Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years (1929)

Eureka are releasing a limited edition (of 2000) two disc set of the silent short films beloved comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made during 1929, complete with a bunch of extras, collector’s booklet with new writing on each film by comedian Paul Merton and an O-card slipcase. The films are 1080p presentations from 2K restorations by Blackhawk films and here’s what’s on there:

Disc One

We get six short films, all running around 20 minutes and starting with LIBERTY, in which the boys escape from prison and end up wearing each others’ trousers. Much trousers down in public hilarity ensues as they try to rectify the situation, culminating in a climax at the top of a building undergoing construction. There’s the option of the original Vitaphone soundtrack (suggested if you’re watching these for the first time) but there are two others, as well as a commentary track by L&H experts Chris Seguin and Kyp Harness. In WRONG AGAIN the Blue Boy is stolen and Stan & Ollie think they’ve found it and plan to return it for a reward. Unfortunately it’s the painting ‘The Blue Boy’ that has been stolen whereas they think it’s a racehorse that they then take round to the owner’s house, with shenanigans ensuing. This one comes with an alternate score by Neil Brand and a commentary by David Kalat.

THAT’S MY WIFE sees Ollie’s wife leave him and Stan has to dress up in her place to convince a rich uncle to leave Ollie his money, with the highlight being their unsuspecting appearance on stage at a downtown nightclub. There are score tracks by Andreas Benz and Neil Brand and a commentary by Glenn Mitchell. BIG BUSINESS sees the boys trying to sell Christmas trees and ends with wanton acts of destruction. Scores by Robert Israel, Maud Nelissen and Gaylord Carter with commentary by Neil Brand.

In DOUBLE WHOOPEE Stan and Ollie are mistaken for a hotel’s visiting prince and his prime minister before things are cleared up and they cause havoc as a doorman and footman. This one features an appearance by Jean Harlow. Music from Robert Israel, commentary by David Kalat. Harlow also pops up at the very end of BACON GRABBERS, where Stan and Ollie are in the repossession business and are trying to get back a radio. Music by Neil Brand, commentary by Glenn Mitchell.

Extras on disc one include eight minutes of the Hollywood Revue of 1929, Super 8 versions of BIG BUSINESS and DIZZY HEIGHTS (an alternate version of LIBERTY), and three audio recordings: The Wedding Night (16 minutes), Mr Slater’s Poultry Market (29 minutes) and an ad for the National war Disabled Association (2 minutes)

Disc Two

Three short films on here (not including extras). In ANGORA LOVE the duo get into some trouble with a goat. UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE sees Ollie, unbeknownst to his wife, inviting Stan home for dinner and getting into a lot of dress falling off ‘Oh no my husband’s home & he’ll kill you’ fun with Thelma Todd, while BERTH MATES sees them on a train with a double bass. Music is from Robert Israel and Andreas Benz with commentary from Neil Brand, David Kalat and Chris Seguin and Patrick Vasey.

The big extra is a 49 minute visual essay from David Cairns and Fiona Watson that charts Laurel & Hardy’s career from them meeting right up to the end of their silent movies. We also get a couple of sound shorts: THEY GO BOOM! in which Ollie has a cold and Stan tries to help and THE HOOSE-GOW in which the boys get into trouble with the law and end up on a chain gang. HOP TO IT is a silent movie that features Ollie alone and is a kind of forerunner to DOUBLE WHOOPEE. 

There’s also a Spanish fragment of BERTH MATES, the super 8 version of THE HOOSE-GOW, newsreel footage of the boys from 1947-1953, the public information film TREE IN A TEST TUBE which features the boys in colour, and an attempted 3D rendering of BIG BUSINESS for which you’ll need anaglyph glasses (it’s not clear if they come in the set). 

LAUREL & HARDY: THE SILENT YEARS is out from Eureka on a two disc set on Monday 20th July 2026

Pandora's Box (1929)

Eureka are releasing an excellent restoration of G W Pabst's 1929 silent melodrama on Blu-ray, using materials sourced from three different prints and with some decent extras, as part of their Masters of Cinema series.

