For
some time now, many of my fellow Helpmates' members have asked, over and
over again (well, hounded me, actually), as to whether I had any plans to
sum up what has now been two decades of work on the restoration of the Laurel
& Hardy Comedies, by formulating a special collection of all of the Hal
Roach films to which we still control rights, and release everything in a
boxed set. The thought of having one more shot at everything was undeniably
appealing (certainly to my anal-retentive tendencies) because I simply cannot
watch any film I have ever restored without wincing in pain at this or that
flaw which I somehow, in my exhaustion of the moment, had missed - and, I
swear, never have I turned to an associate and groaned "Oh, God, did you
see that?" and have them reply "Yes-I certainly did. I saw that". Always
the response is "What? See what?" So I know it's just me and that it is
absolutely a borderline illness.
Anyway, yes! I absolutely wanted to add that bathroom scene to Duck Soup,
and insert the transitional car sequence in Love 'Em And Weep, hack out the
freeze-frames and repair the reel change on Liberty, put in the entire Vitaphone
track on We Faw Down - I'm doing this from memory, so - YES! Obviously, it
is an obsession and I have to do it!
"So, why hasn't it been done?" you might ask. (Someone
go ahead - ask. Good old Rob!) Well, now that you ask, it hasn't been done
because it costs an absolute fortune and, you may be surprised to learn,
we didn't even sell two thousand copies on certain discs in the series -
discs of which I was most proud - including the volume which returned Why
Girls Love Sailors to the world of the living (and, in two languages, no
less!). And, while I have always been quick to tell our annual assemblages
that without my old friend of three decades, Bruce Venezia, the Vice-President
of Image Entertainment, none of these films would ever have been restored
and would not today exist, there nevertheless have been production problems
which have caused some to believe the series had been discontinued (not bothering
to re-press Volume One for almost two years would tend to leave that general
impression!). But it was not intentional.
Also, I wanted to be certain I actually had something to offer that was worth
your support, because without the hope of a certain level of sales, no release
can be worth the while of a major public corporation such as Image. (Obviously,
my labour comes more cheaply.) While I, frankly, didn't think Image would
be interested, Bruce surprised me by saying they wanted to do it. (He knows
how to put a person "on the spot". Without such support, I could simply blame
him and slink off into the disappearing iris.)
So it has come down to a question of my health, which, as some of you may
know, has been almost laughably rather rough over the last few years. A minor
fall snowballed into one thing after another and now I look up at the calendar
and almost five years have passed, and I still don't feel a hell of a lot
better (trust me - stick with the NHS!). But to contrast the personal
considerations, as I look around my desk, I see filing cabinets filled with
posters and stills I want to share with you, along with stacks of different
and improved printing material on the films themselves which I have assembled
over the years, along with lists of additional Roach films I have amassed,
and I know, if I leave this world without doing it, nobody will do it (and
I very nearly expired-wholly by accident - this past July, and, as I recovered
over the following three months, I realised this definitely had been a wake-up
call from the standpoint of the responsibility I have always felt to make
this material available).
SO! ..... (I feel that at this point there should
be a bell or a buzzer or, at least, a cheap chord on an accordion or even
the raspberry of a whoopee cushion) .... I have decided to do it. Assuming
anyone is interested (and, if you are still reading after all the preceding
tripe, I assume you really must be interested.), you must be wondering exactly
what this "it" I'm going to foist upon you actually consists of. Frankly,
"it" is every film I've ever accumulated which I ever wanted to share with
you that I could manage to transfer to digital tape. The boxed set will consist
of a dozen discs - the "slim line" plastic discs in a box (You don't really
need another shoebox, do you?) and every disc will be double-layered and
absolutely packed with material (by my calculation, each disc is over four
hours long, -and I can still add to that). By popular demand (and I can give
you the guy's name if you insist upon it) I decided to put all the Laurel
and Hardy films - including the solos - in chronological order. Now, in all
seriousness, a lot of people have asked for this over the years, and I'm
sure you can understand that marketing considerations made this previously
impossible. But you will now be able to watch The Boys come together in The
Lucky Dog, then go their separate ways, only bumping into each other
occasionally, then finally - Boom!:- "The Boys".
Another big deciding factor in my going ahead with this project is that I
have just acquired what is remaining of the original European negative to
(can you believe?) Slipping Wives, which, as you know, has always been one
of the most spotty of titles. (Thank God for Bill Everson's 16mm print, or
we would have had nothing to work with over the past thirty years!). But
this original negative (which is missing the heads and tails in the same
fashion as the material we found on Flying Elephants and Why Girls Love Sailors)
is a revelation and, I think, adds a lot to our enjoyment if not perception
of the Laurel and Hardy body of work. And, that was the final straw in my
deciding to proceed.
Rob has a list of everything (I hasten to add-subject to change!) see PDF
link below, but let me briefly say we will
present a very
broad overview not just of L&H but of the Roach Studio itself over the
decades. There are several hours of Streamliners from 1941 which are not
only very funny but, having been done by Fred Guiol, you can catch him re-using
some of the first gags he originally devised for The Boys back in 1926-there
they are, fifteen years later in the wartime comedies (and you thought I
was recycling material!). I'm including an amazing World War Two-era
informational film about the Signal Corps motion picture unit which is, in
effect, a guided tour of Hal Roach Studios! This U. S. Government film shows
the tank, the different departments, even the prop room, where you will recognize
some of the ephemera from the various Laurel and Hardy comedies. (That aerial
shot perpetually shown of HRS came from this Signal Corps production.) There's
a serious WWII Army informational film teaching soldiers how to act under
enemy interrogation (I'm sending a copy to the White House), shot by the
Boys at Fort Roach. And, because I think they're funny, a baker's dozen of
Edgar Kennedy R-K-O comedies (hey--this was the entire Roach unit that was
laid off by the pencil pushers in 1931-THAT'S how I'm justifying it!).
