All of the surviiving footage from "The Battle of The Century" was issued in the early 90's on VHS by The Nostalgia Archive, with a first rate musical soundtrack. It is out of print, but used and sometimes new copies frequently show up on amazon.com and ebay!
BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (1928) is on
DVD, from Hal Roach Studios/Image Entertainment, on "
The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy Vol 9." It's also out-of-print, but easily obtained from the regular cast of online sellers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, DVDPlanet, etc., plus used sellers like eBay.
"The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy" was a 10-volume set, released in individual volumes by Roach/Image in the late 1990s and early 2000s; one volume titled "Laurel & Hardy and Friends," plus nine volumes of "The Lost Films."
Michael Agee of Hal Roach Studios worked on the above-mentioned VHS/Nostalgia and DVD/Image home videos. Pending in production, is a multi-DVD set that will collect all of the previous DVDs, plus more. Mr. Agee reported on April 7...
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.comedy.laurel-hardy/msg/8979608dbd7a4028I am preparing a boxed set which will feature all of the pre-1929 shorts plus many, many more -- the "bonus material" accounts for at least 150% of the running time of the 10 previously-issued DVDs.
It was originally to fill 23 DVDs but I felt it would have to be sold too dearly, so I am planning
to release same on one-dozen double layered (in some cases double sided) discs. And I will release every short extant with either of the Boys, with Charley (yes -- it is NOT spelled "Charlie" except in Film Classics), or other solos. And, just so you will know I read and take to heart your musings in various fora, the presentation will be strictly chronological, from LUCKY DOG forward.
The other 150% of stuff is brand new. Six or eight Hal Roach Stureamliners. Charley Chase. Mabel Normand. Uncut version of THE DENTIST (because I have it and someone should release the damned thing as Field's planned it should be without all the edits). This is the original
Paramount release are in there. Over a dozen OUR GANG silents and a few talkies. Almost 18 Edgar Kennedy/Leon Errol shorts from R-K-O, made by that entire Boy Friends company that S. S. Van Keuren laid off. A Roach 1941 feature. Over a dozen original Silent OUR GANG comedies. Several episodes of the HRS show THE TROUBLE WITH FATHER from the early 1950's (we
only have 135 episodes in our library--why doesn't someone run these on TV??). The amazing US Army Signal Corps short about how they made movies for the Army -- all filmed inside HRS. You can explore all of the departments at the studio and see how things worked. Amazing film.
Raising the colors on the porch will still could be seen the name "Hal Roach Studios". Of course, there's a VERY special documentary closing the program for which you will die. A book included will show scores of full color posters, and biographical info will be included.
This is a huge undertaking and I hope you can support it. LAUREL AND HARDY: THE DEFINITIVE EDITION is the working title, and I am (foolishly?) hoping for Christmas. Incidently, we are applying some very expensive technology to the masters once finished (oh yes--all the missing stuff is being replaced, and I just found the original European camera negative of SLIPPING WIVES, our one remaining poor-grade title which is currently being transferred to hi def. So this should be well worth the wait and the purchase. Region "0" as is all of our stuff (except when some lab genius screws up "out of habit").
This could take a year but I hope folks continue to support the current ten DVD's. They will become collector's editions after this new group of discs is released and they have several things that won't make the cut to the new collection.
We have completely redone FLYING DEUCES from our 35mm British nitrate print, completely cleaned it up, and it is a knockout. Even UTOPIA and TREE IN A TEST TUBE (which I cannot stand to watch due to the age of The Boys but the two films are necessary to the "Complete" anything...) have been cleaned up and look much better than they deserve!
Best,
Michael Agee
(halroachstudios@aol.com)
Agee's mention of "Christmas" [2005] seems optimistic since there has been nothing new reported over the past few months. But voices in the
Sons of the Desert have mentioned that it should be sometime in 2006, maybe in time for the 2006 Convention in Augusta GA.
