Laurel & Hardy movies ALTERED?! (1 Viewer)

[StuartGalbraith]

This may have appeared elsewhere, but besides being underwhelmed by Artisan's hazy "digital remastering" of various Laurel & Hardy shorts -- which should look much better than this -- I also noticed something very disturbing:

"Sons of the Desert" appears to have stock music tracked into the film where it never existed before. Maybe I'm remembering the film incorrectly but, for instance, when L&H first appear outside the homes, I don't think original theatrical versions had music. Moreover, a fade in and out appeared suddenly, as if this were some kind of television version edited to accommodate commercials. I found it so disconcerting I had to stop watching.

Any thoughts or confirmations? Thanks.

 

[Keith Paynter]

This has been discussed thoroughly in Michael Elliott's Archived Review

Indeed the Artisan source for Sons Of The Desert is a print edited for television broadcast, and is of lesser quality than the excellent European R2(?) PAL releases. As has been discussed in the thread, an alternate source for their films in North America (unauthorized) looks far better than the licensed, authorized Artisan edition, although the additional shorts on the Artisan disc appear to be clean. A bit disappointing.

With all the negative ranting over Universal's use of PAL masters for recent North American DVD reissues, it's too bad Artisan didn't actually do something like this, because the source material looks far better, and would be a big improvement over the edition they released. Too much negative reaction may stifle future releases though, and if the first disc didn't sell well, don't expect any more from them. They didn't really want it released to begin with - they treat the properties more like a bargaining tool for funding other projects.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I hate speedup, do the PAL discs at least have pitch correction?