Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years (1929) (Blu-ray) (UK Import)

Two of the most talented comedians to ever grace the silver screen, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had firmly established their enduring partnership by the time the age of talking pictures loomed at the end of the 1920s. As they made their final silent shorts together in 1929, they continued to build upon the double act forged in earlier films such as You're Darn Tootin', Should Married Men Go Home? and We Faw Down - and prepared themselves for success in the sound era.

This collection brings together the silent Laurel & Hardy shorts produced in 1929, as the boys reached new levels of fame and success: Liberty casts Stan and Ollie as fugitives on the run; in Wrong Again, the boys try to claim a reward by returning a lost horse to a bewildered millionaire seeking a stolen painting; That's My Wife sees Ollie forced to choose between Stan and his spouse; in Big Business, the boys go door-to-door selling Christmas trees; in Unaccustomed As We Are, Ollie invites Stan over for dinner and attracts the ire of Mrs Hardy; Double Whoopee sees the boys take jobs at a fancy hotel; Berth Marks has them cause chaos on a sleeper train; in Bacon Grabbers, Stan and Ollie are bailiffs tasked with recovering a radio; and finally, in Angora Love, they try to conceal a goat that has become very, very attached to them.

The Masters of Cinema Series is honoured to present Laurel & Hardy's final run of silent shorts, newly restored in 2K by Blackhawk Films from the finest available materials, in a special two-disc Blu-ray edition for the first time in the UK. The set contains the following shorts: Liberty, Wrong Again, That's My Wife, Big Business, Unaccustomed As We Are (Silent Version), Double Whoopee, Berth Marks (Silent Version), Bacon Grabbers and Angora Love (Silent Version).

Extras:

Commentary: 'Liberty'/'Berth Marks': Chris Seguin (film writer) and Kyp Harness (author); 'Double Whoopee'/'Unaccustomed As We Are'/'Wrong Again': David Kalat (film historian / writer); 'Big Business'/'Angora Love': Neil Brand (silent film accompanist); 'That's My Wife'/'Bacon Grabbers': Glenn Mitchell (author), Image Gallery, Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow; Scores by Robert Israel ('Angora Love'/'Big Business'/'Double Whoopee'); Neil Brand ('Bacon Grabbers'/'Wrong Again'/'That's My Wife'); Andreas Benz ('That's My Wife'/'Unaccustomed As We Are'/'Berth Marks'); Maud Nelissen ('Big Business'/'Liberty'); and Gaylord Carter ('Big Business'); Alternate musical scores on select shorts including the Robert Youngson score for 'Liberty', newly restored by Stephen C. Horne; 'Unaccustomed As We Are' alternate sound version; Alternate dubbed version of 'Double Whoopee'; 1929 sound shorts: 'They Go Boom!'; 'The Hoose-Gow'; New documentary by David Cairns and Fiona Watson; 'The Hollywood Revue of 1929' (excerpt); 'Crazy Heights': Alternate Super 8 version of 'Liberty'; 'Super 8 versions of 'Big Business', 'Double Whoopee' and 'Angora Love'