Lulu (Louise Brooks) is young, carefree, ambitious and a prostitute. Through a series of liaisons both past and present she becomes a showgirl and contrives to hang onto one of her lovers, newspaper editor Dr Ludwig Schon (Fritz Kortner) after he tells her he has plans to marry. She manages to disgrace him before his future bride and ends up marrying him herself.

Unfortunately for her, and because of her, the wedding night is a disaster and her new husband is killed. Lulu stands trial but escapes with Dr Schon's son Alva (Frances Lederer, best known to readers as the mad scientist in Gerardo De Leon's TERROR IS A MAN and Dracula himself in Paul Landres' RETURN OF DRACULA). On the run, she and Alva slowly enter a life of squalor, culminating in her meeting a sadistic killer when she recommences her old career.

In many ways, the opening half of PANDORA'S BOX presages the soapy hedonistic bestsellers of the 1970s popularised by the authors such as Harold Robbins and Judith Krantz, which would often show posh people being undone by an ambitious youngster from the wrong side of the streets, only for they themselves to come undone. The second half of the film, which details Lulu's comeuppance, is more of a slog, and with a running time of well over two hours, the film probably doesn't need to be as long as it is. 

It certainly deserves to be called a masterpiece, though. Even now, nearly 100 years later, it's possible to be impressed by Pabst's directorial eye, with some shots emulating paintings by Bosch or Hogarth. Extras kick off with an excellent commentary from Pamela Hutchinson who wrote the BFI guide to movie and gives us plenty of excellent observation and analysis of what's happening onscreen. Kat Ellinger provides a 20 minute look at the emergence of a new kind of woman - the 'dangerous feminine' in 1920s cinema, David Cairns looks at how the film adapts its source material, in particular in relation to Pabst's revolutionary style of film-making in Godless Beasts, and Fiona Watson provides a 20 minute video essay on star Louise Brooks. Finally, there's an eight minute piece on the restoration of the film itself, showing the huge amount of work that went into what we now have to enjoy on Blu-ray. Eureka's set also comes with a 60 page book featuring new writing on the film.

G W Pabst's PANDORA'S BOX is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 30th October 2023

Three Ages (1923)

 

Eureka continues to bring us classic restored Buster Keaton on Blu-ray, making the world is a better place for it. Up this time, and out for its 100th anniversary, is THREE AGES, Keaton's first feature as star, writer and co-director. It's based around the theme of love being eternal and to illustrate this we see three tales set in three different time periods.

First up in 'The Stone Age' in which caveman Buster, riding around on his pet dinosaur (a nice bit of stop motion animation) spies the girls of his dreams (Margaret Leahy) and has to woo her away from the charms of his rival (Wallace Beery)

The second time period is 'The Roman Era' where again Keaton is seeking the love of Leahy and having to avoid Beery whilst also competing in a chariot race where his chariot is pulled by dogs, and deal with a lion in his jail cell.

The third period is 'The Present'. It's the same story and the same actors again but in this one the gags and stunts are more over the top and involve fire engines, cars falling to pieces and plunges from an improbably height. The three stories weave in and out of each other and the film as a whole is a spoof of D W Griffith's classic INTOLERANCE. 

Eureka's disc comes with a stack of extras. David Kalat provides commentary duties. "Keaton is timeless," he says before launching into an erudite and extremely listenable account of the film. In This Side of the Impossible David Cairns provides a short (16 mins) video essay about the film, while in Under the Flat Hat Fiona Watson argues the case for Keaton being neuroatypical. Ian Lavender, star of stage screen and Dad's Army talks Keaton for 15 minutes, which John Bengtson provides a tour of the film's locations. 

