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Author
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Topic: The Music Box, Laurel and Hardy, 1932
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted September 16, 2008 04:14 PM
“Why don’t you WALK around?”
The Music Box, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, 1932 (2x400’, Black and White, Blackhawk Films)
Here it is: the ultimate Laurel and Hardy! It’s the one that people think about when they hear “Laurel and Hardy” and it earned them their only Best Picture Academy Award. Strange too: it was made as kind of an afterthought to sneak another film in that year’s budget and was basically a remake of their now lost silent film “Hat’s Off”. However, it is a true classic. Even people who are dimly conscious of the world before TV remember “ ’Dat one ‘bout ‘dose guys pushin’ the piana’ up ‘duh steps. You know ‘dem: ‘duh guys widd ‘duh hats? Yeah!, Moe and Costello!”
The story is simple enough to be a video game, from a time when that phrase would have been gibberish. The humor is not subtle: this is piano sliding down stairs and out a window. It is people kicking each other in the butts and getting hit in the head. The acting is often over the top: Professor Theodore Von Schwarzenhoffen (M.D., A.D, D.D.S, F.L.D, F.F.F. und F. ) bellows like a hurricane. The special effects are a dummy being dragged down a staircase by a runaway piano crate. In short, if you are looking for Orson Welles, you’re sitting in the wrong theater.
What we have instead is a great little story of two ordinary guys fighting extraordinary obstacles: a heavy crate, a big staircase, the force of gravity, a nursemaid with a grating laugh, a brutal cop, a big loudmouth, a clever horse and worst of all their own idiocy. Anybody who has ever really screwed up a task because they just didn’t think the matter through before starting can relate to this one, and that includes basically all of us sooner or later.
So we find ourselves there on that bright day in Los Angeles, and Stan and Ollie arrive with Susie their horse and the player piano for delivery to 1127 Walnut Avenue in their wagon. They are looking the way we like Laurel and Hardy to look: young, healthy, perhaps foolishly optimistic. In what may be the biggest understatement in the history of the movies, Postman Hall tells them the house is “right on top of the stoop”. The “stoop” is of course that famous concrete staircase of 131 steps. I won’t really get into the story; if you haven’t seen it yet you should experience it for yourself! Suffice it to say what goes up must come down: again and again and again. Even after they get it to and into the house they still find ways of making the job a spectacular mess. No sane insurance company would ever sell a policy to these guys.
-yet they never quit!
Stan is just well…Stan. He’s not very bright and keeps messing things up. The joke is on Ollie though because despite whatever he thinks of Stan he’s easily just as big a fool. Ollie keeps unleashing his wrath on Stan, but it keeps coming back on him again and again. Ollie’s only real comfort is the audience. Every time the Universe pays him back he turns to the camera and silently looks to us for sympathy.
I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear yet, but I love this movie! Seeing it as many times as I have it has reached kind of a false perfection from familiarity. Everything works together and if I ever saw a different version of it, it would be like a favorite song with a new verse…just not right!
My print is one of the Blackhawk Laurel and Hardies. Normally I don’t like the idea of reviewing a movie this long out of print, but these are very commonly available used.
Mine did not arrive on 2x400’ in the original Blackhawk packaging but instead put together on this ponderous 800’ steel reel in a black metal can inside one of those old khaki canvas covered boxes with fabric straps and chromed buckles. (It looks like something a director should be carrying across the studio lot on his way to the Big Screening!)
Reel one is wonderfully sharp. Reel two is a little soft but probably more noticeable because mine are spliced together and therefore easier to compare. The sound is variable, as if they were having trouble getting a good level on the wide outdoors shots. Exterior close ups and interiors are fine. It gives you a couple of seconds of that classic Vitaphone 60 Hz. hum here and there which at this late date is strangely comforting. When you cut it some slack by remembering this one is pushing 80 years old, it’s actually really good!
-Heaven forbid we should ever watch it digitized, stereofied, pasteurized, homogenized and colorized!
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted September 17, 2008 10:09 AM
Steve,
I agree on those silents. In fact, when a company rereleased them on restored laserdisc versions, a fan of Laurel and Hardy, took a number of the greatest silents, (Double Whoopee among them) and having the two's vocals spot on, did them as sounds, with the original Hal Roach music. I heard one of them and though I knew it wasn't them, it certainly sounded spot on.
But you always know it's not them.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Tony Stucchio
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 625
From: New Jersey
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted September 17, 2008 07:43 PM
quote:
Reel one is wonderfully sharp. Reel two is a little soft but probably more noticeable because mine are spliced together and therefore easier to compare.
What is the date code on the stock? I have a Blackhawk print from 1974 that is beautiful. Blackhawk changed negatives over the years for many of their titles, particularly the most popular ones like THE MUSIC BOX. They definitely had a great negative circa 1974.
quote:
It gives you a couple of seconds of that classic Vitaphone 60 Hz. hum here and there which at this late date is strangely comforting.
By 1932, Roach was no longer using Vitaphone, but the Western Electric sound-on-film method. I believe they switched over late 1929/early 1930, but I would have to check to be sure. That "hum" could easily have been added during the transfer of an optical track to magnetic, which is how Blackhawk usually did it.
quote:
Heaven forbid we should ever watch it digitized, stereofied, pasteurized, homogenized and colorized!
