Laurel And Hardy - 21 Disc Box Set ! (1 Viewer)

All UK Laurel and Hardy fans - especially you, Derek McL !

A 21 disc box set of Laurel and Hardy films is being released on 3rd May 2004.

See here for details -

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page...2&p=57&c=&g=72

Details are sketchy at the moment, but the discs will also be released individually. Run a further search on the Play site and you'll see the titles of each release, which give some clues as to the content. It seems the discs will be an amalgamation of the sound shorts, the silent shorts and the features, loosely arranged around themes. As I can only see 20 individual discs listed, it seems likely that the 21st disc will comprise of bonus features to entice us into buying the box set.

If you go to www.mvc.co.uk and do a search, you'll see a small shot of the box set itself.

It remains to be seen whether this is the complete canon but it seems likely. This presents a slight dilemma, as there are Dutch compilations of all the silent shorts, sound shorts and features also being released this year, offering the Kinowelt transfers but no extras, for a considerably cheaper price. A lot will depend on the quality of prints used by Vision Video and the bonus features.

Still - great news !

Well, neat! I hope they look as good as my German 10-disc box set. Kind of expensive though. I'll need to know what's included before I plunk my money down.

Thats a lot of discs!

Thanks for that Anthony you beat me to it ! I wouldn't worry about the print quality : they will be great I'm sure. As you say it really depends on the extras and for someone who has a pretty good collection already of Stan and Ollie they will have to be good to get me to invest again but you never know! I've always adored Stan and Ollie and now hopefully I can fill in the few gaps there are in my collection.

Still no conformation of whats on individual discs but here is a link to the boxset with a list of the films included.

http://www.laurelandhardy.pwp.blueyo...k/newDVDa.html

This confirms its the complete Roach catalog of Stan and Ollie apart from a few titles I believe that are either in the public domain (Babes in Toyland) or owned by Warner (Fra Diavolo,Bonnie Scotland). Looks a really nice box if a bit expensive. Play has it at the moment for the princely sum of £175. Nothing on the extras yet but I hope we're getting more than foreign versions and did they really need to include those colourised atrocities ?

I wish they'd be a bit more forthcoming about what's on these sets. It's a hefty price to pay - especially when you just KNOW these individual discs will drop in price after a year or so - but it'll be worth it if this is the definitive collection. Which it looks like it will be.

I wonder what's on that bonus disc ? What kind of footage is out there, Derek ?

Unless they can use Cuckoo there isn't really a great documentary on the Boys unless Vision are creating a new one. I believe there is a Hal Roach documentary on a set of Our Gang DVDs part of which was used on the Artisan/Hallmark DVD. I was tempted to buy the Our Gang set to get that.

There is plenty of footage of their British tours and there is also home movie footage of their later years. One of the German DVDs has home movie stuff from after Stan Laurel's stroke in the mid 50s. This is in colour and has been used in a few documentaries.

There doesn't sadly seem to be any footage of Stan and Ollie at work though I've seen lots of photos. Glen Mitchell who wrote the Laurel and Hardy Encyclopedia has been working on the DVDs and his book is certainly comprehensive.

Not sure myself what they can fill the 21st DVD with. Presumably any bonus solo shorts or shorts featuring other Roach stars like Charley Chase will be scattered throughout the regular discs though there are certainly plenty of them. Perhaps they will be on the "extras" disc.

It's a crying shame there's no decent documentaries on the boys. There really should be. I can't even remember how good Cuckoo was - I just remember being very moved by it.

It looks like L and H are very undervalued in the States so we can't expect one from there. Do Vision have the resources to have made one ?

I don't know but they seem to be an ofshoot of Universal UK.
As I said Glenn Mitchell has been involved with these DVDs hopefully not just to do liner notes and consider the make-up of discs but maybe to deliver something on camera ? Little featurettes/intros to each film with brief details would be great.

Latest news - all three Benelux sets( silents, sound shorts, features) will be released as a 19-disc set which includes a disc of bonus features, in August.
It seems likely then that the VVL and Benelux sets will be quite similar in most regards. The Benelux will be cheaper but it will NOT contain the colourised versions (whether or not this is a disadvantage depends on your p.o.v).
The packaging for the VVL looks much nicer, imo. Still, now there's time to decide.

