savoiafour Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I have always found this to be a good, Laurel and Hardy feature film. Now that we have had an Abbott and Costello martathon,( which I enjoyed)when will we see a Laurel and Hardy marathon with films such as : Way Out West, A Chump at Oxford, Sons of the Desert, The Bullfighters and Dancing Masters? Thank You. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviejoe79 Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 I would LOVE to see an L&H festival. But, I know that TCM doesn't have the rights to any of their films, otherwise I'm sure they would play them. The TCM programmer, who has contributed to our discussions here on the boards said something to this effect once - Basically that TCM doesn't have the rights to them at this point. Oh well, maybe in the future - hopefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopoldsplumtree Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Yeah, a festival would be great! They should even throw some of their shorter films in, too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spencerl964 Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 You really hit the ball out of the park on this one! I like "A & C," but Stan Laurel-(1890-1965) & Oliver Hardy-(1892-1957) are arguably the greatest comedic duo in screen history! & are at their best in the shorts they did with Hal Roach-(1892-1992)! Don't know if you are aware, but they actually won an ACADEMY AWARD for Best Comedy Short Subject of 1931-32 for what is their zenith>"The Music Box"-(the category only existed back in the glorious Studio-System days) "The Three Stooges," were nominated for same for '34's "Men in Black"-(a pun on *"The King's," 1934 MGM film> "Men in White") However, I have most of the duo's short subjects on video-(from mid to late 1980's) Leonard Maltin edited them on a station-(I think it was Nickelodeon?) & they were pure magic of subtlety. Only W.C. Fields-(1879-1946) matches them in that dept.-(I love the "Stooges" But, they weren't exactly subtle of course) & if they don't show the shorts they did-(they made tons more of them, than features) Feature flix are at least something (TRIVIA: If you are a huge fan of "L & H" It's a fact-(but strange, in our era?) The fan-club "Sons of the Desert," is still the largest membership-wise, there is!) To MovieJoe, are you ok-(please drop me a line & let me know if you got *Norma Shearer item?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcmviewer Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 TCM has repeatedly tried to license the films from the rights holder (Hallmark) only to be turned down every time. Eventually, Hallmark quoted TCM a price of over million dollars to make the requests stop. From what I understand, Steve Beeks (the head of Hallmark's video library) has been begged by fans and film historians alike to market the L&H property, but has refused to even consider the option. In fact, Hallmark was considering DESTROYING the original negatives because they didn't want to pay the storage costs. When film historians found out, the pressured Hallmark to turn the elements over to UCLA for safekeeping. Sorry for the lengthy post. This is a sore subject for L&H fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrtbsh Posted December 6, 2004 Share Posted December 6, 2004 As you say, we'd love to have some of the Laurel & Hardy classics. And it is a matter of money - but it's not fair to say they're asking for millions of dollars. Hallmark has been very reasonable, and we haven't been on top of it as much as we should have, but we are conitinuing to talk, so you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcmviewer Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Thanks TCMProgrammer. My post indicating that Hallmark was asking for over a million dollars came from the (usually reliable) L&H newsgroup. Thank you for setting the record straight. I sincerely hope that something is worked out. TCM has done wonders for keeping Lloyd, Keaton, Chaplin et al in the spotlight. To get L&H some wide exposure via TCM would go a long way to re-educating the public about this duo. Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Since most of the Laurel & Hardy classic feature films were released by MGM I was surprised that TCM didn't own them. Unless Hallmark gobbled them up prior to the Ted Turner deal with MGM? Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviejoe79 Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Mongo - If I'm not mistaken, I think that Hal Roach owned the rights to all of the L&H films, even the ones distributed by M.G.M. So that's why Hallmark got them when they bought all of the others. The only films of theirs that are not held by Hallmark are the later ones that they did at 20th Century-Fox, and of course the PD stuff that is everywhere. I cannot understand Hallmark - why buy the rights to these films if they are just a burden to them? I'm sure there is some entity out there (like TCM) that would be more than happy to buy the rights. And Hallmark is just plain dumb, because there is such a DEMAND for the L&H films, that if they released them onto DVD, they would probably sell pretty well. The one disc that Hallmark put out through the company Anchor Bay seemed to do pretty well sales wise. As far as I could see, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrandyp Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 I also think that they should show a fest. of l and h flims. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrtbsh Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Mongo - you're sort of correct. MGM does have the rights to some of them, but many of the best were retained by Hal Roach, and his films were acquired by Hallmark. We're in discussions with them, but it's difficult - they do want more money than is practical for us, so we're trying to see if we can come to an agreement that works for both parties. They're terrific films, and they'd certainly fit on the network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastooge Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Hal Roach closed his short subjects department in 1938, and sold the OUR GANG property (but not the films) to MGM in 1938... a package of feature films was also included as part of that deal. The L&H feature films included in that package were: THE ROGUE SONG (1930) BONNIE SCOTLAND (1936) FRA DIAVOLA (THE DEVIL'S BROTHER) (1935) PICK A STAR (1937) Roach loaned L&H to MGM for the following: HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 (1929) HOLLYWOOD PARTY (1934) After L&H left the Roach studio in 1940, they starred in several 20th Fox films, and these two MGM productions: AIR RAID WARDENS (1943) NOTHING BUT TROUBLE (1944) The above-listed films, all features, are the only ones in the Warner Brothers library *. All other Hal Roach features, and the talkie shorts, are currently owned by Hallmark. * Excepting THE ROGUE SONG (filmed in 2-strip Technicolor), which is a lost film. Some footage has been found in European vaults, and (complete?) soundtrack discs have also been found... but for the most part, the film is considered "lost." But, hope continues that more footage will be found, and the film eventually reconstructed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 I'm a brand new member of TCM, and just had to join when I saw that the April schedule included so many wonderful Laurel and Hardy films. I don't know if this is how to go about asking, but could you tell me if TCM will be broadcasting newly restored prints of these films or not. I also understand that Hallmark is releasing a second L&H volume on DVD in March. Do you have any information about this new release, as well? I know that Hallmark didn't do any restoration for the first DVD volume and the quality wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I have many L&H sound shorts and features on VHS, but would love to get them on DVD, as long as the quality is superior. Thank you for any information that you can provide regarding these broadcasts and DVD releases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviejoe79 Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Hi panella and welcome to the TCM message boards! TCM usually shows the best quality print of a film that can be had, so I'm sure the L&H films in April will be of good quality. As for the new DVD release, you can find out more about it at amazon.com, or deepdiscountdvd.com. I thought the first one was pretty good. Although not great, the picture quality was fairly decent considering the age of their films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastooge Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 The problem with Hallmark's first L&H DVD, it used prints that were struck for a TV syndication package in the late '80s. In SONS OF THE DESERT (1932), there are several black fade-in/out's from scene-to-scene that are not in the original film... those fades are the result of commercial break inserts. Also, music was dubbed over several scenes, because it was felt that TV audiences would not accept visual gags without background noise... the most blatant example being Stan's scene of eating the wax fruit... no music in the original film, but there's music on the DVD. It's presumed that Hallmark's 2nd disc with WAY OUT WEST (1937) and BLOCK-HEADS (1938) will also use TV prints, which are the master prints in Hallmark's library. (Hallmark recently disposed of the original Roach nitrate negatives to save storage costs; luckily some film historians stepped in to rescue the negatives from being destroyed, and they are safely residing at UCLA's Film Archive). WEST and BLOCK-HEADS were originally produced with background music soundtracks largely throughout, so I don't believe there's any dubbing in the TV versions. But, the DVD will probably contain those noticable and obtrusive scene fades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 As an ardent Laurel & Hardy fan I'm looking forward to the day long into the night marathon on TCM in April. I'm especially looking forward to "Way Out West" and "Block-Heads" which are very favorites but I was disappointed that "Saps at Sea" wasn't scheduled. You can be sure I will have a big bucket of popcorn handy on that night. Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 Hello moviejoe79, beastooge & bansi4, Thank you for the info and your thoughts regarding the April broadcasts and the new Hallmark DVD release. I'm just hoping there will be lots more to come, but even if there isn't, I plan to have all 3 of my VCR's going full tilt on April 1. Now if they could only find a print of THE ROGUE'S SONG... HEAVY SIGH. C. Panella Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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