Cheap The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy - The Complete Collection, Vol. 5 (DVD) (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) (Leo McCarey) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy - The Complete Collection, Vol. 5

Can someone please tell me what that gray square on the bottom right of the screen during some of the movies is? Habeas Corpus has it.

This one has several classic Laurel & Hardy silent comedies
Volume 5 of "The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy" presents more "silent" classics from the late 1920s. "Wrong Again," a 1929 two-reeler directed by Leo McCarey, has Laurel & Hardy as a pair of stable hands who hear that the "Blue Boy" as been stolen and their is a huge reward. Of course it is the famous painting by Gainsborough that has been stolen, but the boys think it is the horse of the same name from their stable. When they go to the millionaire's home to claim their reward, the boys are instructed to bring Blue Boy in and put is on the piano: so they do. "Wrong Again" is another one of those early sound efforts where the record has been lost and we are left with the silent version. Consequently the pacing on this one seems off because the action is matching sound cues that no longer exist. "Habeas Corpus" is one of the best Laurel & Hardy two-reelers, also directed by McCarey. The set up this time around is simple enough: mad scientist Richard Carle has hired to the boys to steal bodies from a cemetery for his experiments. The end result is much more slapstick than we usually find with Stan and Ollie. My favorite is when the body in the bag is still alive and starts walking on its own. A first-rate two-reeler from the boys.

If you want to get technical, the first film in which both Laurel and Hardy appeared was "Forty-Five Minutes from Hollywood," a 1926 two-reeler that featured virtually every player under contract to Hal Roach including dinosaurs. In fact, Stan Laurel appears with an enormous mustache (a double for Jimmy Finlayson is my guess). However 1927's "Duck Soup," directed by Fred Guilo, has the distinction of being the first film in which you can really say Laurel & Hardy were a team. Stan and Ollie are a bit down on their luck and avoid the constable by stumbling onto the estate of a local millionaire. There they assume disguises as the master of the house and his maid. This is the least of the four comedies on this disc, but has "historical" importance. "Leave 'Em Laughing" is a 1928 film directed by Clyde Buckman but "supervised" by Leo McCarey with the story credit going to Hal Roach. This is the classic one where Laurel has a toothache and Hardy drags him to the dentist. After exposure to the "laughing gas," the boys cause a traffic jam and drive cop Edgar Kennedy to distraction. The solo shorts tacked on this time around are Hardy with Charley Chase in 1927's "Fluttering Hearts," and Laurel with James Finlayson in "Short Kilts" from 1924, which makes some interesting use of sound effects. Volume 5 is one of the better collections in the series.

This DVD is a Must for Laurel & Hardy Fans
I started collecting Laurel & Hardy films in 8 mm. back in the 1960s. Today, the video and sound qualities are better than ever and Volume 5 of the so-called Lost Films of L & H series in DVD is an absolute must for true fans. Among the many treats is the first "team" film, DUCK SOUP, that turns out to be the predecessor of their 1930 talkie, Another Fine Mess. In both cases, the plot - by Stan's father no less - gets in the way. But here, in DUCK SOUP, the Stan and Ollie characters are only partially developed and they just don't seem much like the Laurel & Hardy we know and love - sort of the way they became later in those awful 1940s films for Fox and MGM when they just didn't act like themselves.

Another highlight is the Charley Chase film, FLUTTERING HEARTS, that had me wondering why Hal Roach never gave him a chance in feature films during the sound era. This film is a surprise bonus if you expected to find only Laurel & Hardy.

The picture quality varies from very good to stunning. For whatever reason, WRONG AGAIN seems derived from two different sources. Various shots in the same scene will be sharp as a tack while others will appear soft. If there is one shortcoming, it's in the liner notes that should tell us more about the film sources. In both HABEAS CORPUS and SHORT KILTS, a small white box in the lower right of the screen is apparently hiding some logo; I suspect it's a cable station. But I'm just carping. It's a great DVD release and I had a ball.