Laurel & Hardy more Restoration to come "CrowdFunding"

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by longdist01, Mar 5, 2018.

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  1. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Considered one of their best comedy shorts, Perfect Day (1929) finds Stan and Ollie at odds with their neighbors, their malfunctioning Model T and each other as they attempt to enjoy a Sunday picnic.

    Just read about this tonight:

    Restore Laurel and Hardy!
     
  2. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    That's a good idea, because it occurs to me...I'm certainly not interested in one more of one of America's oldest comedy teams known to memory (in that, of course, some of us may have grown up seeing their films in a public arena...such as a Saturday morning show on an independent station growing up, for instance). Heck, I swarmed out public libary for all their Laurel & Hardy shorts when I finally got permission to use my dad's 8mm projector by myself. Charley Chase, the Kops, Chaplin, Turpin, Harold LLoyd - whatever I could find in a Blackhawk Films box, all went home in the basket of my bicycle, for two weeks...then upon returning them, I'd grab some more. I had no idea they were slowly-paced, incomplete, or faded. To me, they were history.

    They were also comedy. Two of our greatest. Icons of the era, masters of their craft. And I'm sorry to say...I never got it. I learned "what slapstick looked like" from these. But to me, they didn't make me roll on the floor in gales of giggles. No, I didn't get that that kind of response until I encounteered the Marx Brothers. I could study Harold Lloyd, learn the narration process of the time from Charley or Charlie, but, in the age of The Beverley Hillbillies and Gilligan's Island...the qualities didn't register. Gradually I moved on, moved out, moved forward. The relevance of (hate to say it, but) One More Film, when we have scores of them already, doesn't tantalize like Napoleon or Metropolis did in the '80s. 1929 is a long way back, and if I did have priorities for restorations, I'd certainly vote for other subjects not as well-represented.

    Still love the idea and the temerity, though.
     
  3. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    Speaking of L&H, what a big mistake Hal Roach Sr made, in not resigning them to Roach Studios and letting them go to FOX. FOX never treated them right, and Roach never did as well as when they were his star attractions.
     
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  4. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    I've always kind of thought of The Skipper and Gilligan as a "modern day" version of Laurel and Hardy...
     
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  5. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    "Modern Day"? Heh - it was old before the end of Season 2! :laugh: That same slapstick dynamic was edged up another notch into the "frenetic zone" when The Monkees debuted.

    Makes me wonder how dudes can still look at The Three Stooges and see any of those gags working at the slower pace of 1930's cinema.
     
  6. Luvtemps

    Luvtemps Forum Resident

    Location:
    P.G.County,Md.
    Now that's what I'm talking about,classic comedy-I like the term-RESTORATION!!
     
  7. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    That's why I had "modern day" in quotes-It was "modern" considering it had its debut 30 years (give or take) after Laurel and Hardy's peak of popularity.
     
  8. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    I'll go with that. I only began to realize how much more "speeded-up" comedy was in my youth, as I began to see guys digging the Stooges with fresh eyes. The major influence in faster-paced slapstick comedy of course, coming from the Toons. Watching a Tex Avery masterpiece is breathtaking, the timing and pace that goes into the gags is so far and away from what people were seeing in live-action shorts at that time. Boomers raised on Looney/Merrie cartoons might not be able to appreciate the magic that was Stan and Ollie.
     
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  9. dirwuf

    dirwuf Misplaced Chicagoan

    Location:
    Fairfield, CT
    Checking the donor wall, some big names...Jeff Garlin, Leonard Maltin, John Landis...
     
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  10. Otlset

    Otlset I think I am I think

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    The Three Stooges made their first short feature "Soup To Nuts" in 1930, and continued slapping, poking and kicking each other around in many more throughout the decade.
     
  11. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Yes, but to the contemporary eye, I don't see how these gags can still hold up once you've become used to modern cinema and television narrative.
     
  12. Otlset

    Otlset I think I am I think

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Oh, I must have misunderstood your post then.
     
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