While we see film titles going for some extraordinary sums of money, the one type of super 8 we can always rely on being a generally good buy at a reasonable cost is the brilliant Laurel and Hardy comedies.

The one thing about these films is that they rarely seem to be over priced. It makes L&H films among the best best value films still available on cine for the collector.

I think the first one we ever had in our own collection was a standard 8, 50ft silent from Beau Hunks, it was actually quite well put together bearing in mind it was only around 4 minutes long.
Eventually my Brother moved on to sound we ended up with two Walton standard 8 400ft shorts, one was the Music box which was the abridged version, the other was Live Ghost, one of our favourites.
A few years ago i found a super 8 Walton Live Ghost, this was to replace the super 8 version as that one had the main title missing, but to my knowledge, no actual footage. To my disappointment at the first viewing there was two things, while the titles were in there and we were correct at no footage missing, the image was not as good as the standard 8 version, both sharpness and contrast were actually nothing more than average. The STD 8 version was pin sharpe and the contrast was excellent with a nice bright clear image. Also, i was very dissapointed that there was two short snips on the super 8 version, it was as if the std 8 was complete but the super 8 was, (as just about all Walton titles), slightly edited.
I would be interested to find out what the Blackhawk version is like.

To date, we have 27 L & H titles in our 8mm collection which does include the rare 400ft std 8 version of Midnight patrol, most i believe are the 200ft version, from memory, i think ours is the Blackhawk version. Having a read through the other channel it has reminded me that we have not viewed our L&H films for some time, many titles for over fiver years, so we will now begin to go through these and view them.
What i would like to do now is add a single L&H to our 16mm collection. Like many in the hobby we have a decent amount of the boys comedies and all from various companies Walton, Blackhawk and Derann. While Walton are a pain in the neck for their edits, the quality of some of their prints are actually very good.
Our titles are as follows,
Another fine mess, 600ft Derann
A towed in the hole
Beau Hunks, 2 x 400ft
Below Zero
Blockheads, 20 x 600, (orignally 3 x 400)
Busy Bodies
County Hospital Std 8mm Blackhawk
Dirty work
going bye bye
Helpmates
Hogwild.
Jailbirds aka Pardon us Walton 3 x 400ft
Live Ghost
Midnight Patrol Std 8mm Blackhawk
One good turn
Our Wife
Perfect Day
Scram
Sons of the Desert, 2 x 600
The fixer uppers,
The music Box 600ft Derann
Their first mistake, 1 x 600
Thicker than Water Std 8mm
This is your life, 1 x 600
Tit for Tat
Twice two
Way out West, Walton 3 x 400ft.

i see you don't have "the chimp" on your list Tom, this is must have, purely for the chap who plays the chimp almost upstages stan and ollie for the laughs. I have 16 mm versions too, but these like you say are from different companies, and not always the blackhawk being the best quality.

I have a few 400ft sound films, but most were the silent films from Mountain, Blackhawk, and Collectors Club, after they had new negs made, so 400ft instead of 2x200. I have the sound version of 'Berth Marks', and the Derann print of 'Brats'.

Paul, do you know if there is any difference in the Standard 8 versus the Super 8 of The Chimp?

I h@ve both, might sell ond, but not sure they are both complete ... I might remember wrong, but I think maybe the Super 8 was 600’ and the Standard 8 on a 400’

I never managed to get on Super 8 Laurel & Hardy's British Tour 1932, imported by Perrys; I sent a deposit, but after 3 months, and no sign of it I cancelled. Eventually saw it on tape and disc. Film would have been nice. I have a copy of 'This is your life'.

Hello Vidar, I have the super 8 version and as far i know is complete and 600ft. If you have the version on blackhawk, it comes on 2 reels, a 400ft and a 200ft, the derann version is the same but on a 600ft reel. I have it on 16mm too, and this is 600ft and complete, i have never seen a walton version or a standard 8 version, quite rare i would think.

