Laurel & Hardy? (1 Viewer)

[Douglas R]

What I'm talking about is that when a reaction takes, let's say, 2 seconds. That reaction now comes sooner.

Come off it Patrick! No way is 4% of 2 seconds noticeable.

 

[alan halvorson]

Is there anyway to view the German Amazon site in English? I'm having difficulty getting through the ordering process - I keep getting errors but I don't know what they mean. Is my account information passed on to the German site like it was for the Canadian and UK Amazon sites?

Thanks

 

[Danny_N]

What I'm talking about is that when a reaction takes, let's say, 2 seconds. That reaction now comes sooner.
A difference of that little time can make a gag funny or flat.

One wonders how millions of Europeans could have laughed at L&H whenever they were/are shown on PAL TV.

To quote Laurel: "Don't you think the professor is a trifle cuckoo?"

 

[Danny_N]

Alan,
You should be able to use the same account for all Amazon stores worldwide. The error you get is probably related to the fact that the boxset is currently not available anymore on the German Amazon site. You can only order it used. I don't think that the boxset is limited so it might pay off to check back regularly to see if they have it back in stock again.
Jeff,
The individual DVD's are a bit expensive for what you get. Prices are between 20 and 25 Euro for a DVD. That gives you usually only 3 shorts (and a silent short as an extra) or one feature (and a silent or sound short as an extra) although the most recent releases have a bit more material. The boxset is a real deal if you can get your hands on it. I've heard Kinowelt is planning to release a second boxset sometime this year. I've bought them individually :frowning:. Money well spent though.
The complete list of German DVD's released so far:
- Come Clean/Blotto/Chickens Come Home (extra silent: Love'Em And Weep)
- Brats/Helpmates (extra silent: Early To Bed)
- Big Business/Below Zero/Music Box
- Block-Heads (extra soundshort: Unaccustomed As We Are)
- Men O' War/Any Old Port/Towed In A Hole (extra: Why Girls Love Sailors)
- Sons Of The Desert (extra: We Faw Down)
- Going Bye Bye!/Them Thar Hills/Tit For Tat
- In Oxford (extra: From Soup To Nuts)
- Be Big/Laughing Gravy (original English versions and the phonetically spoken Spanish and French versions!).
- Our Relations (extra: Should Married Men Go Home?)
- Way Out West (extra: Putting Pants On Philip).
- Pack Up Your Troubles (extra: Their First Mistake and Wrong Again).
- Saps At Sea (extra: The Live Ghost and Sailors, Beware!).
- Their Purple Moment/County Hospital/One Good Turn (extra: Double Whoopee).
- Me And My Pal/Twice Two (extra: Sugar Daddies and Crazy Like A Fox and private films of the Laurel family from 1956).
- Pardon Us :normal and restored long version (extra: alternative ending from the phonetic Spanish version and the shorts The Second Hundred Years and Eve's Love Letters).
- Swiss Miss (extra: The Chimp and You're Darn Tootin' and Short Kilts).
- Dirty Work/Busy Bodies/They Go Boom (extra: The Finishing Touch and Be Your Age).
- Bohemian Girl (coming on January 28, extra: Slipping Wives and Bromo And Juliet)
Next planned release is in March (apart from Hog Wild I've no idea about what will be on it). Kinowelt will release everything they have the rights on for Germany. That's almost everything except for Flying Deuces, Fra Diavolo, Bonnie Scotland and the later Fox and MGM features.
If you have R2 capability and don't mind spending the money the German DVD's are great. They have very good picture quality (keeping in mind the age of the material), the original English language tracks and removable subtitles.

 

[Jay E]

What I'm talking about is that when a reaction takes, let's say, 2 seconds. That reaction now comes sooner.

Patrick, have you actually watched the PAL DVDs of Laurel & Hardy? If not, then I think you should watch them before you make a comment like that. No matter how hard I look, I don't notice any speed-up when watching them. This isn't silent films sped up to 32 frames a second.

 

[alan halvorson]

So - can anyone help me out. Apparently this set is OOP. The last I looked, Amazon.de listed five by individual sellers but none will ship out of Germany. Ebay Germany lists many sets but, again, no seller will ship to the USA. I'm willing to pay the price if I can find someone has the set and will ship international. Any advice as how to obtain this set?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Patrick, have you actually watched the PAL DVDs of Laurel & Hardy? If not, then I think you should watch them before you make a comment like that. No matter how hard I look, I don't notice any speed-up when watching them. This isn't silent films sped up to 32 frames a second.

No, but I've seen enough 24fps-to-Pal-to-NTSC examples that are hard to watch.

Check out the PAL-to-NTSC version of The Great Dictator that was on TCM for the "Tramp and the Dictator" premire. Compare that to the 2000 DVD which used a straight NTSC master. The conversion made it REALLY hard to watch.

On the other hand, PAL-originated video looks great when converted to NTSC properly.

 

[Danny_N]

Apparently this set is OOP.

No it isn't. In fact you can order it again at Amazon.de for 99 Euro (they simply ran out of stock).

 

[alan halvorson]

Yeah, Danny, I found that out yesterday and ordered it. I didn't know what I was going to do if I couldn't find someone willing to ship to the USA, but there it was. I can't read German but I muddled through it somehow. Actually, it went into my cart at ~85 Euro, and ~15 for shipping. Finally! Blockheads!

 

[David Brent]

Good news...

Sid the Sloth just posted this response from Hallmark on the uk.media.dvd forum...

"
Thank you for contacting Hallmark Entertainment. The LAUREL AND HARDY films
will be black and white, and they are scheduled to be released on DVD in
August 2003.

Thank you,

Customer Support
Hallmark Entertainment
"

David

 

[Christian R]

I was lucky enough to pick up all the L& H DVDs in Germany at 9.99 each (so the price of the box for 99 Euro did not make any difference to me - for some reason the prices of the individual films are WAY TOO HIGH. But they are all excellent transfers for films of that vintage - and most of them include additional shorts. Hightly recommended since releases of these titles seem a looooong way off over here.