Laurel and Hardy - S/D

The best of the rhymes was:

"Jingle bells, jingle bells/Coming through the rye/I wish you a Merry Christmas/Even as you and I."

Or there was the four-in-one card:

"Merry Christmas, husband/Happy New Year's nigh/I wish you Easter greetings/Hooray for the fourth of July!"

Though Marcello's right that the shorts are generally better, "SOTD", "Way Out West", "The Flying Deuces" (though recycled from different shorts I believe, in part), "Block Heads" are all lovely features, and a few others are enjoyable at least. "A Chump at Oxford" and "Pardon Us" for example.

"The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" is a real favourite short of mine; but it's pointless really trying to do so as they're generally all wonderful are the Roach shorts; "Laughing Gravy" as well, and the one where they're busking... I could go on.

Destroy: the Fox films, made from 1941-46 roughly. They just miss the point lamentably. I presume "Atoll K." (Utopia), too.

Nobody has ever confirmed it, so maybe it's just a shaggy dog story, but apparently Stan and Ollie were lined up to appear in the Broadway premiere of "Waiting For Godot" - Stan in particular was up for it and they agreed to do it, but then Ollie had his stroke, so the whole thing had to be called off. Given that Beckett had written the play with Laurel and Hardy in mind, and given the subsequent film he did with Buster Keaton, it's not improbable that this actually might have happened.

Have many people actually seen "Film"? It doesn't seem to be much in circulation; all I've seen is a clip used in the redoubtable Brownlow/Gill documentary series on Keaton. Any who have seen it; how would you rate it, in the respective oeuvres?
I recall a brilliant story about Beckett going to meet Keaton in his apartment in the preliminary stages of the project, and Keaton largely talking about baseball... and there being a lot of silence. ;)

Best comedy duo ever, and subject of a NYC retro beginning this weekend:

http://movingimage.us/site/screenings/pages/2005/index_laurel_hardy.html

I laugh to the point of hyperventilation in the last 10 minutes of Sons of the Desert.

Beckett's Film is availabe on the web, here.

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-07-31%2007.36.52%20-0700/Image-C2953A2C01CF11DA.jpg http://img205.echo.cx/img205/8568/before7px.jpg

Which of you avant-gardists have seen this Ken Jacobs L&H remix?

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0050,arthur,20596,20.html

Morbius, in honor of your birthday, I am watching Sons Of The Desert.

"Shiphiked?"
"Yes! We thumbed our way!"

10-disc set in October!

http://insidepulse.com/2011/07/19/disc-news-laurel-hardy-get-a-fine-mess-of-a-boxset/

Also, I walked up the Music Box steps on Saturday night.

It's been ages since I saw Sons of the Desert, but I vividly remember this one moment, where the wives are watching the newsreel of the convention and L&H are suddenly in extreme close-up mugging and cavorting, as brilliant.

I hope it focuses on the shorts. May be a Christmas list item.

a tad disappointed it's just the talkies, I hope good sales means silents later.

Starts at about the 6:00 mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Nd2J_SutM

The way they come back into camera range three or four times--made me laugh as much as anything I can remember.

<3 them forever. so adorable and hilarious.

if you've got a multiregion dvd player, this is a much better set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laurel-Hardy-Collection-21-disc-Box/dp/B0001K2KE8/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1311114340&sr=1-1

Great find Dr Morbius

I was lucky enough to catch most of a Laurel and Hardy marathon on amc this year. I wish I had known ahead of time that it was coming on (I still caught about 16 hours). Needless to say, watching hour after hour of the Hal Roach classics had to of been one of the happiest experiences in my life

I tried to get some friends into Laurel and Hardy but I picked a bad episode (ten minutes of Laurel and Hardy trying to share the same train-car bunk bed wasn't the right introduction). There was definitely some less funny moments in the marathon - like the one where Laurel and Hardy are kids (they wore kid clothes and messed around with gigantic props in a giant house set). My favorite one might of been a 'go to jail' episode where they accidentally escape. I also really like the one where their car keeps breaking down in front of their house

(my friends are probably just too stupid to understand the greatness of Laurel and Hardy; and maybe it's a bit of an acquired taste to the uninitiated)

---

Lately, I've been reading my Krazy Kat anthology. In the biography section it says that George Herriman would go to a LA studio so that he could draw amidst hustle and bustle. It says that he became good friends with Hal Roach

ps. I've been learning to appreciate Krazy Kat a lot more. The punchlines are still pretty weak compared to modern comics but the drawings are quite amazing to look at

used to watch L&H after church on sundays with my dad- it was the only thing on TV that made him laugh. after L&H they'd show the old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland show (Judge Hardy? or something). good times

I started trying to collect 'The Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy' a few years back. But since it's out of print now, each disc in the 10 disc set is like $50 - $100 used

My great-great aunt apparently choked to death laughing at a Laurel and Hardy film.

hmm, what a way to go?

