The Best Of Laurel & Hardy DVD 2008 / Laurel & Hardy Collection - Lucky Dog, Stan Laurel Home Movies - Tree in a test tube / Black & White Comedy Classic

UPC 5060144219480

REGION 0 PAL DVD (All regions)

MADE IN EU

AUDIO: Silent

Total Runtime: 48 minutes

English Summary:

Laurel and Hardy were a comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. The team was composed of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). They became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous bully Hardy. The duo's signature tune is known variously as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos". It was played over the opening credits of their films and has become as emblematic of the duo as their bowler hats.

Prior to emerging as a team, both actors had well-established film careers. Laurel had appeared in over 50 films as an actor (while also working as a writer and director), while Hardy had been in more than 250 productions. The two comedians had previously worked together as cast members on the film The Lucky Dog in 1921. However, they were not a comedy team at that time and it was not until 1926 that they appeared in a short film together, when both separately signed contracts with the Hal Roach film studio.Laurel and Hardy officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared together in the silent short film Putting Pants on Philip. They remained with the Roach studio until 1940 and then appeared in eight B movie comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1945. After finishing their film commitments at the end of 1944, they concentrated on performing in stage shows and embarked on a music hall tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland. They made their last film in 1950, a French-Italian co-production called Atoll K.

They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances, including the Galaxy of Stars promotional film of 1936. On December 1, 1954, the pair made their one American television appearance, when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home videos. In 2005, they were voted the seventh-greatest comedy act of all time by a UK poll of fellow comedians. The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as The Sons of the Desert, named after a fictitious fraternal society featured in the film of the same name.

Films on on DISC:

Lucky Dog

The Lucky Dog (1921) was the first film to include Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy who would become the famous comedy duo of Laurel and Hardy. Though they appear in scenes together they play independently of each other. The film was shot as two reels, but some versions end abruptly after the first reel where Stan is robbed by Ollie.

A hapless hero (Laurel), who after being thrown out onto the street for not paying his rent, is befriended by a stray dog. The dog and young man then (literally) bumps into a robber (Hardy) who is holding someone up. The bandit, who in the process has accidentally placed his victim’s money into the young man's back pocket, turns from his first victim, who runs off, to rob Stan. The robber then steals the money he had already stolen, from the bemused young man who had thought he was broke.

The young man and the dog escape and the dog makes friends with a poodle. The poodle’s lady owner (Florence Gilbert) persuades the young man to enter his dog into the local dog show. When his entry is refused, the young man sneaks in anyway, but is quickly thrown out, followed by all the dogs in the show. The young man spots the poodle’s owner outside looking for her dog and offers his dog in its place. She accepts and in turn offers him a lift to her home. This scene is witnessed by her jealous boyfriend, who happens to bump into the bandit and together the two plot their revenge on the young man.

Stan Laurel Home Movies

Tree in a Test Tube

The Tree in a Test Tube (1942) is a short film produced by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and distributed by the U.S. Forest Service, featuring Laurel and Hardy, with narration read by MGM announcer and producer Pete Smith. To Pete Smith's voice over commentary, Stan and Ollie-seemingly picked at random in the street, and professing not to have any wood in their possession at the time, produce various props - the contents of a suitcase and their wallets - all manufactured from wood, or containing wood byproducts. (At one point Ollie even indicates that Stan's head is made of wood, to Stan's annoyance.) The props demonstrate the omnipresence of wood products in the American economy, including paper, cellulose-based artificial leather, rayon, witch hazel, and bioplastics in consumer items (this was in the early days of mass-produced plastic, before petrochemical plastics became widespread).