Review of Laurel & Hardy: No. 11 Saps At Sea And Music Shorts

Introduction

"Saps At Sea" is the eleventh disc in the 21-disc "Laurel and Hardy Collection" released by Universal. This time the disc includes the hour-long feature "Saps At Sea" (1940) which proved the Boys` last outing for Hal Roach, and the end of the "Golden Age" of the Boys` output. They would make another ten films over the last ten years` of their movie career, mostly for Fox (and which aren`t included in this collection). "Saps At Sea" sees Ollie suffering from hornophobia, which is awkward as he and Stan work as testers at a horn factory. He decides to take a sea-voyage to recover, but unfortunately a wanted criminal has decided to shanghai the boys in his getaway.

The Boys are down-on-their-luck buskers who find a wallet in the street in "Below Zero". This short is also included in its expanded Spanish Language version "Tiembla Y Titubea".

Finally on the disc is the silent short "You`re Darn Tootin`" where the Boys are musicians again. After a catastrophic bandstand performance, the Boys are booted out of their lodgings and take to the streets to busk. An argument between them sees their instruments destroyed and dozens of bystanders involved in a shin-kicking, trouser-ripping battle.

Video

The most recent film on this disc is sixty-four, and the oldest seventy-seven. That means they aren`t widescreen, they aren`t colour (unless they`ve been colourised), and they aren`t in impeccable condition. They are in 1.33:1 black-and-white and showing their age. KirschMedia, the Eastern Hemisphere copyright holders have done the best possible restoration job the material could hope for. A straight comparison with the unrestored but colourised versions included on the disc will show the improvement in the movies, and for that the now defunct KirschMedia should be applauded.

Audio

What goes for the picture goes doubly for the sound. The restoration work has reduced the amount of noise in the audio signal without affecting the restricted frequency range of the old Western Electric sound recording system. The silent shorts have had authentic accompaniment soundtracks added.

Features

The sound (English Language) titles on the disc ("Saps at Sea" and "Below Zero") are fully subtitled and also available in their unrestored and colourised versions - up to recently the only available versions of these movies. Each disc in the collection also comes with an eight-page illustrated booklet introducing the contents. Very nicely designed, these booklets add up to a pleasing information source on the Boys` work.

Conclusion

Everybody knows the Boys` "Cuckoo Song" signature tune. At school, it used to follow my skinny pal Harry and I wherever we went. Very bl**dy original (every dozy sod that did it thought they were the first), but unfortunately for them, I took it as a compliment. The Boys (aficionadoes seldom call them "Stan and Ollie", and Mr Hardy is usually referred to by his offstage nickname "Babe") were the finest comedians of the silent/sound era, making the transition from silent movies to the "talkies" seamlessly unlike Chaplin, Keaton or many of their contemporaries.

This collection of 20 discs (21 if you buy the full collection) contains virtually every title they made during their partnership under Hal Roach`s producership. Every silent movie - fully restored and with an authentic accompaniment track; every sound short - fully restored, fully subtitled and with an unrestored and colourised version for comparison; and almost every sound feature again fully subtitled and restored and with an unrestored and colourised version for comparison. For a number of movies, there are foreign language versions; not simple language dubs, but the movies reshot with the Boys reciting their lines in Spanish or French (parrot fashion). In the case of "Tiembla Y Titubea" on this disc, there is more storyline, some gags are staged differently and most of the supporting cast is different.

There is a handful of omissions from their latter output (most are available from other sources), and the lacklustre titles they did with 20th Century Fox at the end of their career aren`t included.