Fans of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy will have a new opportunity to properly experience the comedy team’s formative years in the new Blu-ray release “Lauren & Hardy: Year One, The Newly Restored 1927 Silents.”
Very few of the negatives from Laurel & Hardy’s silent films survive, and the available elements range in quality from mediocre or unwatchable. Flicker Alley, Blackhawk Films and Lobster Films partnered in a three-year endeavor to gather all of the surviving prints of these films and give them the best digital restoration possible.
The two-disc collection features 13 extant films produced in 1927 when Laurel & Hardy began to appear together plus two additional films where they were paired prior to officially becoming a team. New music scores were created for the release, and the one still-lost film from this era –the comedy “Hats Off” – is recreated in a slide show presentation from surviving still photographs.
The new release will be available on July 25 for $49.95, and the title is now in a special pre-order sale on the Flicker Alley website with a $39.95 price.
Photo: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the 1927 “Duck Soup,” courtesy of Flicker Alley
