Laurel And Hardy (Box Set) > Reviews > Here's another nice mess....

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	it's 21 discs of Laurel and Hardy in one box !
Disadvantages:	there are none .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is a L+H fan's dream... 21 discs, hours and hours of sublime comedy from the best double act ever to grace the silver screen. So, what do you get on these discs? They cover the peak era of the team during their stay at the Hal Roach studios, from their coming together in silent shorts in 1927 (By shorts I mean the so-called 2 and 3-reelers, named after the number of reels of film each lasted for - around 10 minutes per reel) through to 1940, with only a couple of feature films missing (I think the rights belong to another studio, hence their absence from this set).

Each disc is themed, with the odd numbered discs (up to 19) containing their main full feature length movies, and related shorts, while the even numbered discs have themed collections of their best short films. Disc 21 is a bonus disc with some early pre L+H film, a 1991 documentary, plus footage of the duo in German (in those early talkie days many films were made in 3 languages at the same time, and here L+H learned to speak German phonetically).

Each disc also has a booklet with a little bit of history about the films, and photos and notes on the production. Each disc also has computer colorized versions of some of the movies. This is a love/hate thing with fans and I'm very much in the latter category... colorization of classic black and white movies is sacrilege anyway, and to do it to Laurel and Hardy... ouch! I suppose these were done to satisfy the American TV market where so many ignorant viewers will not watch anything that isn't in colour...

The whole feel of this set is wonderful. It looks good, it's been lovingly put together, and the quality of the DVD transfers is as good as you're ever going to get on 70-80 year old films. Is there anything I'd moan about... no way. This is a fitting tribute to the best comedy duo ever. Buy it, or at least rent one disc first to at least get an idea of just how good they are.