Tag Archives: Laurel and Hardy

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The Bootleg Files: Nirvana

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BOOTLEG FILES 800: “Nirvana” (re-edited version of the 1951 Laurel and Hardy feature “Atoll K”).

LAST SEEN: Available for private request screenings.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A bit of a copyright issue.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Probably not.

Before I begin this week’s column, I want to pause and point out that this is the 800th entry in The Bootleg Files series that began in September 2003 on Film Threat before becoming part of Cinema Crazed in February 2017. My goodness, I cannot believe that there have been 800 entries in this weekly column! I need to give my deepest and sincerest thanks to Felix Vasquez Jr., publisher and editor at Cinema Crazed, for providing The Bootleg Files with a loving home, and I need to thank the readers of this long, long, long-running series for checking in with me every Friday – I’ve ton too much writing in the course of my career, but this is the achievement that has been the true labor of love. Okay, enough gushing – on with the show!
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The Laurel & Hardy Comedy Collection (DVD/Digital)

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With “Stan & Ollie” now in theaters, fans might find the newest release from Mill Creek of some interest, as it gathers a lot of interesting relics from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. While it by no means features some of their best shorts and features, it definitely will spark some conversation by hardcore movie buffs, as it includes a list of movies that feature both comedic actors, and their shorts and films that they worked on as solo performers. It’s not the best collection but it’s a fascinating release that will help fans of the comedy team dissect a lot of the work that both men did outside of their team as well as what worked, and what just didn’t.

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The Bootleg Files: Another Nice Mess

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BOOTLEG FILES 586: “Another Nice Mess” (1972 comedy film starring Rich Little).

LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Even the film’s producers admitted it stank.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

Humorist Leo Rosten once commented, “Satire is focused bitterness.” It is hard to find a more accurate description of satire – and in view of today’s surplus of Alt-Left comedians going out of their way to denigrate the president and his family, the level of bitterness has become hopelessly poisoned.

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The Music Box (1932)

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Made around the time of the Hal Roach collaborative period with the duo making nothing but shorts, “The Music Box” became the standard for complicated situation talkies that would show buffoons making a bad situation out of a predictably simplistic one. When we learn that yes, it could have all been so simple, we groan at their idiocy, and then realize: What fun would that have been if they took the easy way in their job?

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March of the Wooden Soldiers/Babes in Toyland (1934)

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Here in New York City, there’s been a tradition for almost thirty years that the local television station channel 11 also known as WPIX airs a yearly broadcast of Laurel and Hardy’s “March of the Wooden Soldiers.” Though it’s mostly known as “Babes in Toyland,” ever since I was a young child, I’ve identified it by “March of the Wooden Soldiers.” For some odd reason it’s just been a tradition to view it every year on Thanksgiving, and it just seems to pair up with the holiday season so well. There are appearances from every fairy tale character imaginable from the three little pigs, to the three blind mice, along with an appearance from Mickey Mouse, The incomparable duo of Dum and Dee even work at Santa’s shop creating toys for him for the Christmas rush.

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