https://flickeralley.com/products/laurel-hardy-year-two

These are absolutely wonderful restorations that do full justice to the films.

Can’t recommend them high enough.

If you have never seen LAUREL AND HARDY you are in company with the people who first saw these films as the duo had just entered their second year. Audiences were discovering them.

That audience liked what it discovered very much as will you.

These pictures are perfect for anyone who wants to study comedy film making as behind the scenes working together purely by accident were masters.

The only way to learn film making is by watching motion pictures with a paying audience composed of anyone but fans.

Sit at the back. Watch thew audience watching the films.

If you can find a way to do it invisibly, sit at the front watching the audience.

Different audiences react differently.

Not only that, each night brings people completely different from the night before although that same type of people come out each night.

These are things I learned from observing audiences over the decades since I began my film programs in Toronto in the mid-1060s.

The movies today have lost their audience.

That does not mean the audience is not there.

It does mean film makers are not reaching an awful of of people.-

At the end of their lives Laurel and Hardy toured Britain live where they were a huge success.

A friend of mine told me he and his younger brother (they were then both very young) were in an elevator with a very large man whose belly fascinated his young brother as it jiggled.

The large man rode up and down in the elevator to the fascination of the young boy entranced by his jiggling belly.

The larger man was Oliver Hardy.

Laurel and Hardy are very, very special.

Do too is the Blu-ray collection from Flicker Alley. If you do not yet have it get YEAR ONE.-Reg Hartt

Flicker Alley

Laurel & Hardy: Year Two

2-DISC BLU-RAY EDITION

Following their initial pairing in early 1927, Laurel and Hardy ended their first year on top. Their success moving into 1928 galvanized the efforts of everyone at Hal Roach Studios (including famed director Leo McCarey), who proudly upped their game in support of the winning comedy duo. Whether wreaking accidental havoc as a two-man band, doing battle against one another as millionaire and butler, or even becoming grave robbers for a mad scientist, Laurel and Hardy prove in their second year that they have what it takes to not only win over audiences in the twilight of the silent era, but generate enough momentum to make a successful transition to “talkies” in 1929.

Although their names are synonymous with the very idea of comedy, few of the original negatives for Laurel and Hardy’s early silent work survive, elements only available from scattered sources throughout the world, often in substantially less than pristine shape. It took the team at Blackhawk Films four years to gather all surviving film elements, to meticulously compare them shot by shot, and to complete the best digital restorations possible. Today, these beloved shorts look as new as they did nearly a century ago.

Featuring all new restorations sourced from best available materials contributed by archives and collectors around the world restored by Blackhawk Films® and FPA Classics, this comprehensive deluxe Blu-ray 2-Disc collection features their ten 1928 films as a team and additional films from the Hal Roach Studios that showcase their final solo short film appearances, as well as the shift from silent films to films featuring music and synchronized sound effects.

Shorts on the Laurel & Hardy: Year Two set include:

Leave ’em Laughing
The Finishing Touch
From Soup to Nuts
You’re Darn Tootin’
Their Purple Moment
Should Married Men Go Home?
Early to Bed
Two Tars
Habeas Corpus
We Faw Down

Each film features a newly recorded score from some of the best silent film composers working today, including Andreas Benz, Neil Brand, Robert Israel, and Jean-François Zygel. The release is curated by film historians and Laurel and Hardy specialists; Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, Serge Bromberg, and Eric Lange.

BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:

• Audio Commentary Tracks – For each film by historians and authors Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
• Exclusive, Rare Audio – Featuring Anita Garvin, Thomas Benton Roberts, and Hal Roach, from personal interviews conducted by historian Randy Skretvedt
• Additional Musical Scores – Alternate audio options, including fully restored original 1928 Vitaphone tracks on Habeas Corpus and We Faw Down, and vintage Blackhawk Films® scores on You’re Darn Tootin’ and Two Tars
• Laurel & Hardy: On Location in Year Two – A video essay by historian John Bengtson on selected location exteriors
• Now I’ll Tell One (1927) – A rare fragment of a Charley Chase two-reeler featuring appearances by both Stan & Ollie
• Eve’s Love Letters (1927) – One of Stan Laurel’s final solo films, directed by Leo McCarey and written by Laurel himself, from rare 35mm elements
• Galloping Ghosts (1928) – Two surviving fragments of a rare solo Oliver Hardy comedy
• A Pair of Tights (1929) – A short starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron, who were teamed to try and replicate the success of Laurel and Hardy
• George Mann’s Home Movies – From behind the scenes of Hal Roach Studios, including the filming of Should Married Men go Home? 
• A Complete, 20-minute Interview – By Tony Thomas with Stan Laurel, recorded in January 1959, the year after Oliver Hardy’s death
• Film Specific Image Galleries – Containing original publicity materials, press reviews, and rare production stills
• Souvenir Booklet – Containing a new collection introduction by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange; A look at the supporting players and other creative personnel in the world of Hal Roach Studios by historian Sara Imogen Smith; A new essay exploring the development of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in 1928 by Randy Skredvedt; and comprehensive notes on each film
• English SDH Subtitles
• Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
• All Region Encoding (A,B,C)

Release Date: October 29, 2024

Format: Blu-ray

Region: ALL REGION

Directors: Leo McCarey, Clyde Bruckman, Edgar Kennedy, Emmett J. Flynn, James Parrott

Year: 1928

Language: Silent (English Intertitles)

Length: 212 mins.

« The Messiah will come when we don’t need him anymore. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Mexicans and Canadians) “Everything we are taught is false.”–Arthur Rimbaud. protested in his youth.–Henry Miller, THE TIME OF THE ASSASSINS. »