Quote: Tom Photiou wrote in post #3

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From what I recall, the only edit on this one from Walton is right at the end after the car gets sawn in half, Laurel finds the phonograph still intact and plays a record. Hardy is singularly unimpressed by music now, and chases Laurel.

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So it just ends with the car getting sawed in half? Bummer.

The last of their "denim-overalls" shorts. If you include WRONG AGAIN (silent), where just Laurel wears denim overalls, and just at the beginning, they made 5 overall, the others being THE FINISHING TOUCH (silent), THE MUSIC BOX, and TOWED IN A HOLE.

Despite it being a solid short, this was never one of my favorites. My beef is that unlike in their other shorts where the humor is mostly physical, we are never told what they are trying to accomplish. In THE FINISHING TOUCH, they are trying to finish building a house. In THE MUSIC BOX, they are trying to deliver a piano (mostly up a huge flight of steps.) In TOWED IN A HOLE, they are trying to fix a boat so they can transform their fish-selling business from retail to wholesale. In HOG WILD, they are trying to put up an aerial. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Perhaps it is a minor quibble. Another reason it has never been one of my favorites is that I find several other of their talkie shorts better. (I like to categorize their work -- I always separate their silents, the talkie shorts, and the Hal Roach features when I'm attempting to pick the "best" or my "favorites.")

Some other obseravtions:

The record they are playing in their car, both at the beginning, and at the end, is the tune, "Smile When The Raindrops Fall", which was introduced as a vocal by Charley Chase in WHISPERING WHOOPEE, where he sung it during the main titles. It is also heavily featured as an instrumental in L&H's HOG WILD. What is funny about it in BUSY BODIES, which many viewers miss, is that when Stan changes the record, the song is still "Smile When The Raindrops Fall", with a slightly different arrangement.

Back in the 60s, there was a rumor propogated by Charles Barr's book, imaginatively titled LAUREL AND HARDY, that states, regarding that final scene with the car being sawed in half, "a scene which has said to have gone wrong and nearly killed them on the set." That rumor was finally debunked by Randy Skretvedt in LAUREL AND HARDY: THE MAGIC BEHIND THE MOVIES. Randy quoted Roy Seawright, the special effects guy at the Roach Studios, who stated that they had used a travelling matte for the effect. No one was in danger; no one was hurt.

Many viewers (including myself for years) miss the fact that Stan's first words in the short are spoken almost midway through. He actually doesn't speak much at all in the entire short.

Now onto the film quality.

My one and only print of this is in Super 8 sound, from Blackhawk, purchased by my parents as a Christmas gift to me (at my request), nearly 50 years ago. I would rank it as one of the better Blackhawk L&Hs, meaning it is very good to excellent. I do have a few issues with it, however. Blackhawk replaced all the main titles, so while you hear the "sawing" sounds on the soundtrack, you do not see the saw. This was thoroughly confusing to me as a kid. I initially thought it was the sound of their car skidding, since in the first scene they are riding in a car. Since in the above screenshots, I see the Film Classics plaque, I assume the orginal titles are there with the saw in the Walton print. (Film Classics, like Blackhawk, only replaced cards that contained the M-G-M "Leo the Lion" logo. The fact that Blackhawk replaced the titles after the "L&H in" card, despite them not showing the M-G-M logo, has always been a mystery to me.)

Another issue, which is most likely not Blackhawk's fault: the background music is very low. At times, it is difficult to make out which tune is playing. The other Blackhawk L&H short that I have with this problem is THE MIDNIGHT PATROL. I believe it is also a problem on Film Classics prints of these titles. The restored versions on DVD and Blu-Ray do not have this problem.

I have never heard the "hiss" Tom describes on this title, nor any other L&H Blackhawk print that I have.

I have a handful of Walton prints, but only one with L&H: THE FLYING DEUCES. The copy I currently have is excellent -- just about as good as any Blackhawk (though Blackhawk never released this particular title.) I did once have a copy that was printed very light -- the faces were washed out. Walton did edit approximately 10 minutes from this film.

As an aside, I have some Walton Chaplins, and they are all excellent, despite changing the films' titles. (The title of the short, not the inter-titles with dialogue.)

If you want the best quality for Laurel and Hardy films, the easy answer is that you need to go with 16mm original prints. (35mm would be better, but costly, and extremely difficult to find. And who has a 35mm projector?) Better yet are 16mm print-downs, which as I mentioned in another thread, are made directly from 35mm negatives. These were released by Film Classics. (Not all are print-downs; Film Classics ceased doing print-downs circa 1955-1956.) In general, Blackhawks were originals, but in at least one case they might have released a print-down -- later releases (starting around 1975) of WAY OUT WEST. I have one, and it is excellent. Some Blackhawks are purported to be dupes (the Blackhawks with Film Classics titles), but I have one or two, and they do not look like dupes at all -- they look fantastic.

Back to Super 8...

Using BUSY BODIES as an example, lets say we buy 4 Super 8 prints, 2 Waltons (W1 and W2), and 2 Blackhawk (B1 and B2.) I wouldn't be surprised if after viewing them, that we agreed to rank them from best to worst as follows:

B1
W1
W2
B2

That's just a hypothetical example, though.

Why do I say that? Case in point--the Walton FLYING DEUCES print I mentioned above.

