Laurel & Hardy II (Way Out West / Block-Heads / Chickens Come Home) [DVD]

Just hearing the names, Laurel and Hardy makes me smile! On this DVD we get a glimpse of just why these two men were so beloved.....nothing was ever intentionally malicious about their comedy and you knew their characters would give their lives for each other."Way Out West" has a simple storyline of Laurel And Hardy trying to deliver a deed to a gold mine to a young woman who is being treated like a slave in a Western Saloon and Hotel. Of course it get's in the wrong hands and the boys attempts to get it back are laugh out loud hilarious! While much of this is broad slapstick, there are some more subtle moments between the boys that are equally as funny!In "Block- Heads" Laurel is still guarding the same post twenty years after World War I is over....when he is finally rescued and reunited with his pal, Hardy, his adjustment to the modern world is slow, as to be expected, and what follows is one crazy situation after another....it's difficult to explain, as this is really one comedy routine after another. I remember seeing this as a youngster on TV when they were edited into 10 to 15 minute segments. But they're still funny as all get out!There's a short included called, "Chicken Come Home" which isn't quite as funny as the previous two, but still enjoyable.The sound and picture quality are not as good as they should be, but the going price on other better quality DVD's is downright criminal!

Volume II of the new Laurel & Hardy brings us more vintage films of the boys. Curiously, the packaging is more slight the second time around; the figures on the cover look less like Stan & Ollie and more like impersonators. And the menu graphics are OK but not as elaborate as Part I. But this is a minor quibble; it's the content that counts. Two of L&H's best comedies are featured, along with a short. "Way Out West" is probably my favorite L&H feature film, and for good reason: It's pure 100% L&H from start to finish, with no cumbersome romantic subplots or inflated musical numbers. In fact, what music featured is performed by the boys themselves, demonstrating their rich, pleasing harmonies on "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (Hardy was a singer in his younger days). The boys even perform an amusing soft-shoe number on the dusty streets, and it feels as if they improvised it on the spot. It's one of those magical moments in which L&H can make these numbers seem perfectly natural & utterly charming. L&H portray Easterners travelling out West (They barely get into town & are already in trouble with the law!) to deliver a gold mine deed to a young lady whose unscrupulous guardian/saloon owner (frequent L&H stock player James Finlayson, the man who exclaimed "DOH!" long before Homer Simpson) & gal pal catch wind (actually, Stan dumbly spills the beans) & steal the deed. The remainder of the film has Stan & Ollie trying to set things right & retrieve the deed, in their usually hilarious/disastrous fashion. It's a breezy comedy that's filled with wonderfully broad sight gags (Stan lighting his thumb; Stan trying to pull Ollie's head out of the floor; Ollie plunging not once but twice into the same bottomless sinkhole in the gulch)."Block-Heads" begins as a WWI tale as Ollie goes over the top of the trench with his unit & Stan is left to guard; except, it's twenty years later, and Stan's still there (the deep groove in the ground & pile of empty bean cans a testament to his time there)! Finally rescued & brought back to civilization, Hardy goes to the Veterans Home & finds Stan in a wheelchair, with a leg missing (this is a gag that could've been distasteful but is actually amusing in L&H's hands because of the outcome). Hardy brings Laurel home to meet the Mrs. & soon realizes Stan is more trouble than he's worth as the car, the kitchen, and then the marriage are systematically destroyed."Chickens Come Home" has politician Hardy's standing threatened by a meddlesome woman (Mae Busch) as the boys fumble to keep her concealed from Hardy's wife as well as the media.Another satisfying helping of Laurel & Hardy!

L&H seem to be more known for their shorts than their features, but this disc contains two of their most famous and most popular features, 'Way Out West' (1937) and 'Blockheads' (1938). 'Way Out West' has them delivering a gold mine deed to a young woman they've never met, and their hilarious efforts to get the deed back after they discover they were tricked into giving it to the wrong woman. This film contains many great gags and scenes, such as hiding in the piano, accidentally hoisting their donkey onto an upper-level veranda, and the little dance the boys break into before entering the saloon. 'Blockheads' doesn't have much of a plot, but it's so fun it doesn't really matter. Stan has been in the trenches for 20 years, never having been told WWI was over, and Ollie discovers this and goes to bring him back. Most of the movie involves what happens on their way up to the apartment Ollie and his wife share; the final third or so is a remake of their first talkie, 'Unaccustomed As We Are.' There's also a bonus short, 'Chickens Come Home' (1931). This had never been one of my favorite shorts of theirs (though that doesn't mean it's one of my least-favorites either), but when I watched it again I came to find it was more funny than I had long given it credit for. I suppose absence was making the heart grow fonder, given that I hadn't seen it in like 8 years (given how AMC no longer shows the boys and how hard it is to find their sound films anywhere else). This short is also practically a word-by-word and gag-by-gag remake of their 1927 pre-teaming silent 'Love 'Em and Weep,' only in the remake Ollie and not Jimmy Finlayson is the one getting blackmailed by a gold-digger from his past. By this time, Jimmy was no longer a starring comedian in his own right and had been reduced to a supporting character actor, albeit one of the best character actors in the business. All in all, a really nice selection.However, the prints are the real problem with this package. Granted, they're a step up from the terrible ones on the first Hallmark volume, but that doesn't mean they're flaw-free and perfect either. They're nowhere near what I would consider unwatchable, but it's obvious they weren't assembled with a lot of care or thought. Hallmark could have put out better prints if they wanted; they can't honestly claim these were the best source materials available. Most fans are aware that there are much better-looking releases of their films available in other markets, so it's not as though these were the best prints available and there could only be so much digital remastering done given their age. The sound quality isn't always the greatest either. Although we should be thankful these prints aren't any worse; the print of 'Way Out West' TCM has been showing is an old colorised copy from the Eighties, only with the color turned off. It looks horrible, and makes this one look nearly flawless by comparison.Hallmark has demonstrated that they don't even care about L&H's legacy (they were even going to throw all of their films away after they acquired them but thankfully were prevailed upon not to), and it doesn't look like they're planning to release any more of these discs anytime soon. Shortly after buying this disc I bought the 21-disc set available on amazon.co.uk and got a region-free DVD player, something I would recommend to all fans who haven't done so already. It may cost a little extra, but for now it's the only way to properly enjoy the boys.

"Zwei ritten nach Texas" war der erste Langfilm des Duos Laurel & Hardy, den ich vor vielen Jahren mit vielen Lachtränen und schmerzendem Zwerchfell im Kino erlebt habe - unvergesslich!

Those three movies are really good Laurel and Hardy and the quality of images are ok. Of course it is not a high tech quality for collectors but it is absolutely correct. I think that Way Out West and Block-Heads are two very good introductions to Laurel and Hardy's productions. It's a good way to discover these two legends.

My favorite comedy duo of all time !