September

 

[FreshFish]

It took a week for this to cross the pond to the UK, but it's here, and I am lost for words. These films look great! Thanks Lobster, Randy, and everyone else who helped to put this together.
It's exciting to think that we could be getting some fantastic releases in the coming years, starting with this!

 

[Patrick McCart]

Amazon isn't delivering this until late September

I order all my Flicker Alley releases from them directly to avoid this. Already got it in my hands earlier this week.

 

[madfloyd]

I order all my Flicker Alley releases from them directly to avoid this. Already got it in my hands earlier this week.

Good to know, thank you!

 

[bujaki]

It's also cheaper to order directly from Flicker Alley.

 

[lark144]

It's also cheaper to order directly from Flicker Alley.

In general, yes, though with the Laurel and Hardy set, it's slightly less on Amazon, maybe a dollar or two, which is irrelevant, but with shipping costs from Flicker Alley added on, it's enough to make it worth my while to wait, though this is the first time I'm not ordering directly from Flicker Alley.

 

[bujaki]

In general, yes, though with the Laurel and Hardy set, it's slightly less on Amazon, maybe a dollar or two, which is irrelevant, but with shipping costs from Flicker Alley added on, it's enough to make it worth my while to wait, though this is the first time I'm not ordering directly from Flicker Alley.

But when you pre-order, FA knocks a few dollars off, I think $5.

 

[tatifan]

I relayed your request to Randy Skretvedt who replies "Hello -- "The Laurel & Hardy Movie Scripts, Volume 2" is available on Kindle, here (I confess that I haven't seen this format of it, since I am an old-fashioned book kind of guy): https://bonaventurepress.com/laurel-hardy-movie-scripts-volume-2/

I know that Bonaventure Press is planning a Kindle version of "Magic Behind the Movies," although why anyone would want to read a 630-page book with 1,000 photographs on a tiny Kindle screen is beyond me. But then there are people who will watch "Ben-Hur" on their phones, so....."

But on a 12.9 inch iPad it is not at all a problem of scale.

 

[Bart T]

I received my set last week, and I haven't had the chance to watch everything yet, but what I've seen looked very impressive. Picture quality is generally very good to downright gorgeous. Several titles that were only available in washed out blurry prints in the past, now look astonishing! Also, there's a lot of additional footage. I think this Blu Ray set has the most complete version of Duck Soup available. All other versions miss at least part of the opening bit with the painting, and the complete bit with the "naked" Madeline Hurlock (Oh my gawd. She's raw!). The Lucky Dog has the scene with the cat reinstated, and the Second Hundred Years had all missing title cards added back in, and there's probably lots more that I have yet to see. With Love and Hisses and Flying Elephants did also use really sharp 35 mm prints. It looks as if it's the same prints that were used for the Lost Films dvd's, but now they look a lot better in glorious high definition.

Best of all, as is already mentioned: Serge Bromberg has a very gentle touch in restoring. The films still look like film, there's still grain present, and they weren't digitally sandblasted as several titles in the "Definitive Collection" are.

I listened to Patrick Vasey's interview with Mr. Bromberg on the L&H podcast, and if I understand correctly, Mr. Bromberg is only going to restore the silent films. A real shame, because he would probably do a much better job on the talkies than those responsible for the digital restoration on the "Definitive Collection".

Do I really have nothing to complain about this set? Not really. Well, if I must mention one small thing: on all opening titles there's a small Blackhawk Films copyright notice that's pasted on. Also, on some intertitles in the lower right corner it says LF (I assume this means Lobster Films) or BJ (?). It doesn't really bother me, because it's not nearly as annoying as those watermarks on some of the "Lost Films" titles, but nevertheless, I could have lived without them. I fully understand that after all the hard work that went into the production of these titles, the producers want to protect their work, but is this really the way? Anyone that wants to make bootleg copies can simply use the title cards from another print, paste over another logo or copyright claim, or just airbrush it out. In these days of deepfake anything is possible.

Apart from that minor disturbance I think it's a great set, and I can't wait for L&H: Year Two (1928) and Three (1929). With or without copyright notices, I will certainly buy them.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Do I really have nothing to complain about this set? Not really. Well, if I must mention one small thing: on all opening titles there's a small Blackhawk Films copyright notice that's pasted on. Also, on some intertitles in the lower right corner it says LF (I assume this means Lobster Films) or BJ (?). It doesn't really bother me, because it's not nearly as annoying as those watermarks on some of the "Lost Films" titles, but nevertheless, I could have lived without them. I fully understand that after all the hard work that went into the production of these titles, the producers want to protect their work, but is this really the way? Anyone that wants to make bootleg copies can simply use the title cards from another print, paste over another logo or copyright claim, or just airbrush it out. In these days of deepfake anything is possible.

The Murnau Foundation usually adds "FWMS" to re-created intertitles their restorations to make sure their work isn't mistaken as original. This was probably more for authenticity than copyright reasons.

Speaking of bootlegs, I say good luck. I generally rip discs of short films to my media server and let's just say Lobster/Fidelity in Motion has a very clever (and effective) method of ensuring these aren't pirated.

 

[madfloyd]

Speaking of bootlegs, I say good luck. I generally rip discs of short films to my media server and let's just say Lobster/Fidelity in Motion has a very clever (and effective) method of ensuring these aren't pirated.

Oh, this is a bit of a concern for me, since I also rip everything to my media server as well. I'm not even sure I still have a functioning bluray player.

 

[Peter Neski]

Oh, this is a bit of a concern for me, since I also rip everything to my media server as well. I'm not even sure I still have a functioning bluray player.

One has to connect the sections of films, because they are broken up, I did this, it's a pain, but worth it to me.

 

[rdf8585]

Can anyone check how long the Bengston locations bonus is?

 

[FreshFish]

Can anyone check how long the Bengston locations bonus is?

It's not long at all. 15-20 minutes?

 

[Paul Penna]

Can anyone check how long the Bengston locations bonus is?

It runs 11:29.

 

[Bert Greene]

This has been a marvelous release!

Been getting a lot of laughs from it. Prints look amazing!

 

[FreshFish]

This is such a great release, and it makes me interested in Flicker Alley's other Blu Rays ( I couldn't wait for the US release of Laurel Or Hardy, and bought the French set)
Some of the films here are scratched (Lucky Dog for example), but there's so much more detail to make out, and most look amazing for their age, they've never looked better. The documentaries are informative, as are the stills and commentaries.

The work done on recreating the title cards is stellar, but can anyone confirm if they use the correct Lion for MGM?