Tom,

That's a really nice collection of L&H films you have there. I personally never get tired of watching them, no matter how many times I have seen a particular film, I still get a laugh each and every time.
I have a mix of 16mm, Super 8, and 8mm Laurel and Hardy shorts and features and they are all Blackhawk--simply as a result of what was available to me. I do have a print of 'County Hospital' (not Blackhawk, not sure from whom) which was printed on colour stock and so it has faded pink. This was a freebie, but odd to watch this in monotone P&W---pink and white....

They always get a laugh as you say, whenever you view one there is always a part you forget that will raise a laugh. The Mrs and i watched the movie Stan & Olly recently and while my other half isn't a huge fan, she really liked the movie and now has an interest to view some of their shorts which i prefer to the features, with the exception of Way out West and Pardon us, or jailbirds as it was retitled here. I must also, out of point of interest, pop down to Union Street here in Plymouth and photograph the old Palace theatre which, sadly, seems to be being allowed to rot. This was were the duo performed their last live performance on December 1st 1954 when Oliver fell ill.
I know its all on google images but i will take my own and put them up here.

Looking back at our L&H films, aside from a few titles, most of their films have generally been easy to source. I would assume the reason why not many hold the price like other titles is that there were so many printed. But then again, the Star Wars title always seem to go bonkers even though there are a lot of copies out there. No matter how many years go by the L & H films just keep on holding there popularity.

Tom,

I for sure would like to see pics of the old Palace Theatre, even as it is now, should you get down there. It still is pretty amazing to think the two performed their in person many years ago. As far as the "Stan and Ollie" newer movie, I will say the two actors really did a good job recreating Stan and Ollie. Some people criticize the story as not being entirely accurate and maybe dramatised a bit, but even so it was very enjoyable I thought.

Back to your original post...You are quite right, you can sometimes get L&H Super 8 shorts for $10-15 each. A great way to start out a film collection. At least here in the US, those Super 8 Blackhawk shorts still turn up on Craigslist, at estates sales and secondhand stores (thrift shops) so there are certainly a lot of prints out there and that simply must help keep the prices low. There are a couple titles that are less common and therefore more expensive, I think, like "Fra Diavolo" and the long version of "A Chump at Oxford".

I'll put a few up soon.

There is nothing like putting on a Laurel and Hardy 2 reeler to raise a smile and a good chuckle - i love screening my shorts and the features that Ive got - ill put on a couple over the Easter break

Tom I would be very careful about buying L&H shorts on 16mm as I believe there are a lot of Dupes out there. I only bought one title on 16mm , Blotto, one of my favourites. I bought it from a very well known dealer at Blackpool years ago for I think £50, which was the going rate for all L&H 16mm shorts. When I projected it, it wasn't the best print Id seen, a bit dark, a bit grainy but ok although I only saw it on a small picture with the standard lens on the Elf projector. It was only when I showed it to an audience at a much bigger picture and it wouldn't focus sharp and did not look great at all that I realised it was a Dupe. I then sold it at a loss and since then have not bought another. It's a shame as I really liked Blotto. In hindsight now it's quite possible that all prints of this look the same and the real problem is the master material used. That can be the problem with 16mm as It's hard to tell just how good the print is until you project it and having knowledge of what negs and masters exist that studios and labs used.

Graham S

Thank you Graham, i did wonder if that may be the case. With 27 on 8mm perhaps we should leave it at that. In our own 8mm collection there is one or two that have featureless faces due to being a dupe print, or at least taken from a dupe. I will work my way through these in the coming months. I know our 3 x 400 Blockheads has a slightly soft focus with part three being quite a bit darker than the other two parts, Jailbirds, (the walton version 3 x 400ft) was bought very cheaply but does have a lot of thin black lines and few more splices than we like, and our Sons of the Desert, (one of our favourites) seems to have a line or two in extended places which appears to be within the print itself. These are the three i wouldn't mind finding decent prints of but as we have had most of them for many many years, it isn't of too much importance, they are all perfectly watchable and still makes us laugh.