Laurel & Hardy Two Tars 600ft ?

[Ken Finch]

The version I have for sale is from Collectors Club. It is the complete 2 reel print including the count down leaders. A reel of 35mm film at that time was 1,000ft so on Super 8 this amounts to approx 200ft. Therefore The complete 2 reeler will be appx. 400ft. As mentioned on an earlier post, it was originally intended to be a 3 reeler but released eventually as 2 reels. My source of information is “The complete Films of Laurel and Hardy” by William K Everson. It was released by Hal Roach -M G M 928. Directed by James Parrot and the cameraman was none other than the famous George Stevens. In its 2 reel form, it became one of the most elaborate short comedies ever made an one of L and Hs most famous, according to Everson. Hope this clears up all the speculation.

[Ken Finch]

I think I should add that the version I am selling does not have the opening shots of the battle ships. Over the past few years I have managed to acquire from charity shops a complete 20 disc collection of Laurel and Hardy dvds. Two Tars is on disc no16. I will have to check it out to see if it starts with the battleship shots. Each disc has a number of films on it but they are not in any particular production date order. Some of the films are off from the period before the boys got together. Sadly, I am finding some of my cine projectors are too heavy to lift on to their stands in my home cinema projection box, or On to the work bench for maintenance, hence needing to find them new homes. Problems of getting old I fear.😉

[Graham Ritchie]

The Super8 I have is this one, its a pretty full 400ft reel. I haven't watched it in years, but do remember the quality was very good. Later I bought this excellent US DVD from "Image Entertainment" who I should add, had a high standard of quality DVDs. I would be surprised its still being released by Image these days, as this was bought long long ago. Note the running time on the Two Tars.

I think there source material originated from Blackhawk films.

[Graham Ritchie]

Looking through an old 1980 Blackhawk catalog today.

"Two Tars"

A Blackhawk exclusive. B/W.

810-02-2418, Standard 8, sil.,28 min....$41.98
860-02-2418, Super 8, sil., 28 min.......$43.89
880-02-2418, Super 8,mus., 22 min....$56.98
640-02-2418, 16mm., mus.,22 min.....$124.98

[Joerg Polzfusz]

??? Why is the S8 sound version 6 min shorter than the S8 silent one??? Did they remove some parts or is it just the difference between 18 and 24fps?

[Graham Ritchie]

Blackhawk states

"We do something which causes a bit of confusion for some of you; I'll try to make it less confusing. We list films which have different running times for the sound and the silent versions of the same subject. For instance: Charlie Chaplin's The Count, the silent time is about 29 minutes and the sound is about 21 minutes. The reason for this time difference is that the film was originally made as a silent to show at 16-18 frames a second (fps). Then, when a sound track was added, in this case by the studio, the film was to be projected at 24fps. The picture content is exactly the same in both versions. However, to complicate matters, this does not always hold true because where the last 4 digits of a stock number are different in the sound and silent versions, it means that the film content is not exactly the same and therefore a different reason for the different running times. If the last 4 digits are the same the pictures are the same no matter what the format".

[Phil Moors]

Instead of debating the item why doesn’t a member in the US buy it, who doesn’t own Two Tars and put the matter to rest.
Then we can all get some rest.

[Phil Moors]

News just in. I located a database of digitised pages of Blackhawk Catalogues and Two Tars is listed as being on three reels approximately 425 feet. See page of catalogue attached.

[Joe Caruso]

425'...16-18fps 3x200', which equals to about 28 mins , not counting the leader, titles and introduction frames of course...the silent and scored prints are as extant as can be, and as I mentioned, we are lucky they all survived at all, had it not been for Blackhawk...Case closed till another nice mess is opened... Fraternally, Shorty