Very much a bonus as far as I am concerned!

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So many films, so little time...

Yes I don't why they are including those atrocities. If I can get the Dutch set online for a reasonable cost I think I will be tempted. The VVL box is much nicer but the nine double disc sets, one single disc of the Dutch set will also take up a lot less space. We will see : the content of individual discs in the British set will be important to me.

One thing that worries me slightly about this set is that some, or perhaps all, of the Laurel and Hardy shorts released by Vision Video had their original title cards replaced by rather poor video-generated titles.

I hope they aren't using the same transfers for the DVDs.

They won't be James. I had some of those Videos but those transfers are at least ten years old. They were all superceded in the mid 90s by restored versions with original titling. These are the versions which have been released in Germany and they will be the same ones you'll get in both the Dutch and British sets. Even the few DVDs released by VVL in the UK before were these versions : Way Out West for instance included the roaring MGM lion in all its glory at the beginning.

For more information on the dutch release, you can check a site called blotto dot nl

You'll also find a comparison with the UK set there.

At alt comedy.laurel-hardy a Google discussion group someone is suggesting (the webmaster of the blotto.nl site I believe) that the Dutch set will contain a few additional feature films that won't be in the British set. These will be Babes In Toyland which is probably fairly likely as its public domain and Kinowelt issued it in the German series but also intriguingly Fra Diavolo (The Devil's Brother in the US I believe) and Bonnie Scotland which I thought were owned by MGM or Warner. If this is right the Dutch Set will indeed be the complete Roach catalog. Its also rumoured that the cameos in shorts and maybe MGM features (? like Hollywood Party and Pick a Star)will surface on the bonus disc. Very interesting and maybe an argument to get the Dutch set if this comes to pass ?

We shouldn't have long to wait to see if this is confirmed as the Features which will come in four double disc sets in the Dutch set are coming in May, hopefully around the same time as the British discs.

If you can't wait for the complete Dutch set in August and must have the bonus disc you can still buy the separate sets early. All you do apparently is save coupons from each set and send these to Universal in Amsterdam and they will send you the box and the bonus disc.

Thanks for the information about the transfers, Derek.

Hmmm . . . the plot thickens.

www.blotto.nl doesn't have much info yet and won't have until the R2 specs are revealed.

A poster at thedvdforums.com gives this as the contents of the UK boxset:

