Laurel and Hardy: The Silent Years (1928) – Eureka

Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Emmett J. Flynn, Fred L. Guiol, Edgar Kennedy, Leo McCarey, James Parrott
Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Year: 1928
Country: USA

While associated with the era of silent comedy, the sound work of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy has always been more available. Eureka have been trying to address the balance though, first with their collection of shorts featuring the duo’s 1927 output (plus a couple of earlier efforts) in a set they released last year and now with a box set of their silent shorts from 1928.

Leave ‘Em Laughing (1928), The Finishing Touch (1928), From Soup To Nuts (1928), You’re Darn Tootin’ (1928, Their Purple Moment (1928), Should Married Men Go Home (1928), Early To Bed (1928), Two Tars (1928), Habeas Corpeus (1928), We Fall Down (1928) and the fragmentary Now I’ll Tell One (1927) have been restored beautifully by Blackhawk Films. These shorts are early for the Boys. They are simple shorts, with routine slapstick scenes in Los Angeles, acting as a showcase for their most archetypal work.

However, it must be said there is something lacking in these early shorts. Unlike other silent comedians, sound did not harm Stan and Ollie. It brought out their best qualities, what with Stan Laurel’s music hall background. However, these shorts are worth it for the historical interest. One thing that is particularly worth watching in these shorts is the strange view of 20s Los Angeles, an arid suburbia not quite fully built, somewhat resembling a dieselpunk Milton Keynes, and somewhat stagnant in the way that most of it is still countryside. I believe these early films play best with live audiences though, as someone who has watched Neil Brand accompany these shorts live in Dublin.

These shorts aren’t the Boys’ best, but as Fiona Watson in the accompanying essay points out, there’s something about these films that poke the neurodiverse brain even if you don’t find them funny. She and David Cairns point out that particular autistic frisson one feels when you worry about the damage being caused in comedy, while also waiting for it. But what is worth is the supreme package of extras. Commentaries by experts such as David Kalat and Neil Brand (who provides scores on some shows), and the aforementioned video essay by Watson and Cairns, which points out in excellent detail how without Hardy, Stan would just be Shakin’ Harry Langdon, and also toughing at the G, B and T touches in their personas. The commentaries are informative and witty, and help further appreciation on these films, rescuing them from public domain hell.

Nitpick – you can’t ‘play all’ shorts, you have to watch them individually.

Laurel and Hardy: The Silent Years (1928) is released on Blu-ray by Eureka on 14th April.

– Limited Edition [2000 copies]
– Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow [2000 copies]
– 1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from 2K restorations of Leave ‘em Laughing, The Finishing Touch, From Soup to Nuts, You’re Darn Tootin’, Their Purple Moment, Should Married Men Go Home?, Early to Bed, Two Tars, Habeas Corpus and We Faw Down
– Region Coding : A/B/C
– Scores by a variety of silent film composers
– New audio commentaries on Leave ’em Laughing and From Soup to Nuts by film historian and writer David Kalat
– New audio commentaries on The Finishing Touch and Habeas Corpus by Patrick Vasey, editor of The Laurel & Hardy Magazine and host of The Laurel & Hardy Podcast
– New audio commentaries on Early to Bed and We Faw Down by film writer Chris Seguin and Kyp Harness, author of The Art of Laurel & Hardy: Graceful Calamity in the Films
– New audio commentaries on Should Married Men Go Home? and Two Tars by Glenn Mitchell, author of The Laurel and Hardy Encyclopedia
– New audio commentaries on You’re Darn Tootin’ and Their Purple Moment by silent film accompanist Neil Brand
– Alternate Skeets Alquist score on The Finishing Touch, newly restored by Stephen C. Horne
– New interview with Neil Brand
– United We Fall – brand new feature-length documentary by David Cairns and Fiona Watson
– Now I’ll Tell One (1927) – surviving fragment of a Charley Chase two-reeler featuring Laurel & Hardy with optional audio commentary by Chris Seguin and Glenn Mitchell
– Robert Youngson Tribute – new featurette by Scott MacGillivray, author of Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward
– Let ’em Rip, Out of Step, The Car Wreckers and A Right Mess – Super 8 cut downs of Laurel & Hardy shorts
– Stan Laurel Home Movies – rarely seen home movie footage
– Stills Galleries
– A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring newly written notes on each film by writer and comedian Paul Merton and new essays by silent cinema expert Imogen Sara Smith and film historian Sheldon Hall [2000 copies]