I think children particularly identify with Stan and his clueless innocence.

be afraid

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/17/laurel-and-hardy-biopic-in-the-pipeline

Saw this in 35mm yesterday, a classic climax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyngKE_lYPU

a discovery

Over the weekend, it was quietly announced at the Library of Congress’ festival of “unidentified, underidentified, or misidentified films” that one of the most deeply mourned lost treasures in film history has reappeared. As reported by Pamela Hutchinson at Silent London, silent film historian Jon Mirsalis unexpectedly rediscovered the second reel of Laurel and Hardy’s 1927 film The Battle of the Century, lost for 60 years. The Battle of the Century is not only a crucial film in the careers of Laurel and Hardy, but it contains the biggest, best, funniest execution of the pie-in-the-face gag in cinematic history...

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/06/laurel_and_hardy_s_battle_of_the_century_pie_fight_reel_is_found.single.html

I am afraid

http://deadline.com/2016/01/steve-coogan-john-c-reilly-to-star-as-stan-laurel-and-oliver-hardy-in-jon-s-bairds-stan-ollie-faye-ward-jeff-pope-1201685254/

Be Afraid. Even if you get good people...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY91ty2sxIU

First half is OK, second half.. well.

seeing B

attle of the Century tomw night!

It's a laff riot...

also must add Wrong Again to my fave silent shorts. You really don't see a man's head wedged in a piano by the weight of a horse that often.

Reilly makeup jowls/wattle

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/3313691/steve-coogan-and-john-c-reilly-snapped-filming-scenes-for-laurel-and-hardy-biopic/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTVEbrnWAAAwhr-.jpg

A friend of mine who works for a film archive has found footage previously considered lost from the 1924 film 'Detained'! Including an infamous hanging scene. Dutch article here but the video should play wherever you are.

constitution of the SotD fraternal order

https://www.sonsofthedesertnyc.org/constitution

Londoners get first look at Coogan & Reilly

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/stan-ollie-steve-coogan-john-c-reilly

Laughing Gravy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdcBNrjc3wo

Times profile of the NYC tent of the Sons of the Desert

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/nyregion/laurel-and-hardy-fans-film-club.html

opens in US Dec 28

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2018/10/19/middleburg-film-review-stan-ollie-packs-laughs-and-tears-with-career-best-turns-from-steve-coogan-and-john-c-reillly/

reviews mostly respectful

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/stan-ollie/critic-reviews

It's Laurel & Hardy season at the BFI but the only one I can fit into our schedule is Our Relations. My fiancee loves Buster Keaton but is skeptical - is it a good 'un?

have seen that wither never or 40+ years ago. seems to be regarded as fine if below peak.

tell her Buster said Laurel was the funniest comic.

THere's a Steve Coogan interview in yesterday's guardian tuied into the film he just made about Stan & Ollie. I think concentrating on their final UK tour together.

yes, see above

any film before 1940 is a decent intro; the earlier, the better mostly

Number one movie in the UK.

Well here’s another nice bit of news you’ve gotten me into! Thanks to everyone who went to see it! 🙏🎥🎬🍾 #StanAndOllie https://t.co/9CcMk1ZgaN

— Jon S. Baird (@jonsbaird) January 14, 2019

opens wide(r) in the US on Friday

A bromance for the ages.

I was touched. There were a couple grindingly obvious bio-film moments (the tossed pastry), but not many. Coogan had the subtler, more layered role, very impressive.

Reilly on his L&H obsession:

http://collider.com/john-c-reilly-stan-and-ollie-interview/

Evanier disliked the bio-film ahistoricity.

It was kind of obvious where the elisions and exaggerations were even w/out fact-checking, but hey, dramatic license.

maze scenes

A Chump at Oxford > The Shining

icymi

https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review-laurel-hardy-the-definitive-restorations-on-kit-parker-blu-ray/

A nice tribute from Mark Hamill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi7YVW_ezT0

My great-great aunt apparently choked to death laughing at a Laurel and Hardy film.

― модный хипстер (ShariVari), Tuesday, July 19, 2011

underrated post itt

Christmas 1953 Laurel & Hardy visit The Bull Inn in Bottesford Leicestershire (Stan’s Sister was landlady) pic.twitter.com/wMxHauhGGr

— John pitchford🌹 (@Johnnypapa64) December 13, 2020

you require a heart of steel not to love this wonderful pic to some degree.