Soitenly
Moronika
The community forum of ThreeStooges.net

DANCING LADY restored

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline BeAStooge

  • Birdbrain
  • Master Stooge
  • Bunionhead
  • ******
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/robertharris/harris102504b.html

An interview with George Feltenstein, WB's Senior VP of Home Video, was posted today on The Digital Bits website (link above).  In the interview, he mentions that Warner Brothers recently found the original camera negative to DANCING LADY (1933) and restored it.  The camera negative was assumed destroyed in a storage fire in the late 1970s, but has simply been a victim of misfiling for the past 25 or so years.

DANCING LADY is one of Ted Healy and His Stooges' feature film appearances, and includes a funny, extended scene between the Stooges and Joan Crawford.  It was mentioned earlier this year to be part of a DVD collectors set for 2005 or 2006, rumored for a Joan Crawford Collection.  Feltenstein's comment implies this is likely.

This scene was intact thru the 1970s in TV syndication prints, sourced from the negative thought destroyed in the fire.  But, all home video releases of DANCING LADY, plus the print shown since the 1980s on TBS, TNT and TCM, have not been complete... missing a short scene featuring Larry (named 'Harry' in the movie) and Ted Healy.  Setting it up, Larry is shown working on a jigsaw puzzle in several earlier scenes.  About two-thirds into the movie:

Quote
Ted:  Harry!  Harry, give me a pickup here.
Larry:  Five weeks I been working on a puzzle, and now I can't find the last piece!
Ted:  Here it is.
Larry:  Thank you.  (Humming as he completes the puzzle. Then...)  Oy!!!  Oy!!!
Ted:  What's'a'matter?!
Larry:  It's Hitler!!!  (overturns table)  It's Hitler!!!
Ted:  Whad'ya expect?  Santie Claus?!

The prints shown since the early 1980s did not include this scene because Turner and WB were using the only 35mm master in their library... a 1930s-edited print that (probably) lost the scene for conservative markets and isolationist sentiments in the Depression-era US.  Hitler wasn't an acceptable movie topic of discussion until the late 1930s, especially in the major studios' products, a situation Don Morlan has discussed in his studies on the production of YOU NAZTY SPY!

The rediscovered DANCING LADY negative probably contains the missing scene, and hopefully we can see it again on DVD sometime in 2005 or 2006.  I've sent Mr. Feltenstein an inquiry on this, and hopefully he can confirm the scene's restoration.  If I get a response, I'll pass it along.

And who knows, maybe there's still a slim hope that negatives or prints of HELLO POP, JAILBIRDS OF PARADISE and STOP SADIE STOP will turn up in the future.


Offline Dunrobin

  • (Rob)
  • Administrator
  • Spongehead
  • ******
  • Webmaster
    • The Three Stooges Online Filmography
That's coll to hear, Brent.  I've always liked DANCING LADY, and I've heard of that issing scene with Larry and Healy but I've never seen it.  I'll be looking forward to its release.   :D


Pilsner Panther

  • Guest
It's quite possible that those other missing films will be found; you never know what might be hiding in attics and basements and warehouses. For example, last year Image/Milestone Video released the Fatty Arbuckle-Buster Keaton two-reeler "The Cook," which had been considered lost for decades. It's truly a great discovery, since the acrobatic slapstick antics of Fatty, Buster, and Al St. John are jaw-dropping and hilarious at the same time. Luke the dog is a remarkable "actor," too.

Two partial prints were found, one in Norway and one in Holland, and from those, a team of film historians and technicians was able to put together a virtually complete print— from what I can tell just by watching it, it looks like it's only missing some brief parts from a couple of scenes. Not only that, but the visual quality of most of the film is surprisingly clear.

I'd like to see not only the "Lost Stooges," but the missing half-reel of Laurel & Hardy's "Battle of the Century" (directed by Clyde Bruckman). The current video release fills in the gaps with stills and the typed script, which is the best that could be done, and at least the monumental pie fight at the end is intact. The first-reel boxing sequence is a definite influence on "Punch Drunks," although "Canvasback Clump" Stanley has no magical "Pop Goes The Weasel" (or anything else) to save him from the heavyweight champ.

