Eureka Entertainment release Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years - 1929, a landmark collection bringing together nine short films, presented in high definition for the first time in the UK. Newly restored in 2K from the finest available materials, this Blu-ray edition is strictly limited to 2,000 copies...

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had firmly established their enduring partnership by the time the age of talking pictures loomed at the end of the 1920s. As they made their final silent shorts together in 1929, they continued to build upon the double act forged in earlier films such as You’re Darn Tootin’, Should Married Men Go Home? and We Faw Down – and prepared themselves for success in the sound era.

This collection brings together the silent Laurel & Hardy shorts produced in 1929, as the boys reached new levels of fame and success:

Liberty casts Stan and Ollie as fugitives on the run; in Wrong Again, the boys try to claim a reward by returning a lost horse to a bewildered millionaire seeking a stolen painting; That’s My Wife sees Ollie forced to choose between Stan and his spouse; in Big Business, the boys go door-to-door selling Christmas trees; in Unaccustomed As We Are, Ollie invites Stan over for dinner and attracts the ire of Mrs Hardy; Double Whoopee sees the boys take jobs at a fancy hotel; Berth Marks has them cause chaos on a sleeper train; in Bacon Grabbers, Stan and Ollie are bailiffs tasked with recovering a radio; and finally, in Angora Love, they try to conceal a goat that has become very, very attached to them.

All of the shorts include different scores to choose from, as well as optional audio commentaries.

Extras include:

The Hollywood Review of 1929 (Excerpt) (8 min, 14 sec segment of Laurel & Hardy's skit in the movie that featured musical numbers with many of the most prominent M&M stars of 1929); From Silent to Radio [which includes the radio episodes The Wedding Night (16 min, 18 sec); Mr Slater's Paltry Market (29 min, 14 sec); An Advert for National War Disabled Association (2 min, 17 sec)]; Dizzy Heights - Super 8 Presentation (6 min, 25 sec); Big Business - Super 8 Presentation (2 min, 57 sec).

On Disc 2 we get the following extras: Glorious Disaster (49 min, 16 sec); They Go Boom (Sound Short) (20 min, 30 sec); The Hoose-Gow (Sound Short) (20 min, 10 sec); Hop to it (1925) (19 min, 49 sec - with optional audio commentary); The Tree in a Test Tube (1942) (10 min, 37 sec - with optional audio commentary); Spanish Version of Berth Marks (Fragment) (11 min, 06 sec); Big Business - 3D Presentation (14 min, 43 sec which allows you to watch the film in 3D if you have red/blue 3D glasses); The Hoose-Gow Super 8 Presentation (11 min, 15 sec); Newsreel Footage (9 min, 57 sec); Stills Gallery (2 min, 16 sec).

For Laurel & Hardy fans, as well as those who have an interest in the history of Hollywood cinema, this collection is an essential purchase.

10

Darren Rea