Collecting Laurel and Hardy!

[Osi Osgood]

I would like to propose a special topic, (probably one after Shorty's heart!). Over the years, Blackhawk Films put out different editions of the same films, but with the different editions, sometimes they would either find brand new preprint material and in some cases, scenes or shots that were not in previous released. Therefore, I propose this special series of posts to help fellow collectors find which are the best released of each of the lads films, whether green, pink, silver box or otherwise. Sometimes, the best prints may not be the last or silverbox. I know that on a few occasions, the earlier prints actually look better or are sharper. So .... Here goes!

[Ali Hipperson]

Great idea Osi and should prove very useful! 👍

[Maurice Leakey]

And, how about the UK Walton releases.

[Lee Mannering]

Here here Maurice Funny enough have been buying some L&H this year as I found our collection a little lacking after filming at Stan's house in Ulverston for another S8 epic about various stars. The Walton prints did vary in quality quite a bit some being reely soft.

[Osi Osgood]

I agree about the U.K. releases as well, but I think that they may be better as a separate post, comparing the best of the U.K. in comparison to the best of Blackhawks. I kind of felt that this should be just concentrating on Blackhawks. No dishonor to the Walton Films prints and otherwise.

[Joe Caruso]

Walton's BIG BUSINESS contains different angles not prevalent with Blackhawk. Remember that a different neg was sent overseas (not sure of the reasoning details)...worthy research to examine several prints of the same title...no matter what you own, enjoy The Boys...it's all we have really...Silver Medallion releases after 1980 were cleaned up some, essentially the same materials used....those heralding the olive-green editions came in 1975 when Lee Enterprises was at the helm, and those pink boxes boasted of fine lab work, though MEN O WAR and HOG WILD were always of the soft-focus...NIGHT OWLS sometimes...I recently replaced LAUGHING GRAVY, of course I'm a exact-o-phile...U will say, the silver medallion silents that conrained the Vitaphone-Scored editions were top-notch and highly sought-after...but I ramble...Shorty

[Osi Osgood]

Ramble away, Shorty! One factor that can affect "ratings", in my opinion, is a collectors "preference". In my case, I prefer my prints to have a little more contrast or, slightly darker, as, depending on the projector used, a slightly darker print will look just lovely, where another print will look slightly washed out on a projector with a very bright bulb. I had a case recently where I compared a pink box and green box edition, and I preferred the green box over the pink box. Most of the time, the opposite is true.

[Joe Caruso]

Use a xenon?....then it's over-bright...what projector(s) have you?

[Lee Mannering]

I like a nice black with some shadow detail. Have to say since I converted a couple of my machines to HID lighting b&w looks beautiful on 8.

Just a little nod re Big Business on 8. Let's not forget Collectors Club also dit it on S8 2x200ft. Pretty good as well.

Mag striped my Blackhawk print and put a sound track on it makes a nice presentation.

[Joe Caruso]

True, I have several Collector Club versions, and ones such as THE DENTIST, THE SAWMILL, etc , took great care to manufacture choice prints...side-note; Regent had very rare silents (Chase, L&H, others) in both Single and S8....Cheers all, Shorty

[Osi Osgood]

Shorty is quite correct about different versions and angles. Later versions can be a blessing and a calamity. I will freely and happily say that the best copies of "Big Business" were those lovely, early standard 8mm copies. However, a later version was so cool to have the original title cards, (with a little Blackhawk emblem cleverly concealed in the titles), but the horrible thing was that the overall image was somewhat washed out, too bright, which was a danged shame, as it is a nice, sharp print!

[Joseph Banfield]

I think it is a good idea to have a list of the best versions of each Laurel & Hardy film that was produced through the years. I often find I need some guidance in selecting the best copies but information is difficult to find. However, as others have stated, limiting this information to only Blackhawk releases is rather pointless for two reasons. First of all those of us who live overseas don't have access to a ton of Blackhawk prints. Second, there were European prints that were in some cases better than those released by Blackhawk. To eliminate other distributors is not representing a true picture of the best available prints of each title.

I can say that the Super 8 silent Blackhawk print of "From soup to Nuts" in the pink box is a stunner. But at the same time the pink box S8 Blackhawk silent "That's my Wife" looks very grainy and unsharp...the same goes for the Film-office version too! The S8 Blackhawk pink box silent "Wrong Again" has a lot of grain too but certainly not too bad. The Blackhawk silent Super 8 pink box "Big business" is another stunner.

But I must say that my finest looking Laurel and Hardy print by far is the Walton Super 8 sound release of "Tit for Tat". That print has the most stunning looking contrast and is razor sharp, although I have not seen the Blackhawk release of it to compare. On the other hand the Walton Super 8 sound release of " Towed in a Hole" is not super sharp and a bit on the grainy side.

And let's not also forget there was Collector's Club too who at times produced some great looking prints. As I stated in the old forum the CC 400' Super 8 silent release of "Haunted Spooks" looks much better than either the standard 8 or Super 8 Blackhawk versions, in my humble opinion.

So, if looking for the best available prints it is necessary at times to look beyond Blackhawk as they also released a few duds from time to time. One that really surprised me was the Blackhawk Super 8 silent yellow box Chaplin release of "The Bond". That film has the worst looking washed-out contrast I have ever seen and wonder why Blackhawk even released it!

[Osi Osgood]

It might have been a case of that being the only source material available or even existing. I started this specific post to identify the best possible Blackhawk edition and then move onto a comparison of Blackhawk to the other super 8 company released. I personally feel, for instance, that the Walton Films "Sons of the Desert" is a better print of the title, even though slightly edited, but very few folks in the U.S. have access to the other overseas super 8 companies, but there is a wealth of Blackhawks.

[Frank Commins]

Sorry to go off topic, but Joseph's comment on Chaplin's "The Bond" reminded me of a copy that I picked up years ago.

I don't recall the distributor, but it is a razor sharp, (blank) sound striped sepia print. There was nothing unexpected the first time I watched it, as I had seen various copies before, and when the story ended, and the clear footer took over, I was surprised at the amount of footage that remained on the spool. Then, after about twenty seconds, the show resumed, but this time it consisted of "The Bond" outtakes of Chaplin and Edna Purviance clowning around on the sets. I had never seen this before, and don't remember if it was included in Brownlow's "Unknown Chaplin" either. Either way, it taught me not to kill the lamp the first time I watched a new print until the film had completely unspooled off the reel !

Best regards,
Frank

[Michael O’Regan]

I have an interesting link which relates to and ties in with this. However, it specifically refers to 16mm so I’ve posted it in the 16mm section.