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By PAUL BRENNER
The Laurel and Hardy films,
even going back to the laser disc days, have never
been given the proper presentation. Either the
films were terrible dupe transfers or else they
were contained in meager quantities in overpriced
"collectors" editions. Which is why Artisan and
Hallmark Home Entertainment's new DVD release,
"Digitally Re-mastered Laurel and Hardy" with
re-mastered video and audio on five great Laurel
and Hardy films, is manna from Heaven.
Of all the great film comics, Laurel and Hardy
presented slapstick comedy at its most pure and
undiluted. Since their characters were performed
as overgrown children, the comic situations
devised were on a basic level of needs and desires
with the performances and the slow and methodical
gag structure played at an almost existential
level -- which is why Beckett based Vladimir and
Estragon in his play "Waiting for Godot" on Mr.
Laurel and Mr. Hardy. Besides which their films
are simply fall-on-the-floor funny.
And some of their best work is in this collection.
Four of their finest sound shorts from the early
1930s -- "County Hospital," "Busy Bodies,"
"Another Fine Mess" (where cute blonde usherettes
recite the opening credits), "The Music Box"
(Laurel and Hardy's Oscar-winning short) --
populate the menu screen.
But the centerpiece of the collection is the
hilarious Laurel and Hardy feature from 1933,
"Sons of the Desert." Here, Laurel and Hardy are
married to shrewish wives who refuse to allow them
to attend the annual Sons of the Desert lodge
convention in Chicago. When the "exhausted ruler"
demands 100% attendance, Laurel and Hardy hatch a
scheme to make their wives think that they are on
an ocean cruise to Hawaii for Hardy's health. When
the ocean liner sinks, the wives wise up --
Laurel's wife cocks her rifle (she goes
duck-hunting for a leisure activity) and Hardy's
wife gathers up the crockery for an onslaught on
Hardy's skull. Stan and Ollie's antics are matched
by great supporting players, particularly "the
ever popular Mae Busch" and Charley Chase, a
fez-clad practical joker, who makes a crank call
to his sister (actually Hardy's wife) and recalls
their youthful times at church ("And you used to
pump the organ, you little organ pumper, you!").
The film is also a template for much of the comedy
that came afterwards, particularly the
Gleason-Carney Honeymooners (which not only used
the same comic situations and relationships but
even keel-hauled the plot for one of their
episodes).
The DVD also contains an interesting group of
special features -- a featurette concerning Hal
Roach (the great comedy producer of their best
films), a virtual tour of the Los Angeles
locations used in the films and how the sites look
in various states of disrepair today, an article
on Hal Roach at 95, a photo montage, addresses of
Laurel and Hardy fan clubs, and biographies of
Laurel, Hardy, and Roach.
Take a word from the wise: this is a DVD that
shouldn't be passed up. For, as Stan Laurel says
in "Sons of the Desert," "Life isn't short
enough." |
