8mm Forum: Their Purple Moment (Laurel & Hardy) query

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Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on April 24, 2011, 04:38 AM:

If anyone owns a Blackhawk print of this film, please could you check if it contains a gag where the phonograph is overwound, sending the spring and turntable vertically in the air.

A still (printed in the Blackhawk bulletin) suggests the gag was indeed shot for that film, but DVD editions do not contain it. However, a Nitrateville poster says that he has definitely seen it in the Blackhawk print (both 8mm and 16mm), and that he is not confusing it with the same gag in the next L&H film Should Married Men Go Home?

It seems very unlikely to me they would have used the same offbeat gag in consecutive films, but perhaps the Blackhawk edition uses a pre-release print, from which it was removed for re-working in the later film?

The gag was also claimed to be in the extracts from Their Purple Moment included in Robert Youngson's compilation 4 Clowns, but a friend has checked his copy of that and it isn't. (I do recall Youngson featured the same gag from Married Men in one of his compilations.)

Has anyone seen this scene in any prints of Their Purple Moment? In my UK DVD edition the gramophone is still intact just before L&H leave the house.

If somebody does find the scene, please could you note the exact point it occurs in the film, if possible by comparing it with a DVD edition. It may also be worth checking for other variations throughout the film if Blackhawk's material is a pre-release or alternate cut of some kind.

[ April 24, 2011, 06:31 AM: Message edited by: Jonathan Sanders ]

Posted by Tony Stucchio (Member # 519) on April 24, 2011, 07:37 PM:

Jonathan,

I have an 8mm BH print. I've never watched that one often though I've had it for years. (Not one of my favorites.) I will check it out this week and let you know.

Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on April 25, 2011, 07:08 AM:

Thanks, Tony. I look forward to your report. If true, this could turn out to be an important "discovery" at least for DVD collectors. Nor is the scene mentioned in various detailed synopses by such L&H authorities as Everson, McCabe, Mitchell...

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 25, 2011, 10:35 AM:

I don't have that one either. I look forward to the reply back.

Hey! that brings up a question I've had for a long time ...

Which short subject of the "Lads: is it when (I believe) Jimmy Finlayson is taking a bath ... I think the porcelin bath falls through the floor, splits, revealing a buck naked Jimmy?

Or was this a cut scene? I saw a photo or still from thsi in the book chronicling the Lads films many years ago.

Which film?

Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on April 25, 2011, 10:51 AM:

Osi, are you thinking of CALL OF THE CUCKOOS (in which Stan & Ollie guest) with Max Davidson revealed naked in profile in the collapsing bath? That shot remains in the film.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 25, 2011, 01:57 PM:

Aaaaah ... I bet your right!

The days before the production code really took affect!

Posted by Tony Stucchio (Member # 519) on April 26, 2011, 05:52 PM:

My BH 8mm version does not have that scene with the phonograph. Sorry to disappoint.

I think that this is one of their worst silent shorts. They are a bit out of character for most of the film. The scene at the club is very slow. This and WE FAW DOWN are my least favorite post-teaming L&H silents.

Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on April 27, 2011, 03:07 AM:

Many thanks for checking, Tony. I'm not really surprised but as the existence of this scene in the Blackhawk has been claimed by the same person on various forums over the last decade, I thought it was about time someone else examined their print!

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on April 27, 2011, 05:58 AM:

The only film where the record-player busts is, SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME

Posted by Jonathan Sanders (Member # 478) on April 27, 2011, 06:37 AM:

Thanks, Joe. That has always been my understanding too (though the existing still suggests it may have been shot for the earlier film). Do you also have a Blackhawk print of THEIR PURPLE MOMENT?

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on April 27, 2011, 08:27 AM:

Oh yes, long time now - Always have a set of L&H films in Super 8mm/Std 8mm (For 'Sons' members, it's a given) - As many know, I'm looking for Glenn Photo's 8mm on SLIPPING WIVES, though not a 'team' film, it is still important to the canon - Also a few of the individual shorts - Shorty

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 27, 2011, 10:22 AM:

For some assinine reason, I always thought "Slipping wives" was a Niles release ...

No wonder I haven't found it yet! [Smile]

mental note .... Glenn Photo.

The Lad's took a little while to establish they're characters in the silents. "From Soup to Nuts" while funny, has a much more dominant Stan, out of character for him, but I love it, none the less.

Posted by Tony Stucchio (Member # 519) on April 27, 2011, 05:34 PM:

I thought it was Niles, too.

I just think PURPLE MOMENT has them too much out-of-character as philandering husbands. In SONS OF THE DESERT, they try to fool the wives, but no hanky-panky is intended. It plays like CHICKENS COME HOME meets BLOTTO meets BELOW ZERO, all much better (later) films. Sounds like the phonograph gag might have improved it, as well as the Boys (I've never heard them referred to as "Lads") dressed up as midgets (seen in still photos from the film.) Instead, it ends with a lackluster pie fight.

Stan had a slightly different personality right up until the last few silents -- it seemed to change instantaneously with the talkies. I've always noted the "Come on, personality" wisecrack from BIG BUSINESS as an example.

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