8mm Forum: More Laurel & Hardy on Talking Pictures TV

This is topic More Laurel & Hardy on Talking Pictures TV in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Gary Sayers (Member # 5545) on January 21, 2018, 12:23 PM:

Saw an ad on Talking Pictures TV today saying that due to how popular the L & H features had been, they were now going to start showing selected sound shorts.

They showed clips from various classics, such as Brats, Busy Bodies and The Music Box.

Shame they are not in the correct format, sticking with the trend of cropping the top and bottom of the picture to fill modern TV screens but kudos to Talking Pictures TV for putting the boys back on UK TV.

They start showing them sometime in February.

Posted by Mark Mander (Member # 340) on January 21, 2018, 03:19 PM:

It's a great channel Gary,I'll look forward to seeing L & H films on there,Mark

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on January 21, 2018, 03:22 PM:

Are they colorized or as original?

A couple of years ago TCM had a festival of Laurel and Hardy shorts (all Black and White) just after Christmas and my son and I were both home to watch it. A lot of other Forum Folk were watching it too.

-kind of nice: I formed a little shopping list.

Posted by Gary Sayers (Member # 5545) on January 21, 2018, 03:45 PM:

Mark - it certainly is a great channel! Shows some absolute gems. They've been showing Ealing films lately and I watched 'The Man in the Sky' last week. How have I never seen this Ealing film before??

Steve - the L & H clips were in B/W and the recent features they showed were also B/W so I assume the shorts will be B/W.

I watched 'Pack up your Troubles' when it was on and although it was the wrong screen format, I was surprised at how it didn't really bother me (colourised one would, I think - never watched one, even though I have them on the 21 DVD box set).

[ January 21, 2018, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Gary Sayers ]

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 22, 2018, 04:14 PM:

Some time back, AMC ran a 24-hour (yes), marathon on The Boys - I taped the whole thing on EP VHS Tapes - Later, at a 'Sons' meeting, someone mentioned having missed watching it, so I gave him my set - Film prints are just as good, if not better (ah, the on-going debate) - Cheers, Shorty

Posted by Joseph Randall (Member # 4906) on January 22, 2018, 06:48 PM:

AMC used to show L&H regularly some 20 years ago -- yes, it has been that long. AMC has changed a lot, however, in the intervening years.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on January 22, 2018, 07:03 PM:

Each year, at the Cinglés du cinéma at Argenteuil (very close to Paris), the French Laurel et Hardy club does a 16 mm projection. Usually Laurel and Hardy (as expected !) and Charlie Chaplin films are shown. I hope it will happen this year as well (this Ciné event will be held the coming Friday and Saturday).

Posted by Joseph Randall (Member # 4906) on January 22, 2018, 07:10 PM:

That's great. There's nothing like seeing a Laurel and Hardy film with an appreciative audience.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on January 22, 2018, 07:21 PM:

Joseph, for the fun, the Laurel et Hardy song in French. It was used for the cartoons and is famous. Note that Laurel and Hardy films were dubbed in French with American accent and so were the cartoons, hence the American accent (that non French native speakers will probably not notice) in the song as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-dpoenltfg

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on January 23, 2018, 05:10 AM:

Talking Pictures Channel are using the same masters source that was used for the DVD releases here in the UK via Universal.

They were restored and ... "Transfered to safety film from the finest surviving 35mm elements, all are complete , most have reinstated original titles , and two contain footage never before released !" ... by The KirchGroup.

I have the complete box set of this and it includes a lot of silent films and a documentary on the boys.

While it is not perfect ( what is ? ) and has some wear and other negative flaws it is lot better than some of the 8mm and even 16mm copies that I currently own.

I (as do some others) hope they re-release them again on Blu-Ray in order to iron out some of the flaws.

However they met with the approval of The Sons Of The Desert Society here in the UK and I can only assume the one in the USA.

These are also the same source masters that were used for the releases in Digital to some UK Cinemas a couple of years back.
They were shown in the correct aspect ratio.

I saw them and they looked brilliant back up on the BIG SCREEN after an absence of decades. Except of course for those Saturday Morning Cinema Children's Clubs which mostly used worn out , scratched and splicey 35mm release prints.

But hey we didn't care it was after all Laurel and Hardy on the BIG SCREEN.

Happy Days ! [Smile]

Posted by Allan Broadfield (Member # 2298) on January 23, 2018, 06:22 AM:

As a projectionist in the late fifties/early sixties in london I can definitely attest to David's impressions of the kids matinees. The condition of most films, especially serials, was pretty awful, and the chief would instruct us when running a feature to run down some reels in advance if we were running late. Don't know if the kids noticed!
One thing that struck me though, was that despite the scratches and joins the actual picture quality was excellent, with a sharpness and contrast that puts a lot of DVD's to shame today, no doubt being several generation removed from the original.

[ January 23, 2018, 07:37 AM: Message edited by: Allan Broadfield ]

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