Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films round out their series of restored shorts with the two-disc set, Laurel & Hardy: Year Three, a collection of funny films that sees the duo seamlessly transition from silent to sound pictures.
Buy Laurel & Hardy: Year ThreeLiberty sees Laurel and Hardy follow in the footsteps of Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last! During their hasty escape from jail, they accidentally put on each other’s pants. They look for a place to switch them, which is not easy as a policeman follows them due to their suspicious behavior. They end up at a construction site atop an incomplete building, which leads to laughs and thrills. Wrong Again, which could have been the title of many of their films,finds them work at a stable. They mistake the stolen panting Blue Boy for the horse of same name, hoping for the $5,000 reward. But the damage they and the horse do inside the house is likely more than that.
That’s My Wife deals with the common trope of having to appease a rich relative to gain an inheritance. However,Ollie’s wife is annoyed Stan has stayed with them for two years and walks out, leading to Stan having to dress up to fool Ollie’s uncle. Twice rough visual at opening. Black smudge tint. Big Business presents one of the all-time great tit-for-tat battles as Christmas tree salesmen Stan and Ollie upset uninterested James Finlayson, leading to quite a bit of hysterical destruction.
In Double Whoopee, Laurel and Hardy work at a swanky Broadway hotel as a footman and doorman and cause their trademark mayhem, such as fighting with a cab driver (Charlie Hall) who gets called repeatedly although no customers are present. There’s a funny gag about a Prince falling down an empty elevator shaft and gets his white clothes absolutely filthy, but why it is muddy inside a hotel basement is beyond me. This has an audio option of a dubbed version, voiced by Chuck McCann and Al Kilgore. Created in 1970, it was created as a pilot to turn all their silents into talkies, but this was the only one created.
Bacon Grabbers is slang for “repo men” and Laurel and Hardy have to go pick up a radio from Mr. Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy), a known tough guy, who has not paid since 1921. Serving him with papers and obtaining the radio proves tough, but they are able to do it. The boys have a brief moment of triumph, but it doesn’t last. Hall is an angry truck driver and Harlow appears as Mrs. Kennedy. Laurel and Hardy adopt a pet goat in Angora Love or more like it adopts them.Because the goat smells, they try to give him a bath. The commotion they create gets the attention of their landlord (Kennedy) and quite a few buckets of water get thrown round.
Their first talkie, Unaccustomed as We Are, is accompanied by a silent version with title cards, as not all theaters were ready for the transition. Ollie invites Stan over for a huge meal, to the frustration of his wife (Mae Busch), who walks out. Neighbor Mrs. Kennedy (Thelma Todd) comes over to help, but her dress catches fire and she loses it. Mrs. Hardy returns, so they hide her in a trunk. They try to sink her out passed her husband Officer Kennedy (Kennedy), who hears they have a woman in the trunk. He says he understands being a man, which angers his wife, leading to fisticuffs between various parties.
Although their second talkie, only the silent version of Berth Marks is available. The boys are musicians taking a train to their next gig. They cause their trademark high jinks before and after they get aboard, from trying to share a sleeper berth to the bedlam of passengers tearing each other’s clothes.
The video is available in a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The restoration action and the numerous sources used are explained on title cards before each short. The quality not only varies from short to short, but, at times, within a short as well. Blacks can be inky or a muddled dark gray. During their dancing on girders during Liberty, a portion is in rough shape as the backgrounds smudge. Twice during the opening of That’s My Wife the video looks rough and a black smudge tint appears. During a part of Bacon Grabbers, there are so many scratches it looks like it’s raining.
Audio options are available to select before each short. In addition to the aforementioned 1970 dub, they include the original 1929 Vitaphone track (six films);scores performed by Maud Nelissen (two films), Neil Brand (three films), Andreas Benz (three films), Robert Israel (three films), and Gaylord Carter (one film); and commentaries by either Richard W. Bann (three films) or Randy Skretvedt (six films). The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. The Vitaphone tracks show their age with limited fidelity and dynamic range, along with occasional hiss and other signs of damage.
Each film has a related Image Gallery. Other Bonus Features include:
Disc One:
- A Discussion with Chuck McCann and Miles Kreuger (15 min) – Recorded on June 13, 2013 at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, the filmmaker and the historian discuss the making of the dubbed version of Double Whoopee.
- Laurel & Hardy: On Location in Year Three (19 min) – A video essay by John Bengston
- Film Historian and Author Randy Skretvedt – A gallery of books about the boys
Disc Two:
- They Go Boom! – Available with original 1929 sync sound Vitaphone track or commentary by Skretvedt, there’s not much of a story, just the slow destruction of their apartment one evening as they deal with an ailing Ollie, who remains the undisputed champion of sharing a moment with the audience when he looks directly into the camera. The commotion gets the attention of the their landlord (Hall).
- The Hoose-Gow – Available with original 1929 sync sound Vitaphone track or commentary by Skretvedt. Laurel and Hardy end up in jail. While working in a field with their fellow prisoners, the governor and his entourage arrive. When the boys accidentally bust the governor’s car’s radiator, they attempt to patch it with rice, but the car creates quite an amount of rice pudding that gets hurled around, reminiscent of a pie fight.
- The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (Excerpt) – Their first appearance in a sound feature film sees them attempt to perform a magic routine. They are introduced by Jack Benny, who gets into the act. The image is blown out repeatedly.
- Noche de Duendes (Berth Marks) – An excerpt from the Spanish language version of Berth Marks with cast speaking the language rather than being dubbed.
- MGM Convention 1930 – A short scene for the Paris MGM Convention attended by European sales representatives.
As with the previous two releases, Laurel & Hardy: Year Three reveal the duo’s comic genius. In addition, viewers see that the seismic impact of sound upon the industry, which derailed some careers, gave them more ways to make people laugh. The A/V presentation does the best it can with the source material, and the historical significance of preserving these films should override quality concerns.