Keaton himself speaks in four short audio pieces, mainly excerpts from radio interviews, and also appears in a short commercial for Alka Seltzer Finally, an excerpt from the segment 'Man's Genesis' from INTOLERANCE is provided so you can see exactly what Keaton was making fun of. The disc also comes with a collector's booklet and O-Card slipcase for the first 2000

Buster Keaton's THREE AGES is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 21st August 2023

The Saphead (1920)

Eureka continues its Buster Keaton Blu-ray releases with THE SAPHEAD, the first feature-length movie to topline him in after he had established himself as a star in numerous two-reelers.

Bertie Van Alstyne (Keaton) is the son of Nicholas Van Alstyne (William H Crane), a super-rich Wall Street businessman. When Bertie and his father's ward Agnes (Beulah Booker) announce their intention to marry, Van Alstyne senior cuts Bertie off with a mere $1 million for Bertie to go out and make something of himself, leading to him trying to make a go of it in the stock market.

Adapted from a popular 1913 play, THE SAPHEAD was originally intended for Douglas Fairbanjks who had played the role on stage. It's therefore not surprising that Keaton, denied the considerable input he would be allowed later on, doesn't get the chance to dazzle with the kinds of feats of athletic physical comedy he is well known for. As such THE SAPHEAD may prove disappointing for some, but as long as you go in expecting more of a straightforward comedy typical of the period you won't be disappointed.

Eureka's Blu-ray comes with a commentary track from film historian David Kalat that provides contextualisation in terms of Keaton's career and the Hollywood industry of the period. Also included is a complete alternate version consisting of different camera angles and alternate takes. A Pair of Sapheads directly compares the two versions of the film.

THE SCRIBE is a 29 minute safety film from 1966 starring Keaton as a janitor in his final film role, and there's also a commentary for it from John Sebert, the film's director. Bubbling Gravity is a new video essay by David Cairns about both the making of the film and the play that inspired it. There's also a stack of audio interview material. The longest is an interview between Keaton and Kevin Brownlow from 1964. It's divided into two parts and last nearly two hours in total. then there's an 84 minute Eastman House interview from 1958 that lasts 84 minutes, and finally eight minutes of excerpts from an interview with Torsten Jungstedt from 1958. Finally, there's a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film.

THE SAPHEAD is out from Eureka on Blu-Ray on Monday 22nd August 2022. The first 2000 copies come with an O-Card slipcase

The Hands of Orlac (1924)

From the team that brought you 1919's classic THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, star Conrad Veidt and director Robert Wiene got together again in 1924 to bring to the screen an adaptation of Maurice Renard's tale of surgical horror, now getting a UK Blu-ray release from Eureka.

Paul Orlac (Veidt) is a famous concert pianist. Returning home from his latest series of concerts, the train he is on crashes. Orlac survives, just, but his hands are mangled beyond use. However, in a handy (sorry) coincidence, a murderer hanged on the same day is brought the hospital where Orlac is a patient so the killer's hands can be used in a transplant. Discharged home, Orlac is already experiencing strange visions and the conviction that his hands are not his own. When his rich father is found dead with the fingerprints of the executed murderer all over the crime scene who is the culprit?

It's a rare delight to discover a film nearly a hundred years old that's capable of blowing you away, but if, like me, you're new to THE HANDS OF ORLAC that's just what it might do. The films exhibits one of the most sustained levels of insane intensity in cinema throughout, with everyone's performance of 'mad' turned up to eleven. The opening train wreck must have seemed spectacular in its day and the subject of hand transplants a gruesome, if ridiculous, conceit. Veidt is brilliantly manic in the lead and while this is a different film from CALIGARI it's no less engrossing thanks to Wiene's direction. 

Eureka's Blu-ray release of the film is  a 1080p presentation of the original 94 minute version by Film Archiv Austria. The presentation is also helped immensely by a deliciously disturbing full-blooded avant-garde music score that sounds as if James Bernard helped himself to a generous dose of LSD before sitting down to write it. The person responsible is actually German composer Johannes Kaltizke.

