Topic: Rascals and A&C Box Sets

[stooged and confused]

I received my Little Rascals box set a few days ago and watched a few of my favorite episodes before starting at the begining. While the picture looks cleaner than the Cabin Fever releases, there are still lines and light debis, but the white dust/splotches seem to be gone. There is some twitch like imagry when they tried to compress the prints it seems. The sound track still has quite a bit of hiss. What I've seen isn't bad, but it's nowhere near as pristine as the Stooges Collection remastering. I was let down by the bonus extra disc. Aside from a few comments by Dick Moore, the commentaries were rather dull and I learned nothing new. The Jean Darling commentaries are like nails on a chalkboard!

Anyone seen the A&C set? I will wait until the price drops further before getting it. I felt the Franchise prints looked good enough and my player had no issues with them skipping. Were the prints cleaned up noticeably from the previous sets? While I like A&C, most of their films don't hold up well. With the exception of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, it's the routines that I watch for. But you have to sit through too much romantic sub plotting and silly chase scenes to get the classic skits. Actually, one of my favorite Bud and Lou films is "The Noose Hangs High." Sans the opening scenes with the bad tooth bits, it plays like an A&C greatest skits. And that film is not on the set because Universal did not release it.

[xraffle]

Anyone seen the A&C set? I will wait until the price drops further before getting it. I felt the Franchise prints looked good enough and my player had no issues with them skipping. Were the prints cleaned up noticeably from the previous sets? While I like A&C, most of their films don't hold up well. With the exception of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, it's the routines that I watch for. But you have to sit through too much romantic sub plotting and silly chase scenes to get the classic skits. Actually, one of my favorite Bud and Lou films is "The Noose Hangs High." Sans the opening scenes with the bad tooth bits, it plays like an A&C greatest skits. And that film is not on the set because Universal did not release it.

"The Noose Hangs High" is available separately. I never bought it though because I'm patiently waiting for a box set of all their MGM films (which includes "Rio Rita"). And I bought all four volumes of the Franchise sets and I never experienced any skipping/freezing either. I wonder if people experience these problems because they don't handle their discs with care. Since these discs are double-sided, they can be damaged a lot easier.

[BeAStooge]

"The Noose Hangs High" is available separately. I never bought it though because I'm patiently waiting for a box set of all their MGM films (which includes "Rio Rita").

NOOSE will not be in a box set... different studios...

 - THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH (1948), produced independently at Eagle-Lion Studios and released thru UA, and DANCE WITH ME HENRY (1956), United Artists, are owned by MGM/UA.

 - The three MGM films, RIO RITA (1942), LOST IN A HAREM (1944) and A&C IN HOLLYWOOD (1945), are owned by Warner Brothers.  Warner also has A&C MEET CAPTAIN KIDD (1952) and JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (1952), both WB films, the former co-produced in partnership with Bud Abbott, and the latter with Lou Costello.

[BeAStooge]

An important note about the "Rascals" set...

In spite of RHI having all 80 of the Cabin Fever restorations from the early '90s... 13 of the video masters provided to Genius Entertainment were older ones sourced from Blackhawk 16mm prints.  The Blackhawk print versions look very nice, they are complete... but Blackhawk title sequences appear in place of the original Hal Roach titles.

This discussion has been going on for several days over at the Home Theater Forum.  Why RHI did this (probably a library error), and why Genius didn't have sufficient quality control in place to catch it... neither party has provided an answer to date.

[2reelers]

I've also read that in the A & C Boxset, Universal uses the Realart Re-Release titles for ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.

[xraffle]

NOOSE will not be in a box set... different studios...

 - THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH (1948), produced independently at Eagle-Lion Studios and released thru UA, and DANCE WITH ME HENRY (1956), United Artists, are owned by MGM/UA.

 - The three MGM films, RIO RITA (1942), LOST IN A HAREM (1944) and A&C IN HOLLYWOOD (1945), are owned by Warner Brothers.  Warner also has A&C MEET CAPTAIN KIDD (1952) and JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (1952), both WB films, the former co-produced in partnership with Bud Abbott, and the latter with Lou Costello.

Oh wow! I didn't know. Thanks for letting me know. I guess we have no choice but to buy Noose and Henry separately, since you can't buy them together. I haven't seen "Dance With Me Henry" though, but I heard it was a bad film.

So, I guess the only WB films that need to be released are Captain Kidd and Rio Rita. I'm dying to see "Rio Rita." I heard that was a good one.

[stooged and confused]

I bought "Noose" years ago and it's always been one of my favorite A&C movies mainly for the reasons I stated earlier....it doesn't have a gooey romantic sub plot or musical numbers to weigh it down..it's got the mustard/mudder-fodder/you're not here/phone booth routines..it's loaded with great banter like that. The only weak areas are the beginning with the tired toothache premise and the female lead was a weak actress.

I haven't seen "Rio Rita" for quite sometime, X, but the last time I saw it, I didn't think it was as good as when I saw it previously as a teenager (and that was a looong time ago). I recall some funny bits, but overall, eh.

As for the Universal films, with the exception of "Hold That Ghost", "Frankenstein", "Invisible Man", "Little Giant" and "The Time Of Their Lives"--most of them just don't work for me anymore. Some have a few good bits, but overall, they just don't hold up like the Stooges do.

[falsealarms]

review      http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/35178/little-rascals-the-complete-collection-the/

discussion        http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/536571-little-rascals-complete-collection-10-28-a-2.html#post9029200

[luke795]

What a major company own the dvd rights to Africa Screams?

[stooged and confused]

After further viewing, I am seriously considering returning the Rascals set. I had thought that only the title cards of some of the shorts were the Blackhawk dubs, when in fact, it's the entire film!! That is not acceptable and they should not be billing the set as remastered and restored. I think I'll keep the laser discs and send this back--I'm more than disappointed. Why can't the Hal Roach films be properly remastered?

I'm becoming increasingly tired of getting burned by inferior product. Unless they recall the discs and replace them with the proper restored versions, I say adios to this half assed presentation.

[Hammond Eggar]

All this talk about the shoddy treatment of the Our Gang/Little Rascals films, makes me feel even better about the way Sony has been handling the Stooges' films.  Sony finally got it right, by releasing such great quality prints and doing so in chronological order.  My hats off to them.  Now, if only the other comedy legends from Hollywood's golden era could receive the same treatment.  A&C, L&H, W.C. Fields and all the others deserve the best.  Why can't these other companies follow Sony's lead and release proper product!?!  That said, I have enjoyed the Marx Brothers boxes.  I have the first one, which includes The Coconuts, Duck Soup, Horse Feathers, Animal Crackers and Monkey Business.  So far, so good.  Now it's time for the other comedy greats to receive the same treatment.  Get to it, Hollywood!!!