Laurel & Hardy RESTORED at the Egyptian, Hollywood in May!

They look gorgeous.

 

I altered Ed King (Strawberry Alarm Clock / Lynyrd Skynyrd ), he loves the boys.
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Ive been keeping an eye on this project for a couple of years now. Its been painful to wait, but I'm glad we finally have these cleaned up. Hopefully a bluray release will be soon.

 

Thanks Steve! Can't wait to see it one day, soon I hope.

 

The heavy lifting for many of these restorations is being performed by Scott MacQueen and his team at UCLA Film and TV Archive. Scott’s work on The Music Box is nothing simply of amazing—all photochemical from the original 1932 nitrate camera negative. Reel 3 had been “lost” for sometime, but Scott located the reel back at MOMA, and the title has never looked better. Another great thing about MacQueen’s restoration is the sound work—In the collection UCLA had the original nitrate work track which was a 2nd generation positive copy of the production track. It didn’t have any of the iffy Roach sound mixing of the day built into the track, so the fidelity was damn good. Working with John Polito at Audio Mehanics, the work track and the highest generation comp nitrate optical track negative was transferred and together were used for the audio restoration. Since most of the show is production audio with very little sound effects or music, they used the highest generation work track for the body of the show cutting in sections, when needed, from the comp OSTN. A few of the bad sound edits from day one were corrected using the work track (the first scene where the wife buys the piano at the cross fade comes to mind) and there now such detail in the track today it’s simply mind-blowing. Again, all in 35mm..

I’ve seen MacQueen's restoration twice: once at UCLA from a 35mm print off the nitrate original negative struck with the new OSTN and a screening with Scott from a print off of the preservation negative and the same OSTN track at a screening room over at Fotokem. It’s truly an impressive restoration. Jeff is working with some wonderful 35mm FGM’s and Dupe elements produced by UCLA (along with LOC) for his digital versions, and he isn't stuck trying to make a beat to hell 1951 Film Classic’s 4th or 5th generation look good in 2k. I’m interested in seeing how Jeff’s versions turned out on the digital side…..and might stop by on the Friday evening program to check them out.

 

With the restoration and seeing them on the big screen, they must seem larger than life.

 

Steve, do they allow pictures to be taken inside the theatre? Id love to see some snapshots of the festivities. People dressed up in costume. Be fun to see.

 

Jayson, how many L&H films do they have sources this good for restorations? I'm guessing there have to be some where they can't find much...

 

Oh, man... Wish I either lived close enough to make it, or made enough to blow the money for a trip *just* to see some movies... L&H have long been favorites and I've been wishing for this kind of restoration for their work for years. I mean why is it Chaplin and Keaton are the only comedians from this era to rate?

Hopefully, somebody somewhere will see enough profit in these to release Blu-Rays.

If so, I'll be first in line.

 

Steve,
Do you know if there are plans to release them on Blu-Ray? This looks to be right up Criterion's alley.

 

These restorations are a multi-year project that is ongoing...I'd be surprised if we see anything soon.

 

Wow! Wish I could be there.

 

Wow.

 

The first fragment in that Youtube-clip with our two heroes being bored (I think it's from "Their First Mistake") on the bed is one of the best comical scenes I've ever seen. If I'm not mistaken Ollie had just had an argument with his wife about him seeing Stan far too often and they behave like 10-year-olds; grumpy. It's played out with subtle humour and great timing and i.m.o. it's decades ahead of it's time!

 

I wouldn't be. As far as I know the bulk of this is being financed from donations. They have enough material for a release and the profits would enable them to keep working on the other films.

 

As great as these are, I'm not sure how well they'd sell (to those other than hardcores) right now. A perfectly fine dvd box set of almost all of their important sound work was just released a few years ago, and every fan bought it.

 

Scott MacQueen is a very passionate guy and can be a little temperamental on occasion, but he has an incredibly vast knowledge of film knowledge, techniques, and formats. I got along with him well when he did some consulting work at Cinesite some years back -- he's a very bright guy. They're lucky to have him over at UCLA.

 

Forgot to add this: here's a side-by-side comparison of an original vintage 35mm print shown next to a pin-registered restored version of the same material...



I think it's a fairly phenomenal improvement. I'm not convinced the 2K resolution was really responsible, but getting rid of the dirt and about 3 or 4 optical generations, plus steadying the picture, resulted in lots and lots more detail and clarity.

 

I think it is a missed opportunity if the restoration(s) are done. It would bring the films to the fans and a wider audience plus, as another poster said it would bring in revenue to allow for further restorations.

 

Bluray within a year is my estimation. No way these will not be released. Otherwise whats the point?

 

Remember, these restorations are not being done by the home-video rights holder for commercial purposes, they are being done by a film archive for historical preservation. Yeah, a bluray would be great, but is not directly related to this effort.

 

There was a lot of grumbling in the fan community about the Essential Collection DVD set that came out a few years ago, and why it didn't include new restorations currently being done. And it's a complicated matter, as you noted above. The "library" (meaning the L&H talkies library currently owned by RHI, or whoever the current rights holder is) consists of 40 talkie shorts and 10 talkie features IIRC. They also own Zenobia in which Oliver Hardy appears, which would have made a nice DVD extra but wasn't included for whatever reasons. They don't own The Devil's Brother and Bonnie Scotland (which belong to Warner), Babes In Toyland (which belongs to the current owners of M-G-M), or The Flying Deuces (which is public domain, but the master elements went with the rest of the Borris Morros library, apparently ending up with Paramount IINM). Films produced by M-G-M are with Warner, and Fox retains its L&H features. Atoll K/Utopia is "stateless." The silent films are a whole other can of worms. I was glad to see those other Hal Roach shorts with L&H cameos included in the DVD set -- Charley Chase and Thelma Todd at least each ended up getting one short out there through official channels which wouldn't have happened otherwise. The Tree In A Test Tube is a beautiful transfer too.

Hopefully at some point UCLA and the rights holders can work together on a really nice restored set for Bluray, but I am very happy to have what we currently have now.

Unfortunately, the master elements for L&H's films are in varying states of preservation, let alone restoration. There was a very detailed article on the subject by Richard W. Bann some years ago which explains it in some detail:

FILM PRESERVATION – ANOTHER FINE MESS »