It has been colorized, along with many other L&Hs. But to see it you need to find an old VHS tape. And it has been digitized to DVD -- also when TCM shows it, I'm sure it is from a digital source, just like everything else on TV today. Though it has been neither pasteurized nor homogenized, it has had its sound "enhanced" by adding a Ronnie Hazelhearst background track to the colorized version. He should have been ostracized for doing that. If not, I bet he lost his hook, line, and sinker!
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted September 17, 2008 09:02 PM
What they did for those silent versions of sound shorts, was to make them 18 frames per second instead of 24, (which allowed them to put the whole short on one very full 400ft reel).
Also, they did add intertitles (I think that's what they are called right?) to the short. Except for those musical numbers at the end of the film, most of it wasn't effected.
Even when I eventually get the sound version, I'll keep the slient.
I also have a silent of "Brats" by Blackhawk. Strangely enough,
the silent has a sharper image than the sound.
and ... I'll keep my eye out for the pre 1974 "Music Box"
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Tony Stucchio
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 625
From: New Jersey
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted September 18, 2008 09:09 PM
quote:
and ... I'll keep my eye out for the pre 1974 "Music Box"
In the late 60's/early 70's (depending on who you ask), Blackhawk upgraded their L&H negatives from the old Film Classics 16mm prints they were using as a source. The older Blackhawk prints actually have Film Classics titles, rather than the Blackhawk white-on-black titles, which were made from newer negatives. I have personally only seen one these (with FC titles)in Super 8, but have seen a few in 16mm. From the early to mid-70's, most people feel Blackhawk did their best printing for L&H's. I've had 2 copies of WAY OUT WEST, from 1974 and 1977, and the 1974 print was much better overall. I think once they became a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Inc., the quality went down. I noticed an upgrade in quality, however, starting around 1979, particularly with Our Gang and Charley Chase shorts. Films that came in the silver box were always top-notch -- at least the ones I have. I believe they started using these in late '79.
These are just guidelines, but you may have to go through many prints to find the best one. My solution has been to upgrade my favorite L&H's to 16mm to get the best quality. This is a huge topic, however, and really belongs in one of the 16mm forums. I will say that it is much easier to get near-mint prints in Super 8 as opposed to 16mm.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 26, 2015 12:17 PM
Since there is already a review of this film here, I thought I would cut and paste my review of this short that I did elsewhere.
" I could just imagine how Stan "sold" the idea to Hal Roach ...
" Imagine the "Lads" simply moving a player piano up an endless flight of stairs and all the problems that can entail ... "
For some comedy teams, that would be a recipe for disaster. Even the great Marx Brothers could pull it off, nor could Abbot and Costello, but laurel and Hardy? YOU BET!!!
That's the premise of this classic film and it's a laugh riot. laurel and hardy, much like Charlie Chaplin, were masters at the genteel style of humor. Oh sure, they would go for pratfalls and violent humor when necessary, but they didn't need to go the way of the Three Stooges. They could get a laugh just by Stan peeping through a hole in a fence for Pete's sake. I do truly feel that they are the greatest comedy team to ever exist.
This film was during the powerhouse years of they're short subject output. They had just begun their feature film careers with such films as "Pardon Us" (Jailbirds) and were still a little uncomfortable stretching they're style of humor for over an hour, but they were masters of the short subject. This was one of they're longer ones, running around 32 minutes long. There is not wasted minute to this short. This short also holds the distinction of being the only Laurel and hardy film to win an Academy Award for best short subject!
Now, onto the print!
Blackhawk films had nearly all of Laurel and hardy's films at they're hands, (except for the later MGM years, and other outside films, such as "Flying Dueces" for RKO). Blackhawk could be hit or miss in print quality. In most cases, however, they were quite good to phenomenal! The features could have a slightly dupey quality to the prints, being just a tad bit soft in sharpness (and when it comes to these films from the late 20's to the mid thirties, that's sometimes a hard job having a pin sharp print!), they're Laurel and Hardy shorts were from OK to outstanding! This print is in the outstanding category!
Blackhawk did a number of prints of this title, both in Super 8, standard (and correct me if I am wrong folks, but also 16MM print!). They did vary in quality. The silent version they did (fitting onto one 400ft reel instead of 2X400ft, by making the film a 18fps silent short instead of the 24fps sound short) has tended to have a slightly dupey look, but this is no doubt due to them having to process the short as a 18fps short, which was unavoidable.
Unfortunately, I cannot verify as to whether this is the 2X400ft Silver Box edition of the short (these specific shorts Blackhawk made brand new negatives for and in most cases, had a superior product compared to they're earlier edtions), as I received it on one very full 600ft Boum reel and case, but I can say that it is probably the best sharpness and contrast I have ever seen coming from a laurel and Hardy Blackhawk short. This specific print is printed slightly darker than earlier prints but it works to it's advantage, as nearly all the short is outside, and the indoor scenes are quite good as well, no nighttime scenes to the short.
The sound is also very good. This edition of the short does NOT have the original title sequence, substituting Blackhawk titles for it. However, it does have the beginning cards or "prologue", describing the Lads situation, which isn't on every version of this Blackhawk did, (for instance, on the silent edition, they go straight from the Blackhawk titles to the first shot of the wife buying the piano).
This is a MUST HAVE for any Laurel and hardy fan. It shows the Lads at they're best! Don't miss out on this one!
"Fraternally Yours" and ...
LONG LIVE SUPER 8!!!! "
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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