Another amazing find from that period, in sound recordings, is one of the earliest experiments with recording music in stereo— from 1932— and who'd have ever thought that stereo went as far back as 1932? But it does.

In the early 30's, RCA Victor was experimenting with a longer-playing, microgroove record to replace their 10" and 12" 78's. This was especially important for making classical records— since at the time, if you wanted a recording of a long work like a symphony or an opera or a piano concerto, what you bought was literally an "album" (like a large photo album) that contained as many as half a dozen 12" 78's, as heavy and thick as china dinner plates (and just as fragile).

After every four minutes or so, the listener had to get up and change the record, sometimes in the middle of a movement. So, Victor's engineers came up with an early EP (about seven minutes per side), but technical problems with disc-pressing materials along with the economic climate of the Depression led to these records never being mass-marketed.

Anyway, back in the 1980's, two record collectors noticed that their copies of two experimental 10" Victor EP's by the Duke Ellington Orchestra sounded slightly different; like for example, on one, the drum part was loud and the trumpet part was soft, and the other copy was just the reverse. On a hunch, they recorded them side-by-side on two-track audio tape, and presto! Real stereo, from 1932! These two recordings were remastered and issued on a CD, which is now (unfortunately) out of print.

I've rambled on here for a bit, but I think that's an amazing story, and there's a future Pilsner's Picks segment that I hadn't thought of before, since I do happen to have the CD.

So, you never do know what kind of rare old material will turn up, or where it might come from!     

« Last Edit: November 13, 2004, 06:02:09 AM by Pilsner Panther »


Offline Dunrobin

  • (Rob)
  • Administrator
  • Spongehead
  • ******
  • Webmaster
    • The Three Stooges Online Filmography
It's quite possible that those other missing films will be found; you never know what might be hiding in attics and basements and warehouses. For example, last year Image/Milestone Video released the Fatty Arbuckle-Buster Keaton two-reeler "The Cook," which had been considered lost for decades. It's truly a great discovery, since the acrobatic slapstick antics of Fatty, Buster, and Al St. John are jaw-dropping and hilarious at the same time. Luke the dog is a remarkable "actor," too.

Two partial prints were found, one in Norway and one in Holland, and from those, a team of film historians and technicians was able to put together a virtually complete print— from what I can tell just by watching it, it looks like it's only missing some brief parts from a couple of scenes. Not only that, but the visual quality of most of the film is surprisingly clear.

That's cool, Pils - I hadn't heard about "The Cook" before.  I checked on Amazon.com, and sure enough it's available on DVD.  (Maybe I'll put it on my Christmas wish list!)   ;D


Pilsner Panther

  • Guest
You should definitely add this one to your collection, Rob. "The Cook" is the kind of comedy film that you don't really "get" until you've watched it several times, because there are a lot of subtle, absurdist touches in the middle of all the frantic slapstick. One of which is how Chef Fatty gets every kind of food and drink he needs out of one giant stewpot on his stove, including ice cream!

These guys influenced practically every film comedian and comedy team or group who came after them, for the next several decades; I think most Stooges fans will remember the scene in "Gents In A Jam" where strongman Rocky Duggan picks Shemp up off the floor by his neck and gives him a good hard shaking— Fatty and Buster do basically the same routine here, many years earlier.

Even the classic animated cartoons (especially Warner Brothers and Max Fleischer's) owe a stylistic debt to Fatty, Buster, and company. Incredible stuff, that's all I can say.

The Harold Lloyd short "Number Please" makes a fine addition to the set, too. Learn why you should never tie your dog's leash to a pole on a merry-go-round, and other valuable lessons in life...

 :o

« Last Edit: November 14, 2004, 11:14:32 PM by Pilsner Panther »