Extras include the usual superior commentary track from Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, a 30 minute video essay on the film and its descendants that's both well written and well narrated, plus an alternate 110 minute presentation of the film from 2008 with alternate takes and a music score by Paul Mercer. You also get a piece highlighting the differences between the two versions. Finally, there's a booklet featuring new writing on the film from Tim Lucas and Philip Kemp.

Robert Wiene's THE HANDS OF ORLAC is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 14th June 2021

The Last Warning (1928)

 

A new 4K transfer of director Paul Leni's final film for Universal (he died in 1929) gets released on Blu-ray by Eureka.

During a packed Broadway performance of the play 'The Snare' star John Woodford (D'Arcy Corrigan) backs into a candlestick and drops down dead. Shortly afterwards his body disappears. The theatre is closed and remains so until five years later the same cast and director are brought back to the venue for a new performance of the same play by a suspicious new producer.

Following on from Leni's 1928 THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (also on Blu-ray from Eureka) and 1927's THE CAT AND THE CANARY (when's that one coming out, then?), THE LAST WARNING reteams Leni with star Laura La Plante who also starred in CAT. Belonging to the same subgenre of 'theatre horror' as Pete Walker's 1972 THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW and Michele Soavi's 1987 STAGEFRIGHT the action takes place mainly in the rundown theatre, where a mysterious masked figure is on the prowl. 

Both the opening and finale of the film are highlights of silent cinema. Leni's innovative setups and creative use of lenses were imitated many times and for many years afterwards. The film sags a little in the middle but for something made nearly a hundred years ago this still boasts some jaw-dropping visual compositions and (not least) production design, especially during the climactic attempt to trap the killer.

Eureka's Blu-ray is of a new 4K transfer. The musical accompaniment is composed by Arthur Barrow and features some excellent moments that would not be out of place in 1970s Italian giallo cinema (one bit is very reminiscent of Simon Boswell's Demons Groove from DEMONS 2 of all things).

Extras include a commentary from Stephen Jones and Kim Newman and is up to their usual excellent standard, with both providing a fact-packed track about the Laemmle family and the early years of Universal. A short (just under ten minutes) visual essay is provided by John Soister which is half about Leni and half about what happened at Universal after his demise. You also get a stills gallery and a booklet with new writing on the film from Philip Kemp and from Arthur Barrow about his score.

Paul Leni's THE LAST WARNING is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 15th February 2021

Waxworks (1924)

 

One of the earliest anthology movies (in fact it's probably the second ever made) gets a Blu-ray release as Eureka brings Paul Leni's expressionist masterpiece to disc, scanned in 4K resolution and then restored in 2K.

William Dieterle, probably best known to readers here for directing Charles Laughton in 1939's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and for 1941's THE DEVIL & DANIEL WEBSTER, plays a poet who answers an ad in the paper to provide stories for some of the figures in a fairground waxworks. Dieterle also features in the stories as different characters.

The first story is about Caliph Harun al-Rashid (Emil Jannings, whose OTHELLO you get to see at the beginning of 1973's THEATRE OF BLOOD) who leaves a wax double of himself in bed while he prowls the city in search of the local baker's wife. 
The second has Conrad Veidt (CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD et al) as Ivan the Terrible, convinced he is going to be the taget of an assassination, stealing another man's bride and ending his days insane and convinced upending an hourglass will stop him from dying.

The final story is barely a story at all, as Werner Krauss (DR CALIGARI himself!) plays Jack the Ripper and pursues our hero around the waxworks before a rather abrupt ending. 

A title card inserted before the film begins states that over twenty minutes of footage of WAXWORKS has been lost, which explains why the film does seem to be over rather quickly. Still, this is a lovely print of a tinted transfer which comes with two new music scores - traditional piano from Richard Siedhoff and rather more avant-garde chamber work from Ensemble Musikfabrik, and much fun can be had flicking between the two depending on the mood of the scene (and the viewer).