I have 2 Super 8 Blackhawks of THE MIDNIGHT PATROL. One has a great picture, but very poor sound. The other has a good picture, but excellent sound. The first one was printed in the early 70s. The second one in the mid 70s.

So, it really is the luck of the draw sometimes with getting a good print.

I have 5 copies of BELOW ZERO (don't ask!), 3 in Super 8 (all Blackhawk), and 2 in 16mm (Blackhawk and Library Films/Film Classics). All 3 Super 8 Blackhawks are pretty much identical (though I never did a side-by-side.) The 2 16mm ones are different -- the Blackhawk has the best picture quality, but the Library Films one has all original titles.

I have rarely seen a Walton L&H for sale in the US, but I would have avoided them anyway since I knew they were slightly edited. THE FLYING DEUCES I bought because I got it at a really great price (before eBay existed), and the picture quality was so good. Since it is one of their weaker pre-1941 features, the editing actually helps the film.

I doubt there is anyone who has seen a large enough sample size of the same L&H titles in Blackhawk, Walton, or any other non-US distibutor, that could make a definitive statement as to who had the best quality. Throw in the fact that you need to see more than one copy of a given title from a given distributor, and you can see that there would be no hard-and-fast rules.

Although my sample size for comparing is small, the fact that I've seen 2 Waltons of the same title with vastly different quality, as well as 2 from Blackhawk with vastly different quality, speaks volumes.

I once had what I believe to be a Derann copy of THE FIXERS UPPERS, and it was very dupey-looking. I sold it when I bought a Blackhawk, which was better, but still not very good. In retrospect, I should have kep the Derann, since it had more of the main titles, whereas Blackhawk replaced more than they had to, although the final few cards were original.

Quote: Tom Photiou wrote in post #6

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First of all i must make a correction, as my Brother pointed out, this one does not end where i said, i does have the full original ending, it appears I seemed to have had a senior moment.
So in order to make it clear, this Walton 400ft release does show Stan picking up the string to the record player in the car, (now in two halves) and gives it a tug, the music plays and Stan gives us his trade mark smile before Olly chases him off screen to saw going across screen to reveal "The End".

Thomas, your knowledge of these classic comedies is outstanding, I will look forward to more as we add more of our collection on the reviews in the coming weeks.

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Thank you!
Since Walton purportedly did make edits to just about all the L&Hs, do you know if anything is missing from yours then?

Quote: Paul Browning wrote in post #7

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My favourite laurel and hardy's are the chimp and scram. The chimp dancing in a tutu just cracks me up every time, and considering the guy inside made the costume as well, its probably the only time you will see stan and ollie upstaged. Scram has Arthur houseman in it, who is the most convincing drunk ever, but funny with it. The little guy who appears in most of these comedy shorts is charlie hall, a famous "brummie" who has a public house named after him in Acocks green Birmingham, i believe he was an electrician by trade, but sailed to America and found fame in these L& H comedy shorts .

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SCRAM is one of my all-time favorite L&H talkie shorts.

I enjoy THE CHIMP more than most people (usually the authors of the L&H books), but I've seen more and more people like it in recent years who review it on the internet.

Charlie Hall indeed was one of the best supporting players for L&H.

Arthur Houseman was a great comic drunk, but Stan Laurel himself claimed that Houseman was an alcoholic. That being said, he emphasized that his on screen antics were indeed a result of talent rather than being actually drunk on the set.

In Charlie Chase's THE CHASES OF PIMPLE STREET, when we first see Houseman, he is sober. But that doesn't last very long!

Quote: Paul Browning wrote in post #9

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Hi Tom, I forgot about live ghost, Houseman had his own show, he was so convincing as a drunk. The colourised versions were the dvd versions, wouldn't bother me that much, as long as the content hadn't been changed, much like the colourisation of the ww 2 footage, perhaps help it appeal to a younger audience, all i know is there will never be another Laurel & Hardy.......

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The L&H colorized versions also appeared on VHS, where, to add insult to injury, they were also edited, and background music was added where it had not originally existed. Most of these atrocities first appeared on THE LAUREL AND HARDY SHOW back in the mid-80s in the U.S.

Quote: Tom Photiou wrote in post #10

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Thats very true. I cant even think if there's any comedy duels now that are even any good, when you look back over the decades we had The Two Ronnie's, Morecambe and Wise, what have we got today? None of it comes close to these icons of comedy.

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In my mind mind, the last of the classic American film comedians ended when The 3 Stooges and Abbott & Costello retired.

Yes, there have been, however, comedy troups and comedians who were very funny on TV, but mostly British. Monty Python did make some very funny movies, but they did originate on TV.

I'm American, but I must say that British comedy did a great job of carrying on the great comedy tradition that I enjoy into the 70s and 80s.

I'm not familiar with The Two Ronnie's and Morecambe and Wise, and I'm sure that there are others that for whatever reason never became popular over here in the U.S.

There is much US comedy that I've enjoyed over the years, but they have been mostly TV series. I've enjoyed many film comedies since the classic era ended, but they have been mostly "one-offs", with not much connection from film to film except perhaps for an actor or director, but none grinded out film after film on a regular basis like was done in the era that essentail ended in the 50s when the aforementioned American classic comedians retired.