We've seen a steady stream of older films coming out on DVD but all you have to
do is poke any film buff to hear about the classics that have yet to appear.
Poke twice and you can also hear about the missing fan favorites, the ones that
will never make any "best of" list but still hold a special place for some
viewer or maybe just a final notch for a completist. Despite its title, the
Classic Comedy Teams Collection is aimed more at the fans. Abbott and
Costello, Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges each get a disc with two of
their films. None are the best place to become acquainted with any of these
teams but all films are new to DVD and if they aren't masterpieces at least
they're mostly entertaining.
The Abbott and Costello disc is easily the strongest. The duo was allowed to
make one film a year away from their home studio of Universal so during the
peak of their popularity they went three times to MGM. Two of those films are
in this set and can't be found in the otherwise comprehensive four volume
Best of Abbott & Costello (the third film, 1941's
Rio Rita, has
yet to appear on DVD).
Lost in a Harem (1944) shows more of the MGM
gloss than Abbott & Costello's usual films even if the story about the two
rescuing a blonde singer (B-movie perennial Marilyn Maxwell) and overthrowing
an evil ruler is a bit thin. The film makes good use of sets left over from
Kismet and there's a song and a half from the Jimmy Dorsey band. Abbott
and Costello are generally quite lively with a mix of slapstick and verbal
routines, even at one point recreating the classic vaudeville bit "Slowly I
Turned." Slightly more predictable is
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood
(1945), the first film to feature their name in the title. This time the two
are show biz barbers who decide that being a talent agent is the ticket to easy
money so they promote an Iowa-fresh singer over an established star. The film
tends more towards a string of routines though there are some good ones
including the two trying to cure Costello's insomnia, him pretending to be a
stunt dummy and even a frantic chase at the end. The big missed opportunity
was to exploit the Hollywood setting more; there are cameos from Lucille Ball,
Rags Ragland and Preston Foster but that's about it.
Like Abbott and Costello, the Laurel and Hardy disc collects two MGM wartime
films but in this case that's a bit past their prime period. Still, Laurel and
Hardy bring unflappable good cheer and years of experience that give these
films a charm that would certainly have been lacking if anybody else had
starred.
Air Raid Wardens (1943) opens with a voice-over straight out
of
Our Town, describing the small community that's about to participate
in the war. Laurel and Hardy ran a string of failed businesses and now have
been rejected by the military as well they end up as, you guessed it, air raid
wardens. Not much to the warden angle so we also get Nazi spies, a stuffy bank
president, a short-tempered teamster and even a rambunctious stray dog.
There's a nice bit with the two trying to enter a town meeting quietly and an
inventive gag with a carrier pigeon.
Nothing But Trouble (1944)
stretches everything a bit more thin. Seems that there's an exiled teenage
king from some operetta country who just want to be a regular boy and play
football. Laurel and Hardy befriend him, thinking he's just a wayward kid but
not much happens. The film had been pitched a couple of years earlier and at
one point involved helicopters and gags by Buster Keaton. None of that is in
the final film; the studio must have decided that "Imagine Laurel and Hardy as
a chef and a butler" was good enough and less expensive. Though the king's
story is mostly padding, you're not likely to forget Stan trying to serve at a
high-class dinner party and may even have fond memories of the two trying to
grab a steak (actually horsemeat) from the lion's cage at the zoo.
The Three Stooges disc is something of an oddity since the team plays only
supporting roles in both films.
Meet the Baron (1933) is the more
interesting since it's an example of the goofy, anything-goes comedies of the
early 30s though admittedly not one of the better ones. The film was designed
to put onto screen Jack Pearl, whose recreation of eternal tall tale teller
Baron Munchausen had been a radio and stage smash in preceeding years (and
would quickly vanish: he appeared in only one other film while his radio career
trickled out). With Jimmy Durante as his buddy, the Baron crashes an all-girls
college where the janitors are Ted Healey and His Stooges (that's right, not
yet the Three Stooges). So you get a lot of running around, recreations of
Pearl's radio skits, the Stooges pummelling each other and for good measure
about thirty co-eds bathing and singing in an enormous Art Deco shower.
Completing the disc is 1951's
Gold Raiders, a creaky B-Western that
looks like it should have appeared 15 years earlier. It's also an independent
production and the only non-MGM film in this set.
Gold Raiders shows
that with merely a few days on the back lot and minimal editing you can keep an
entire film under an hour. An aging, paunchy George O'Brien is the hero (an
insurance agent!) trying to keep the local mine from being taken over by an
evil landowner. The Stooges are travelling salesmen who help O'Brien but since
they're incidental to the story any comedy is fleeting.
Overall the transfers in the
Classic Comedy Teams Collection are sharp
but the sources aren't always the best quality.
Gold Raiders has some
abrupt splices, including one that clips off a bit of dialogue.
Lost in a
Harem has a lot of speckling and in one part noticable print damage (which
fortunately lasts barely a second or so). The only extras are a few trailers
and subtitle options (English, French and Spanish). Still, the set is
inexpensively priced and anybody interested in the films will be glad to have
them.
For more information about
Classic Comedy Teams Collection, visit
Warner Video. To order
Classic Comedy
Teams Collection, go to
TCM Shopping.
by Lang Thompson