Eureka's disc also comes with a commentary track from critic Adrian Martin, a talking head piece from Kim Newman, an interview with Julia Wallmuller about the search for WAXWORKS and Paul Leni's REBUS-FILM Nos 1-8 - a collection of short film crossword puzzles shown to accompany main features back in the day.

There's also a collector's booklet with new writing on the film, and the first 2000 come with a limited edition 'O' card.

Paul Leni's WAXWORKS is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 9th November 2020

Buster Keaton: Three Films Volume 3 (1923-27)

"Even More Restored Keaton!"

Once again we have Eureka continuing the essential work of ensuring there are as many Buster Keaton 2K & 4K restorations on Blu-ray on UK shelves as possible with the release of three more of his longer works. I previously reviewed Volume One in the series here, Volume Two here and Eureka's impressive box set of Keaton's short work here. As with the previous two volumes this one comes with a 60 page book and a wealth of extras on the discs. Let's take a look at what we get this time:

Our Hospitality (1923)

A breakthrough movie for Keaton in particular and film comedy in general, OUR HOSPITALITY features some fascinating attention to period detail (it's set in the early 1800s) including what looks like a working version of Stevenson's Rocket. Our unwitting hero turns out to be a member of one of two feuding families and has to go to absurd lengths to avoid being killed. A remarkable (and remarkably dangerous-looking) climax involving rapids is just one of the highlights on offer here. 

Eureka's print is a 2K restoration and you get the options of playing it with a Carl Davis score or a commentary track by silent film historian Rob Farr. Extras include an early, shorter, workprint version of the film (entitled HOSPITALITY) which also comes with an optional commentary, this time from Buster Keaton expert Polly Rose. There's also a splendid 26 minute video essay by Patricia Eliot Tobias that contextualises the film both in Keaton's career and US silent movie comedy of the period, and a stills gallery.

Go West (1925)

If you've been watching all the films in all the Keaton sets so far this one may feel like a bit of a change of pace. It's still a comedy, and there's an amazing set piece to end the film that seems to feature hundreds of cows, but the story of pauper Friendless (Keaton) heading out to the wild west and befriending a cow (Brown Eyes who gets her own screen credit) before attempting to save her from slaughter, is more measured in its telling. The comedy routines and stunts aren't as plentiful or as rapid fire as in his other pictures. There's still plenty to enjoy but this isn't the film to watch if it's your first Keaton.

Eureka's print is from a 4K restoration. This time the soundtrack options are a score by Rodney Sauer (which I'll admit I thought could have done with being rather more frenetic as the film reached its climax) or an audio commentary by film historians Joel Goss and Bruce Lawton. A Window on Keaton is a 28 minute video essay by David Cairns and John Bengston provides another video essay on the filming locations for GO WEST. There's also the 11 minute comedy short GO WEST (1923) and a stills gallery.

College (1927)

Pro-academe anti-sports Ronald (our hero) finds that the only way he can get his girl at college is to become an athlete, which he proceeds to achieve in his own unique style. Like GO WEST this is very much one long build up to an entertaining set-piece payoff with some amusing sight gags along the way, but don't expect frequent stunts or breathtaking physical situations. 

Eureka's print is a 2K restoration with a Rodney Sauer score. No commentary track for this one but you do get Silent Echoes, a 10 minute video essay by John Bengston on the film. Also included is THE RAILRODDER (1965), technically Keaton's final silent film (and in colour!) which comes either with or without commentary by director Gerald Potterton and DP David De Volpi. BUSTER KEATON RIDES AGAIN (1965) is a nearly hour-long documentary filmed at the time of THE RAILRODDER and going behind the scenes. There's the option of playing this with a live Q&A conducted  in 2018 with the director and DP of the movie. There are also stills galleries for both COLLEGE and THE RAILRODDER on this disc.

        The accompanying 60 page book contains new writing on all three films and the whole set comes in a limited edition hardbound slipcase to match the other two sets. Get them all and spend the week laughing and marvelling at a unique talent. More fantastic work from Eureka.

Buster Keaton: Three Films Volume 3 is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 24th August 2020