Vivendi and RHI Press Release: Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection (1 Viewer)

[Essanay Paul]

Sonar is sub-licensing to Vivendi Entertainment for the DVD releases of sound LAUREL & HARDY and THE LITTLE RASCALS.
One correction they made was to fix the use of Blackhawk titles on the prints of the LITTLE RASCALS that RHI/Genius Entertainment made with the old LITTLE RASCALS DVD box set.

I have heard from a fan in New York City who says that his PBS station has started running The Lost Films Of Laurel & Hardy, so it appears Corinth has managed to get them on at least one TV station. The BAD news is that they are using the 1993 Agee masters.

Apparently the Lost Films Of Laurel & Hardy are also up on Hulu.com to watch.
http://www.hulu.com/the-lost-films-of-laurel-and-hardy

 

[Brandon Conway]

Not sure about Corinth. It looks like they'll need an additional push to deliver on the L&H silents. I don't doubt it will eventually happen but whether they will be released on blu-ray instead of DVD is hardly assured. They've never released a blu-ray on their own, only through joint efforts with another company such as Criterion's blu-ray of Fellini's 8 1/2. Hopefully a similar situation gets L&H on blu-ray, probably not with Criterion's help but perhaps another willing to assist in distribution..

I wouldn't put it past Criterion jumping at an opportunity to grab a distribution sub-license deal for the silent L&H if given the opportunity under reasonable cost circumstances. They grabbed the Chaplin and Lloyd films when they became available, after all, and one has to think that the Criterion label would help sell the films outside of the L&H fanbase.

 

[Essanay Paul]

YIKES! Those Hulu video files look SOFT. And on top of that they interrupt the films at no particular location to place THREE 2-minute commercial breaks!

 

[JoHud]

Anyone notice if the Hulu stream uses the same stock music in the Lost Films DVDs released by Image? A real big issue I had with this is that they relied on so much stock music looping through those shorts that I must have heard the same music at least 50 times. Hopefully if these ever get remastered or even released as-is for home video there will be new music scored for these shorts.

Sonar is sub-licensing to Vivendi Entertainment for the DVD releases of sound LAUREL & HARDY and THE LITTLE RASCALS.
One correction they made was to fix the use of Blackhawk titles on the prints of the LITTLE RASCALS that RHI/Genius Entertainment made with the old LITTLE RASCALS DVD box set.

Weren't the redone Our Gangs/Little Rascals and L&H Essential collection done while RHI was still in business? Both of those releases list RHI in the copyright info with no mention of Sonar Entertainment. They were also released while the RHI website was still up an running before Sonar Entertainment bought the domain.

Sonar Entertainment is still keeping those DVDs in print so I guess that's something.

 

[Essanay Paul]

1) The Hulu Streams use the same music tracks that are on Michael Agee's DVDs. They are basically the same presentations.

2) You are right about the old RHI being in charge of the LITTLE RASCALS correction. Sonar took control of RHI on March 2012, this is after the new Vivendi DVD release of June 2011.
Sonar has retained the name "RHI" for their home video releases. This could change in the future.
Sonar specializes in new productions for Cable-TV, they just happened to get the Hal Roach product which RHI had used to raise money to open a production facility. Instant product for syndication to bring in money to build the company's facilities (Just like King World did with THE LITTLE RASCALS on television).
Sadly this means that Sonar has no real interest in the Hal Roach films, it is just something that came along with something they else that they wanted.

Sonar is retaining the sub-license with Vivendi for home video.

 

[Brian McP]

If Corinth went into a co-production with Criterion with these silent L&Hs, with new music scores, that would be a dream come true -- if they had access to those UCLA fine grains, even better.

Just a suggestion (a lamebrain one to some, but have to mention it here, now) -- many of the silent shorts were packaged into a 1969 tv series made by CBC Canadian Broadcasting called "The Original Laurel and Hardy", packaged by the then-rights holders Richard Feiner & Co. The music scores were written and performed by Canadian bandleader Horace Lapp, who in his youth had been a silent movie pianist.

The scores themselves were just him and his piano, magnificently performed with energy and good humor, with occasional references to the L&H signature theme -- I don't know if it can be done, but synching up these 1969 performances to restored versions of these shorts might work (I don't know the logistics behind this, but if they can have Stan and Oliver in a color 3D movie, these days anything's possible)

Without putting too fine a point, Horace Lapp's performances and scores for this tv series were brilliant and I consider it a crime that there is barely a mention of him or this series on the entire internet (including IMDB) as well as in any of the reference books. The series was made at the end of the 60s so the show has a pop art/psychedelic presentation, using 1920 art deco motifs -- if there was a link to it on You Tube, I'd link it here, but it hasn't made it even to that website -- the series was in circulation here in Australia, on and off on ABC2, until the mid 1980s, I suspect it played more here than anywhere in the world.

Anyway, these were purely piano scores, no orchestra, and if it can be done, there's 20 or so performances ready to go, moldering away in some archive. They were simple scores -- and they're great.

 

[TheSteig]

Ive been watching all of them all including the UK DVD set with the silent ones and I noticed that some of them were remade later as talkies such as Love Em And Weep
Not only have I been enjoying them overall but its been a learning experience. Most of them I hadnt ever seen before. My favorites are still Way Out West and the Music Box..but they are all fun to sit through

 

[Tony Bensley]

Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection is currently on sale at U.S. Amazon (Though not at Canadian Amazon, unfortunately!) for $40.49!

