Review of Laurel & Hardy: No. 19 Pardon Us And Related Shorts

Introduction

Genius is a word that is easily applied, but few deserve it more than the comedy partnership of Laurel & Hardy. With Laurel & Hardy, they broke the mould, their like has never been seen again, and no one since has approached their level of sheer comic brilliance. Fortunately they have left a legacy of over a hundred films together that will guarantee that future generations won`t miss out on the best double act in cinema history. Universal are releasing the cream of their movies made for Hal Roach on 20 DVDs, 21 if you buy the boxset. It`s enough to make a fanboy weep with joy.

I received Volume 19 to review.

This contains their first ever feature film, Pardon Us in a restored monochrome print as well as a colourised version. Stan and Ollie have a plan to make some money, especially as the local store is having a sale on barley, malt, hops and yeast. Unfortunately with Prohibition and all, our two heroes are soon destined for the lock up. Stan`s buzzing tooth soon gets them into further trouble, especially with the roughest man in the jail, The Tiger.

Also on this disc is The Hoose-gow, a short talkie presented once again in monochrome and colourised versions. The two boys are once again in trouble with the law, and find that they have to serve their time on a chain gang. It`s a recipe for disaster when rice gets into the leaking radiator of the Governor`s car.

Finally there is The Battle Of The Century, the surviving 12 minutes of footage of the silent movie with a classic pie fight.

Video

All the films are presented in the original 4:3 ratio, and the transfer is hardly going to be problematic considering the source material. Indeed it`s more a question of the state of the source material, and I`m happy to say that it`s none too shabby. Details are clear and the contrast is strong on all three black and white films. The print damage is inevitable on films that are almost 80 years old, but it never mars your enjoyment.

The restoration is invisible, these are obviously old films and there is no way to disguise that, nor should there be any attempt. Yet the strong contrast and crisp image in all the films on this disc is certainly far better than the creased and dull prints I remember from my childhood on teatime television.

However, the colourised versions are simply hideous to look at. It`s as if someone had an accident with a box of watercolours. There have been colour versions of Laurel & Hardy films around for quite a while now, and I believe these are those very same versions. Not that Laurel & Hardy should ever be colourised, but the quality of the work here is very rough and ready. You can see the joins, and there are points where colours bleed and underlying greys peek through.

Audio

The sound once again is hardly going to be a feat of technical excellence. It`s all DD 2.0 mono English and the dialogue is clear throughout. There is a degree of hiss but there are no pops or crackles.

Once again there is a difference between colour and monochrome versions, with the sound on the original films clearer and distinctive. The colourised versions have a more muted feel with the hiss a little stronger. There are English subtitles for all films.

Features

The animated menu is very nice to look at, with that memorable dance from Way Out West illuminating the screen. I`m not sure what constitutes as extras on these discs. There are colourised versions of films, foreign language versions of films, but there are no commentaries, no additional material of any biographic kind, unless you buy the boxset, as disc 21 does contain a documentary.

Conclusion

No, no, no, no, NO! Laurel & Hardy should never be in colour, ever. It is sacrilege of the highest order. It is wrong in so many ways. This disc, and the specifications for the rest of the releases leave me in two minds. As much as I am a fan of Laurel & Hardy, I feel that this boxset is not value for money. Roughly 40% of the material on these discs are the colourised versions of Laurel & Hardy films, films that are already present in their monochrome versions on the very same discs. Will these films ever be watched, or are they just filler to bulk up the volume to the full 20 discs? I`d guess that just the original material would be able to fit on 12 discs or so, and the £200 price tag wouldn`t look so rosy.

Laurel & Hardy were comic geniuses, there`s no doubt of that. That doesn`t necessarily mean that they had a Midas touch when it came to making movies. They were unique in that they not only survived the transition from silent movies to talkies, but their brand of comedy actually thrived. However their popularity demanded longer and longer films, and when they started making features, it became harder to sustain the laughs over and hour or more. This disc has examples of all three types of movie.

The Battle Of The Century is the surviving footage of a silent short. There is a boxing sequence and a stupendous pie fight, but it rapidly becomes apparent that there is something missing. You tend to forget that so much of Laurel & Hardy`s comedy was verbal, you miss Ollie`s sonorous tones, or Stan`s plaintive whining. If you`ve ever heard Stan`s business proposition in Towed In The Hole, "and the fish get all the profit!" then you realise just how much their comedy relied on verbal gags as well as the slapstick.

Pardon Us is the other end of the scale, the feature film. Although it`s nowhere near as disappointing as the later 1940`s features for Twentieth Century Fox like Jitterbugs or The Bullfighters, it does have the problems shared by most of the Laurel & Hardy features, that of dilution. Stretching a typical short into twice the length (which is what most of the early features were) meant that there were longer gaps between the set pieces. Pardon Us makes you wait longer for the flashes of comic brilliance, there is a more sedate feel to the film and while there are guffaws to be had, the general level of hilarity to the film is one of a gentle chuckle. You`ll also find in the features that there is usually padding in the form of musical interludes, which usually gave Ollie a chance to put to good use that amazing singing voice, but occasionally slowed the film down, as here we also get a rendition from a Barber Shop Quartet, who just happen to be doing time. Pardon Us is Laurel & Hardy`s first feature, and as such is certainly not their finest. That accolade is reserved for films like Sons Of The Desert, Way Out West or Swiss Miss. But it`s enjoyable enough.

It should be noted that the B&W version of Pardon Us is the longer version of the film with restored scenes. That includes a line of politically incorrect dialogue, usually cut by the BBC, from Stan while the two are disguised as workers on a cotton plantation. The colour version is 4 minutes shorter, most of it lost in the final prison riot.

The Hoose-gow on the other hand is the best thing on this disc. Laurel & Hardy do their best work in the 2 or 3 reelers, and while The Hoose-gow is nowhere up to the standards of The Music Box, it`s still hilarious. Gags come thick and fast as the two get into all kinds of trouble on the chain gang. I was in fits of laughter, having trouble breathing until my sides ached. Both The Hoose-gow and Pardon Us have among the cast Laurel & Hardy regular James Finlayson, undisputed master of the double take, and inventor of D`oh! when Homer Simpson`s dad was in nappies, and his presence always guarantees laughs aplenty.

There`s something a little mercenary about these discs. I just don`t understand the reasoning behind including the colourised versions of films already on the discs. But to have a collection of Laurel & Hardy`s best work at Hal Roach studios like this is certainly compelling. In an ideal world we could pick and choose. I`d have all of their talkie shorts, with three or four choice features, that would hopefully fit on 5 or 6 discs. And absolutely no colour!

Which is why this disc gets a low overall mark.