Doug, do you really think the Hallmark L & H DVD is that bad?
I don't think Doug is referring to the one-and-only Hallmark DVD.
He's referring to Hallmark's negative view and dismissal of Laurel and Hardy as an unprofitable commodity. Here's something you should read, a recent comment from a film historian who posts at an L&H website, which sums up what has been going on at Hallmark for several years...
Steve Beeks, the head of Artisan(Hallmark) home video (who now has a similar position with Lion's Gate, which acquired Artisan/Hallmark) is a Harvard MBA, a keen businessman, and an absolute horse's backside. I begged, pleaded, and cajoled him for years to do a major release with the L&H films. I told him that all the press attention lavished on the Chaplin reissues -- when the films were widely available in beautiful DVDs from Image -- would be matched by a Laurel & Hardy restored, remastered collection. I pointed out that 2002 was the 75th anniversary of the official teaming of Laurel & Hardy, and they could do limited theatrical reissues, a special on the Hallmark Channel (or a broadcast network), and a DVD release. I told them that Leonard Maltin and Billy Crystal would jump at the chance to lend themselves to the project. I advised him about the Sons of the Desert and how they could help.
His response? "Black and white films don't sell unless John Wayne is in them."
You saw the final result: a half-assed DVD release with edited, unrestored films from 20-year-old video masters, and no press whatsoever.
There's no exaggeration in the above. The "John Wayne" comment was also mouthed by Mr. Beeks in Sept. '03, at the Egyptian Theatre's 3-D Festival in LA. Beeks attended to "monitor" the screening of a B&W film owned by Hallmark. He was shocked, in an annoyed way, that people were actually paying to watch a b&w film in a theater. Beeks made that same "John Wayne" comment to a group that included Leonard Maltin. There was dead silence, and Beeks became upset when everyone walked away from him.
The worst...
About 1-1/2 years ago, Hallmark authorized the destruction of all original Hal Roach nitrate camera negatives in their library vaults... Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase, Todd & Pitts/Kelly, etc. Why? The protective storage of nitrate material was too expensive for their budgets, and besides, quote, "It's b&w garbage."
Thankfully, several film historians got wind of Hallmark's plans, and convinced Hallmark to send the nitrates to UCLA (at UCLA's cost). The nitrates are safely stored at UCLA (along with the OUR GANG nitrates that were fully restored in the early '90s, before Hallmark purchased the Roach library).
Hallmark's current, in-house, library of Hal Roach films are safety stock negatives. But they aren't restored. They are the safety stocks made in the mid '80s for TV packages. They look nice, but they are poor in comparison the original negatives at UCLA. AND, they are edited for TV, which primarily means the addition of music for modern audiences... these are the prints that were used for the DVD. Example, SONS OF THE DESERT's classic wax fruit scene on the DVD is overdubbed with a music track taken from another film... Stan's scene wasn't "modern enough" to be watched without music.
Hallmark released that one US DVD with one basic marketing plan... "We're tired of L&H people complaining about no Hallmark home video. Here's
one DVD, to shut you up. There will be no more." There were rumors of a 2nd disc, but Hallmark canceled those plans.
Due to complicated rights issues, distributors in Denmark and Germany received access to restored prints from European libraries (somehow, only peripherally controlled by Hallmark), and has done extremely well-received DVD sets of all the Hal Roach L&H's over the past couple years. But these distributors have had some financial issues...
So Hallmark screwball-concluded that the financial issues were caused by 'Laurel and Hardy.' Under that asinine conclusion, they decided to license Great Britain's DVD distribution rights to Universal... let Universal take the marketing risk, and Hallmark will collect a guaranteed licensing fee. As a result, England has a beautiful,
complete set of Hal Roach L&H films on DVD, including all existing Spanish-language versions of the '30 - '31 films. Sales successes.
Universal has expressed interest to distribute in the US too, but Hallmark said "no." Hallmark says it views Universal as a US competitor, and refuses to discuss the idea. Partly true... Hallmark is also pissed that it misjudged the Great Britain marketing plan, and won't do US business with Universal out of spite.
