Laurel & Hardy (Sons of the Desert/The Music Box/Another Fine Mess/Busy Bodies/County Hospital)

Laurel & Hardy (Sons of the Desert/The Music Box/Another Fine Mess/Busy Bodies/County Hospital)
by James Parrott, Lloyd French, William A. Seiter

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DVD Reviews of Laurel & Hardy (Sons of the Desert/The Music Box/Another Fine Mess/Busy Bodies/County Hospital)

DVD Review: Recomended With Reservatons
Summary: 3 Stars

Unfortunately, neither audio option can help the sound or image of Sons of the Desert as presented on this disc. Artisan has chosen (or given by Hallmark) completely inappropriate material to transfer from. They have used a television master from the 1980's complete with commercial fade out/fade in's intact and "new" recordings of Leroy Shield music inserted to underscore scenes where ther has been no musical score before. The music used is obviously from album's recorded by Ronnie Hazelhurst entitled Laurel & Hardy Music Box Vol. I & II. Scott MacGillivray has pointed out to me that this version of Sons of the Desert is several minutes shorter than the original release length with the "Wax Fruit" footage and "Chicago Convention Opening Montage" being expertly edited so that they are not missed to the casual fan. Other trims are not obvious and the film is still extremely entertaining for anyone who has not seen this film before. The quality of the picture is very disappointing, espescially for those of us fortunate enough to see how beautiful the European release DVD of Sons of the Desert is.

Special Features on this disc include King of Laughter Tribute - a 10 minute excerpt from a longer Hal Roach Documentary broadcast in the early 1990's on The Disney Channel. The excerpt praises Hal Roach, rightfully so. Unfortunately, some of what is said by the narrator is misleading or incorrect. "Hal Roach taught Laurel & Hardy how to improvise" & "how to milk a gag" are 2 such inaccuracies. The documentary also states that Roach made a conscious effort "trying to clean up Hollywood's image". They demonstrate this with a scene from Block Heads - 4 years after the Production Code went into effect. Ridiculous! There are some very nice clips from 10 Laurel & Hardy films and very nice words from Dom Deluise, Steve Allen, Mel Brooks, and John Hughes.

Hal Roach Articles is a reprinted article by Cliff Barr from 1987 entitled Movie Mogul Still Drinks and Loves The Ladies - At 95! The article is factual and celebrates Hal Roach and his career. It was very nice to read.

Then & Now Location Tour provides pictures of the Studio and what is currently sitting on that property. Also included are then and now looks at The Music Box Steps & The County Hospital.
We also see Stan & Babe's gravesite and Babe's more prominent monument erected by the Sons.

Photo Montage provides a slideshow of movie stills - 12 from Sons of the Desert. 6 from The Music Box, 8 from County Hospital, 6 from Busy Bodies, 5 from Another Fine Mess, 12 Hal Roach stills, and a final 2 stills of starlets that I cannot identify. The slideshow is underscored by an audio track of Marvin Hatley's Honolulu Baby as heard on the S.O.D. soundtrack - the opening title music from The Music Box - and a blues piece that suggests late '50's New Orleans to my ears.
Some of the stills were new to me. To check how unique some stills were, I showed the montage to two knowledgeable Sons, Gregg Hammond and Jack Roth. Both agreed that they were seeing some of these stills for the first time.

Tent Societies is a supposed to be a partial listing of Sons of the Desert Tents. 11 Tents are listed but only 6 Tents listed are currently active. They do instruct the viewer to use his or her internet server's search engine to find a tent in their area.

The Main Menu and lead-ins into the individual films are artistically accomplished except for the Menu background music being 10 times louder than the films soundtrack. The viewer quickly learns to lower the volume quickly during the end title or be blasted by music as the player returns you to the Main Menu.

Despite all the disappintments that I've pointed out, let me once again state how beautiful the four short subjects looked. The DVD lists for only $19.98 and comes highly recomended and seems to be a perfect gift for friends and family. I also encourage everyone who buys this DVD and agrees with my opinion - please mail your comments to Hallmark and Artisan so that we might enjoy future volumes without the problems of this current offering.

Description of Laurel & Hardy (Sons of the Desert/The Music Box/Another Fine Mess/Busy Bodies/County Hospital)

Most of the bonus material pays tribute to legendary comedy producer Hal Roach, who first partnered Stan & Ollie in 1926. A film-clip tribute includes interviews with comedy greats like Mel Brooks and Steve Allen, and on-screen articles explore Roach's career in greater detail. A "then and now" photo tour provides an historic tour of Roach Studio locations in Culver City, California, and text biographies are provided for Roach, Laurel, and Hardy. In addition to the films themselves (which never looked or sounded better), these extras make this Laurel & Hardy DVD a perfect choice for old and new fans alike. --Jeff Shannon