There are even a couple of episodes of The Trouble With Father (The Stu Erwin
Show) from 1952.
Oh yeah-and a big surprise I'll tell you about later.
I plan to add a book of around 150 pages which will include all of the posters,
printed full page size (the book will be inside the box, so that's exactly
how large the pages will be-the size to fit next to the slim-pac DVD's) with
all of the same boring text you have come to know and love. I am working
on a treatise about the Roach-Victor Agreement (something for you fly-speckers
out there!), and hope to have room to include large-sized copies of many
of the great off-the-set stills we have accumulated, a few of which I am
leaking to Mr. Lewis for his next issue, including such items as Stan playing
golf with Art Lloyd and Bob McGowan.
BOOKLET PROOF
Now, this is not to say that the single DVD's have been discontinued-they
haven't. At my insistence, and with the thought that I'd somehow actually
like to be financially able to do all of the things with the boxed set that
I want to do, Image has re-pressed all ten discs. But there are only a couple
of hundred copies of each disc. I doubt they will ever again be made available
in this format, so if you are missing any - ACT NOW
The boxed set will retail for $199.95-whatever: Two Hundred dollars. That
means close to a hundred with all the discounts and, I hope, well worth it.
Any suggestions are appreciated though not all will necessarily be implemented
(Hey! the guy with all the nagging about the chronological order got lucky,
so - who knows?).
I truly appreciate all your kind support over the years and, frankly, without
it, I would never have continued. I think it's very hard doing this sort
of work in a vacuum so, when I say "thank you," I sincerely mean it.
As to the release date, I cannot be certain. It's a hell of a lot of work,
I have absolutely no help, and, on my bad days, it seems insurmountable.
But, we've made it this far, and I'm pecking along and hope to have something
more definitive for you in the next issue.
PLEASE NOTE: The above link is a PDF file, you will
need the ADOBE ACROBAT READER plug in to view this. It should install
automatically. If not go here to download the new version:
For
some time now, many of my fellow Helpmates' members have asked, over and
over again (well, hounded me, actually), as to whether I had any plans to
sum up what has now been two decades of work on the restoration of the Laurel
& Hardy Comedies, by formulating a special collection of all of the Hal
Roach films to which we still control rights, and release everything in a
boxed set. The thought of having one more shot at everything was undeniably
appealing (certainly to my anal-retentive tendencies) because I simply cannot
watch any film I have ever restored without wincing in pain at this or that
flaw which I somehow, in my exhaustion of the moment, had missed - and, I
swear, never have I turned to an associate and groaned "Oh, God, did you
see that?" and have them reply "Yes-I certainly did. I saw that". Always
the response is "What? See what?" So I know it's just me and that it is
absolutely a borderline illness.
"So, why hasn't it been done?" you might ask. (Someone
go ahead - ask. Good old Rob!) Well, now that you ask, it hasn't been done
because it costs an absolute fortune and, you may be surprised to learn,
we didn't even sell two thousand copies on certain discs in the series -
discs of which I was most proud - including the volume which returned Why
Girls Love Sailors to the world of the living (and, in two languages, no
less!). And, while I have always been quick to tell our annual assemblages
that without my old friend of three decades, Bruce Venezia, the Vice-President
of Image Entertainment, none of these films would ever have been restored
and would not today exist, there nevertheless have been production problems
which have caused some to believe the series had been discontinued (not bothering
to re-press Volume One for almost two years would tend to leave that general
impression!). But it was not intentional.
SO! ..... (I feel that at this point there should
be a bell or a buzzer or, at least, a cheap chord on an accordion or even
the raspberry of a whoopee cushion) .... I have decided to do it. Assuming
anyone is interested (and, if you are still reading after all the preceding
tripe, I assume you really must be interested.), you must be wondering exactly
what this "it" I'm going to foist upon you actually consists of. Frankly,
"it" is every film I've ever accumulated which I ever wanted to share with
you that I could manage to transfer to digital tape. The boxed set will consist
of a dozen discs - the "slim line" plastic discs in a box (You don't really
need another shoebox, do you?) and every disc will be double-layered and
absolutely packed with material (by my calculation, each disc is over four
hours long, -and I can still add to that). By popular demand (and I can give
you the guy's name if you insist upon it) I decided to put all the Laurel
and Hardy films - including the solos - in chronological order. Now, in all
seriousness, a lot of people have asked for this over the years, and I'm
sure you can understand that marketing considerations made this previously
impossible. But you will now be able to watch The Boys come together in The
Lucky Dog, then go their separate ways, only bumping into each other
occasionally, then finally - Boom!:- "The Boys".
a very
broad overview not just of L&H but of the Roach Studio itself over the
decades. There are several hours of Streamliners from 1941 which are not
only very funny but, having been done by Fred Guiol, you can catch him re-using
some of the first gags he originally devised for The Boys back in 1926-there
they are, fifteen years later in the wartime comedies (and you thought I
was recycling material!). I'm including an amazing World War Two-era
informational film about the Signal Corps motion picture unit which is, in
effect, a guided tour of Hal Roach Studios! This U. S. Government film shows
the tank, the different departments, even the prop room, where you will recognize
some of the ephemera from the various Laurel and Hardy comedies. (That aerial
shot perpetually shown of HRS came from this Signal Corps production.) There's
a serious WWII Army informational film teaching soldiers how to act under
enemy interrogation (I'm sending a copy to the White House), shot by the
Boys at Fort Roach. And, because I think they're funny, a baker's dozen of
Edgar Kennedy R-K-O comedies (hey--this was the entire Roach unit that was
laid off by the pencil pushers in 1931-THAT'S how I'm justifying it!).
