New Arrival Laurel & Hardy: Year Three

2-DISC BLU-RAY EDITION

Following the acclaimedLaurel & Hardy: Year OneandLaurel & Hardy: Year Twocollections, Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films are proud to announce the culmination of the duo’s silent years.Laurel & Hardy: Year Threebrings to Blu-ray disc nine of L&H’s most beloved classic shorts, newly restored and joined by a host of rare archival material that also includes several of their earliest sound films.

Unparalleled in their ability to adapt to the changing cinematic landscape, Laurel and Hardys upwards trajectory was only bolstered by the arrival of sound. Their first sound short, appropriately titledUnaccustomed As We Are, begins to incorporate sync sound gags and was so well received by audiences that the duo would go on to win the Academy Award forThe Music Boxjust a few years later, an impressively rare feat for the time.

Restored shorts on theLaurel & Hardy: Year Threeset include:

Liberty
Wrong Again
That’s My Wife
Big Business
Unaccustomed as We Are (Silent Version)
Double Whoopee
Berth Marks (Silent Version)
Bacon Grabbers
Angora Love (Silent Version)

The 1929 shorts include many of Laurel and Hardys best known films and, thanks to painstaking restoration efforts by Blackhawk Films, each short offers pristine picture and audio, backed by fascinating and contextual bonus features, including audio commentaries, alternate edits, and rare archival footage. Whats more, the set includes both silent and sound versions ofUnaccustomed as We Areand two bonus full sound shorts from 1929,They Go Boom!andThe Hoose-Gow

Each film features newly recorded scores from some of the best silent film composers working today, including Neil Brand, Andreas Benz, Robert Israel, and Maud Nelissen, three of the scores featuring a 5.1 audio mix. The release is curated by film historians and Laurel and Hardy specialists; Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, Serge Bromberg, and Eric Lange.

A fascinating historical glimpse into a rapidly evolving cinematic landscape,Laurel & Hardy: Year Threedelivers timelessly hilarious gags, as undeniably funny today as they were nearly a hundred years ago. Give the goat a donut, shake the crustaceans out of your pants, and put the horse on the piano: the final silent masterpieces from Laurel and Hardy are here to complete your collection.

BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:

• Audio Commentary Tracks –For each film by historians and authors Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
• Additional Musical Scores Alternate audio options, including fully restored original 1929 Vitaphone tracks onLiberty,Wrong Again,Thats My Wife,Bacon Grabbers, andAngora Love
• Laurel & Hardy On-Location in Year Three A video essay by historian John Bengtson on selected location exteriors
• They Go Boom!(1929),The Hoose-Gow(1929), andUnaccustomed as We Are(1929) Three bonus full sound shorts from late 1929, proof positive of Laurel & Hardys adaptability to the innovations of the talkies
• The Hollywood Revue of 1929(Excerpt)– Laurel & Hardy deliver a magic act in this segment from MGMs theatrically released variety musical
• Spanish Version ofBerth Marks(1929) (Fragment)– An example of how foreign language editions were prepared and released and a testament to Stan and Ollies international appeal
• Dubbed Version ofDouble Whoopee(1929) –A rare presentation ofDouble Whoopeedubbed decades later in 1970 by Chuck McCann, included with an introduction from McCanns presentation at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in 2013
• MGM Convention 1930 Announcement– Virtually unseen, Laurel and Hardy deliver a special message for MGMs annual sales convention
• Film Specific Image Galleries Containing original publicity materials, press reviews, and rare production stills
• Souvenir Booklet Containing new introductions by Leonard Maltin and Serge Bromberg, film notes by Richard W. Bann and Randy Skredvedt, and restoration text by Serge Bromberg
• English SDH Subtitles
• Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
• All Region Encoding (A,B,C)