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Author
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Topic: Best choice for laurel and Hardy reprints?
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted November 13, 2017 12:30 PM
If you could have a brand new print of a Laurel and Hardy film on super 8, if you had the chance to ... what would be you're pick?
My choice would be "BRATS", as, every print I have seen on Super 8 has been from an apparantly fuzzy and dupey looking print, (mind you, I have opnly seen the Blackhawk super 8 prints of this). it's one of the very few Blackhawk super 8 L & H shorts that is really fuzzy and hard to focus.
You're choices, ladies and Gentleman? ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted November 18, 2017 10:42 PM
There are excellent Super 8 sound L&H Blackhawks, with a little luck you will find them.
I had a perfect S8 sound of Chickens Come Home. There are excellent prints of Dirty Work out there too. Don’t despair.
If there are two Super 8’s that deserve an upgrade are for their original titles are The Music Box and The Chimp.
The transitions in The Music Box, diagonally slide giving the appearance of walking a staircase and makes the film more appealing, memorable, and reminiscent in the plot of climbing steps.
The Chimp with original titles were printed by Film Preservation Associates, owned by the late David Shepard. Shepard bought the Blackhawk collection and took over the reigns and released preserved editions of Blackhawks material.
Shepard restored the original MGM titles of The Chimp from a 16 Canadian neg. The main title visual transition by tearing open as if a circus performer would break through a circus hoop. The gag titles are also corrected and restored in their proper order.
Shepard's prints from Film Classic Associates are generally very good, when the lab work varied, or was poor they were receptive to returning for a reprint.
David restored Pack Up Your Troubles to it's complete length, and cleaned up the sound to bell clear quality.
Someone should release the updated The Battle of The Century. A more extant version has been circulating in special venues that includes more action in the 2nd reel than the extended version that Blackhawk released in the late '70's.
Habeas Corpus and We Faw Down should be restored to include the original Vitaphone scores and several missing scenes to make each of these films more complete.
Hog Wild may be grainy and Brats is a tough one to find that’s not printed light. Sometimes the Standard 8mm sound prints are better.
Collectors have told me that their S-8 prints of Blockheads are disappointedly soft.
I started with the 16’s of the L&H’s when I wanted to fill the gaps in titles that were missing from my Super 8 collection and John Black told me that although that you may not be in the market for a title, when an L&H comes your way, to pick it because eventually you will become a completist for their 40 sound shorts.
Joseph made a good point about the Blackhawks and you will be perfectly happy because when it comes to 16’s it can also be a mixed bag, and 16’s of Film Classics are not always perfect.
There was a company named: Walter Reade and their company also released L&H from the Film Classics Library. Their prints were Light, dupey and sometimes the sound was not good.
I've only seen one Walter Reade that had merit, The Midnight Patrol, the soundtrack was better than the Blackhawks.
I don't know why the background track on Midnight Patrol is printed faintly because you can barely hear LeRoy Shield's music that was standard on the early L&H’s. Otherwise the print quality on Blackhawk’s Midnight Patrol is very good. The Janus films release is more of a print down quality.
I have a Blackhawk of Chickens on 16mm, that's taken from what appears to come from a 35mm fine grain, and it’s outstanding. I’ve seen Film Classics of Chickens that Joseph spoke about and it’s excellent as he mentioned, but look out for the Blackhawk 16 that’s from the better material, it’s outstanding.
For some unknown reason, Film Classics mis-titled the main title as Chicken Come Home, and not Chickens Come Home.
As an L&H aficionado I’ve liquidated all in 8mm for 16’s. I kept some 8’s in the event of downsizing.
Regarding Night Owls, there was a company: Library Films and they had an excellent neg on 16.
I've seen a 16mm Library films release on Brats and it was very good.
The Library Films of Thicker Than Water, you miss the final gag as Ollie pulls the transition closed on the The End title.
Hog Wild and Brats must have been re-printed numerous times, and the picture neg may have been resized during the silent to sound period.
I have a 1947 Film Classics print on Hog Wild. With the exception of some marks, it’s the sharpest picture and sound quality, this side of the Janus film 16’s from 1980’s.
This print rings with best of CD quality, that all prints that we know today sound E.Q’d in comparison.
I also have a Blackhawk of The Bohemian Girl, printed in 1964. This print has excellent picture and sound track. The 1600’ reels are printed in 20 minute sections spliced together, apparently how it was released on the original neg, because the sound track has CD quality sound too.
The Blackhawk on Our Relations and Swiss Miss are superb.
In 1975 Blackhawk printed an outstanding print of Way Out West. The main title card is a Blackhawk with the thick white letters against a black background, and the following titles are original, but what makes this print terrific is that it comes from the fine grain material. The detail is phenomenal especially when noticing the varying seams of fabric on Stan’s overcoat, as he’s brushing off Ollie’s suit while in the water pond for the first time.
Buy from someone reliable, because there are prints that are being dumped from libraries.
MGM The Chimp Titles
[ November 19, 2017, 12:12 AM: Message edited by: Michael De Angelis ]
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Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!
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