45 Minutes From Hollywood - Dec. 26, 1926 - Silent
Duck Soup - March 13, 1927 - Silent
Slipping Wives -April 3, 1927 - Silent
Love 'Em and Weep - June 12, 1927 - Silent
Why Girls Love Sailors - July 17, 1927 - Silent
With Love and Hisses - August 28, 1927 - Silent
Sugar Daddies - September 10, 1927 - Silent
Sailors Beware - September 25, 1927 - Silent
The Second Hundred Years - Oct. 8, 1927 - Silent
Call of the Cuckoo - October 15, 1927 - Silent
Do Detectives Think? - November 20, 1927 - Silent
Putting Pants on Phillip - Dec. 3, 1927 - Silent
The Battle of the Century - Dec. 31, 1927 - Silent
Leave 'Em Laughing - January 28, 1928 - Silent
Flying Elephants - February 12, 1928 - Silent
The Finishing Touch - February 25, 1928 - Silent
From Soup to Nuts - March 24, 1928 - Silent
You're Darn Tootin' - April 21, 1928 - Silent
Their Purple Moment - May 19, 1928 - Silent
Should Married Men Go Home? -Sept. 8, 1928 - Silent
Early to Bed - October 6, 1928 - Silent
Two Tars - November 3, 1928 - Silent
Habeas Corpus - December 1, 1928 - Silent
We Faw Down - December 29,1928 - Silent
Liberty - January 26, 1929 - Silent
Wrong Again - February 23, 1929 - Silent
That's My Wife - March 23, 1929 - Silent
Big Business - April 20, 1929 - Silent
Unaccustomed as We Are - May 4, 1929 - Sound
Double Whoopee - May 18, 1929 - Silent
Berth Marks - June 1, 1929 - Sound Short
Men 'O War - June 29, 1929 - Sound Short
A Perfect Day - August 10, 1929 - Sound Short
They Go Boom - September 21, 1929 - Sound
Bacon Grabbers - October 19, 1929 - Silent
Hoosegow - November 16, 1929 - Sound Short
Angora Love - December 14, 1929 -Silent
Night Owls - January 4, 1930 - Sound Short
Blotto - February 8, 1930 - Sound Short
Brats - March 22, 1930 - Sound Short
Below Zero - April 26, 1930 - Sound Short
Hog Wild - May 31, 1930 - Sound Short
The Laurel & Hardy Murder Case - 1930 - Sound
Another Fine Mess - November 29, 1930 - Sound
Be Big - February 7, 1931 - Sound Short
Chickens Come Home - February 21, 1931 - Sound
Laughing Gravy - April 4, 1931 - Sound Short
Our Wife - May 16, 1931 - Sound Short
Pardon Us - August 15, 1931 - Sound Feature
Come Clean - September 19, 1931 - Sound Short
One Good Turn - October 31, 1931 - Sound Short
Beau Hunks - December 12, 1931 - Sound
Helpmates - January 23, 1932 - Sound Short
Any Old Port - March 5, 1932 - Sound Short
The Music Box - April 16, 1932 - Sound Short
The Chimp - May 21, 1932 - Sound Short
County Hospital - June 25, 1932 - Sound Short
Scram - September 10, 1932 - Sound Short
Pack Up Your Troubles - September 17, 1932 - Sound
Their First Mistake - November 5, 1932 - Sound Short
Towed in a Hole - December 31, 1932 - Sound Short
Twice Two - February 25, 1933 - Sound Short
Me and My Pal - April 22, 1933 - Sound Short
The Midnight Patrol - August 3, 1933 - Sound Short
Busy Bodies - October 7, 1933 - Sound Short
Dirty Work - November 25, 1933 - Sound Short
Sons of the Desert - December 29, 1933 - Feature
Oliver the Eighth - February 1934 - Sound Short
Going Bye Bye - June 23, 1934 - Sound Short
Them Thar Hills - July 21, 1934 - Sound Short
The Live Ghost - December 8, 1934 - Sound Short
Tit for Tat - January 5, 1935 - Sound Short
The Fixer Uppers - February 9, 1935 - Sound Short
Thicker Than Water - March 16, 1935 - Sound Short
The Bohemian Girl - February 14, 1936 - Feature
Our Relations - October 30, 1936 - Sound Feature
Way Out West - April 16, 1937 - Sound Feature
Swiss Miss - May 20, 1938 - Sound Feature
Block-Heads - August 19, 1938 - Sound Feature
The Flying Deuces - October 20, 1939 - Feature
A Chump at Oxford - February 16, 1940 - Feature
Saps at Sea - May 3, 1940 - Sound Feature

PLUS EXTRAS TO BE CONFIRMED!

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So many films, so little time...

Here's the listing for the R2 discs, including the first hint I've seen of what's on the bonus disc -

1. A Chump At Oxford / Related Shorts
2. Classic Shorts / Someone's Ailing
3. Way Out West / Shorts
4. Classic Shorts / Ollie And Matrimony
5. Our Relations / Dual Roles Shorts
6. Classic Shorts / Murder In The Air
7. Blockheads / Themed Shorts
8. Classic Shorts / Blackmail
9. The Bohemian Girl / Related Shorts
10. Classic Shorts / Be Big / Laughing Gravy
11. Saps At Sea / Themed Shorts
12. Classic Shorts / Laurel And Hardy And The Law
13. Sons Of The Desert / Related Shorts
14. Classic Shorts / A Job To Do
15. Pack Up Your Troubles / Related Shorts
16. Classic Shorts / Maritime Adventures
17. Swiss Miss / Animal Shorts
18. Classic Shorts / Married Life
19. Pardon Us / One Prison Short
20. Classic Shorts / More Brushes With The Law
21. Bonus disc: Brats (alternative version) / A Tribute To The Boys / Hinter Schloss Und Riegel / Prudence / Thundering Fleas / Fluttering Hearts

Anyone got any idea what these are ?