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Posted: |
Dec 11, 2014 - 5:39 AM
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By: |
Ray Faiola
(Member)
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No, there were other cuts to the Lippert reissue. They replaced the entire title section, removed the entire Mother Goose opening song and character intro (partly because they could not show book title Babes in Toyland) and removed the cave song sequence because it wound up with Tom Tom and Bo Peep sleeping next to each other on the cave floor, Tom Tom with his arm around Bo Peep. Censors nixed this for post-code era reissue.
Auerbach's LAUREL AND HARDY IN TOYLAND was complete except for the title section and the VERSE of the Mother Goose song (again - due to book title).
When WPIX first aired the picture after the purchase from Auerbach they ran LAUREL AND HARDY IN TOYLAND (early 1960's). But it was advertised as MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS. They later ran the Lippert reissue version as distributed by Prime TV inc. The Lippert End title (same artwork as main titles) was replaced by a plain concrete block style The End. Later, WPIX reclaimed distribution rights from Prime after Prime was discovered to have been sending out poor dupe prints to stations in the 1970's. When I contacted WPIX on behalf of CBS to see if they had complete print to license for video release, they said "no - only the edited reissue". I then tracked the picture down, ultimately to Eastman House where a nitrate fine grain had been deposited years earlier. This was negotiated for release by CBS/Fox (as a headliner to accompany the six L&H Fox features). At the last minute, WPIX demanded we pay for colorization. CBS said no and the deal went to Goldwyn/Goodtimes. But I managed to get a 16mm reduction neg of the first reel so that collectors could complete their 16mm prints. Even though the Federal Films / Lippert prints had the cave scene removed, that sequence along with the original NRA emblem storybook End Title, was on the Erko rental prints - issued before the Lippert edited reissue.
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Chickens Come Home
Helpmates
Any Old Port
The Chimp
Scram!
Me and My Pal
Oliver the Eighth
Them Thar Hills
Thicker than Water
All pure gold. Sorry it's not five. Couldn't get it any lower! Was bad enough leaving classics like Dirty Work, County Hospital, well the list goes on. Put Way Out West and Sons of the Desert there though and it's easily my Desert Island list.
We see these and many more at our Tent meetings every month and never tire of them, except in our faces with laughing. And all the above have been included in selections for my own annual charity evening at my local pub on the evening of the nearest Thursday to April Fool's Day.
“Do you mean to say that the money that he gave to me, that I gave to him, was the same money that I gave him to pay him?!”
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Chickens Come Home
Helpmates
Any Old Port
The Chimp
Scram!
Me and My Pal
Oliver the Eighth
Them Thar Hills
Thicker than Water
All pure gold. Sorry it's not five. Could get it any lower! Was bad enough leaving classics like Dirty Work, County Hospital, well the list goes on. Put Way Out West and Sons of the Desert there though and it's easily my Desert Island list.
We see these and many more at our Tent meetings every month and never tire of them, except in our faces with laughing. And all the above include selections from my own annual charity evening at my local pub on the evening of the nearest Thursday to April Fool's Day.
“Do you mean to say that the money that he gave to me, that I gave to him, was the same money that I gave him to pay him?!”
What? No THE MUSIC BOX? Sacrilege!!!!!!!!
"Pianos? I hate and detest pianos! They are mechanical blunderbusses!"
Yes I know It's great, and an Oscar winner. A friend and I always say on our way to our L&H evening that a showing of it must be due, and that we've seen it so many times now that we feel even more tired than Stan and Ollie after all those steps, lol.
"Walk around? What? I, Professor Theodore von Scwarzenhoffen MD, AD, DDS, FLD, FFF und F, walk around?"
Ray, does your Tent do the loyal toasts and the Sons song together? Our toasts always include the Boys and the regular performers, and then decend into nonsense like Ethel - 'The Chimp', and the flea circus!
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Can't name just 5. But if you haven't seen THEIR FIRST MISTAKE - you must!
"You know, I'm not as dumb as you look". Love Stan's phone call to Ollie where he tells him he's got two tickets to the Cement Worker's Bazaar and that if they go they might win a prize. "Their going to give away a steam shovel".
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Ollie: "Aw, she says I think more of you than I do of her."
Stan: "Well, you DO, don't you?"
Ollie: "Well we won't go into THAT!"
This is one of the moments I heard almost to death in the 70s, when United Artists released a LP record album of L&H songs and comedy moments, from which came a single release of Trail of the Lonesome Pine that in turn ended up in the pop charts, with appearances on our then weekly chart show Top of the Pops. So I know it off by heart. Wonderful stuff.
These days of course this exchange would raise a few eyebrows. Especially as they are both on a bed in this scene, something they often shared onscreen of course in these more innocent times. But given the short's story concerning two guys having a child, I have often wondered in my more adult years if there was some gently hinted unusually more adult agenda here. Certainly the dialogue that ensues after Ollie turns up with the kid is a send up of the kind of cliche that was used in soaps and 'kitchen sink' dramas when some kid got his girlfriend 'into trouble'.
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At our Tent meetings we tend to show silents at the start, which is great for minimising disturbance as folks still arriving during the first half hour. No complaints about not hearing dialogue because of late-comers!
My friend and I usually are two of those, because of distance and public transport, who get there towards the end of the silent. So recently I've been checking out my copies at home in the Dutch set.
I notice that there are a variety of soundtracks attached. Some have new recordings (by the Beau Hunks I think) of the Leroy Shield stuff. The odd one seems to be tracked with what sounds like original recordings from the period (That's My Wife), and then my least favourite – some that have organ music, like Big Business. The latter stuff sounds heavy handed to me and more than a little annoying. Personally I prefer the newly recorded ones which are much more agreeable. Does anyone know how and why the silents come to have such differing approaches to their modern presentation?
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