Author
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Topic: Baffling print of 'Fra Diavolo' (Laurel & Hardy)
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted August 07, 2018 07:04 AM
Last night, I took a look at the first half of a Laurel & Hardy feature I recently bought. All I knew was that the opening title says "Laurel & Hardy in Cry Babies", which isn't a title familiar to me, but the price was good and the way it was spooled meant that I obtained a nice Elmo 1200'.
Despite the fact that the title looks like it comes from an early release, the film turned out to be 'Fra Diavolo' (aka 'The Devil's Brother' and later 'Bogus Bandits'). I'm unable to find evidence of it ever being titled 'Cry Babies' so I wondered if anyone can explain this?
The other puzzling thing is that it starts off as a polyestar print, that I presume was probably a Derann release, but after about the first 400' it becomes a b/w acetate print, that looks better and has less contrast. The tail at the end of the first half indicates this was a Red Fox release. The condition is excellent, so the former owner almost certainly wasn't combining two damaged prints. I've seen a reference to a scene where Ollie is going to be hanged not being in every version, so I wonder if perhaps the polyestar/Derann release was uncut, so the former owner used the first part of this, but then reverted to the Red Fox release due to the better picture?
If anyone happens to know if these different versions exist, I'd appreciate the information.
-------------------- Adrian Winchester
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