Here is the link for it: http://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Essential-Collection-Stan/dp/B005BYBZKY/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404848588&sr=1-1&keywords=Laurel+%26+Hardy%3A+The+Essential+Collection

CHEERS!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have the UK set and the one linked above.

Have a preference towards the UK set. It's remarkable.

I used to buy 8mm Laurel and Hardy films as a teen from Blackhawk films.

It's always good to revisit some favorites.

 

[DeWilson]

Sadly this means that Sonar has no real interest in the Hal Roach films, it is just something that came along with something they else that they wanted.

Sonar is retaining the sub-license with Vivendi for home video.

Which is no different than RHI when they held the Roach Library, or Hallmark... A few shorts and films show up on TCM "The Devil With Hitler" aired and was on demand - nice print,too - last month! It would be interesting to compare what they hold (for sound shorts) against what the European rights holder has - I've heard some of the elements held by one is better than the other,and so forth. The Early Charlie Chase films for instance,and the various phonetic Spanish/French shorts of the different series. I'm curious about the MGM-era Silent Rascals/Our Gang and what is held in Europe apposed to the U.S. holdings. (and what Blackhawk used for elements)But I digress I'd love to see Coronet team up with the European Roach Libary and put together a definite silent set. Heck, love to see a release of the "Laughtoons" material. On a related note, anyone know anything about those three volumes of THE MISCHIEF MAKERS That turned up about a year ago on Amazon?

(If anyone is wondering, my favorite silent L&H is "Big Business")

 

[David Weicker]

Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection is currently on sale at U.S. Amazon (Though not at Canadian Amazon, unfortunately!) for $40.49!

Here is the link for it: http://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Essential-Collection-Stan/dp/B005BYBZKY/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404848588&sr=1-1&keywords=Laurel+%26+Hardy%3A+The+Essential+Collection

CHEERS!

Actually, it was down to $34.49. I just ordered it.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Actually, it was down to $34.49. I just ordered it.

Thank you very much for your post, David! I've finally placed an order for a friend of mine, which I've been wanting to do for awhile, but things never seemed to quite line up previously!

CHEERS!

Tony

 

[Tony Bensley]

Thank you very much for your post, David! I've finally placed an order for a friend of mine, which I've been wanting to do for awhile, but things never seemed to quite line up previously!

CHEERS!

Tony

I'm really glad I acted on this deal as Amazon's price is now $79.95!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Either set (US or the huge UK version) is a great set for any L&H fan to own.

Both do have their pluses! I've also heard that the quality of German Version of the Universal Set is better than the UK Version, though its Menu navigation is a bit of a pain, and it should also be noted that the German Set doesn't include the Colorized Versions, though I would see that as a plus!

I should also note that Amazon's current price for The Essential Collection is $50.99. the $79.95 price listing is for a "Fulfilled by Amazon" Third Party Vendor!

CHEERS!

 

[Essanay Paul]

It should be noted that some of the Colorized versions actually used different camera negatives.
Berthmarks is noticeably different! For example, the B&W version has a medium shot of the train in the station while the Colorized version uses a silent negative that has a long shot.

So while we hate the idea of colorizing, the studio doing the colorization didn't always use the same camera negative as the B&W version, so the comparisons are interesting.

 

[Tony Bensley]

It should be noted that some of the Colorized versions actually used different camera negatives.
Berthmarks is noticeably different! For example, the B&W version has a medium shot of the train in the station while the Colorized version uses a silent negative that has a long shot.

So while we hate the idea of colorizing, the studio doing the colorization didn't always use the same camera negative as the B&W version, so the comparisons are interesting.

That is indeed correct, Paul and definitely worth noting! I think it comes down to how much tolerance one has for the primitive Colorization for the sake of being able to view some alternate Laurel & Hardy footage. It's also worth noting that many of these Colorization efforts are taken from edited Television Prints that were first Broadcast on "The Laurel & Hardy Show" in the late 1980's and were shown on MeTV as recently as the Spring of 2013!

CHEERS!

Tony

 

[Patrick Mason]

Not sure when this happened, but iTunes now has all the films from this boxset available in HD! They are pricing them at $9.99 for features and $2.99 for the shorts. A nice Christmas surprise to me. I watched some of The Music Box last night, and it looks absolutely fantastic.

 

[Patrick Mason]

"Hog Wild" and "Politiquerias" are slightly squashed, or stretched, or whatever you call it when the image is just a bit too wide on video to accurately represent what it looks like on film.

Took a look at the iTunes HD "Hog Wild" transfer, sadly the aspect ratio issue is still present (too bad, such an easy fix!)

 

[Tony Bensley]

Took a look at the iTunes HD "Hog Wild" transfer, sadly the aspect ratio issue is still present (too bad, such an easy fix!)

Hi Patrick!


I've been told that HOG WILD was originally filmed at a 1:20.1 Aspect Ratio, which would explain its stretched appearance when viewed at 1:33.1.


If viewing on a Computer, some Media programs will allow for Aspect Ratio adjustment. I find Media Player Classic to be especially helpful in this respect.


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Patrick Mason]

Thanks Tony! Unfortunately, these are purchased through the iTunes Store, and thus are locked with DRM. Only iTunes or Apple iOS/Apple TV devices are permitted for playback, which do not offer aspect ratio controls.


As Hog Wild was filmed in an unusual aspect ratio due to being an early sound film, I do understand why the encoding mistake was easy to make in the first place. I do wish it could have been caught and corrected before release, or in this case, years after the disc release when releasing to digital platforms. Still nice to have the majority of these available in nice HD presentations.