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Laurel and Hardy Rarities (1927-1965) on DVD

This DVD contains five interesting and unusual films with Stan and Ollie. There are two silent solo shorts in which the boys are prominently featured (but without top billing) each performing hilarious sequences in drag! TREE IN A TEST TUBE shows the boys together in their only existing color film. There's also a brief home movie of Stan and Ollie together in later years as well as footage of Stan Laurel's Funeral. CUPID'S RIVAL (1917) starring Billy West, Oliver Hardy and Leo White. Here's a rare treat! Billy West does his incredible "dead-on" Chaplin impersonation supported by a very young Oliver Hardy (billed here as Babe Hardy). Billy is the janitor and all 'round handy man at a rat infested hotel. Hardy is a starving artist who is so hungry he eats his own dinner plates! He suspects his girl friend (Ethel Burton) is having an affair with a rival artist across the hall and disguises himself as a woman to get to the bottom of things! West, meanwhile, drives everyone in the hotel crazy with his Chaplinesque accidents, stunts and gags. The film culminates in a wild chase and gunfight fueled by alcohol! The accuracy of West's Chaplin is truly uncanny! Presented with an old-time jazz music score. EVE'S LOVE LETTERS (1927) starring Agnes Ayers, Forrest Stanley and Stan Laurel. Eve and Adam (Ayers and Stanley) are a happily married couple until a mysterious blackmailer threatens to give Adam Eve's love letters to an old flame. Anotole, the butler (Laurel), joins forces with Eve to get the letters from the blackmailer before her husband can see them. This is a fun situation comedy with plenty of gags and Stan masquerading as a woman of loose morals! Presented with an old-time jazz music score. TREE IN A TEST TUBE (1943) starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Narrated by Pete Smith. This is a wartime film produced to promote wood conservation and is virtually the only existing color film featuring Stan and Ollie. Pete Smith encounters the boys on a quiet street and asks to examine the contents of their suitcase. As they drag out garments and personal belongings, Smith points out that everything they have has been manufactured, in some way, with wood products. It's a real treat seeing the boys in color and, although the film is brief, they find ample opportunity for a few gags! This film is essentially silent with the soundtrack consisting of music, sound effects and, of course, Smith's narration. LAUREL AND HARDY (1957) starring Laurel and Hardy. This is brief home movie footage made of the boys in their declining years. Hardy, though lively, was quite ill at the time and his thin physique is a bit of a shock. He would pass away in August of that year. In spite of this, the boys appear happy and in good humor. The film was shot by Andy Wade, who was a teenage friend of Stan's. Sadly, Wade also died shortly after making this film. Presented in black and white, silent. STAN LAUREL FUNERAL (1965) This is news footage from the funeral of Stan Laurel. Many of the stars from the past and present were in attendance including Dick Van Dyke, Buster Keaton, Patsy Kelly, Joe Flynn and Tim Conway (appearing in McHale's Navy at the time), Hal Roach, Jr., Pat Buttram and Alan Mowbray. Pesented in black and white, silent.