Garv’s Pick of the Week: Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations (MVD Visual)
For the release week of June 30th:
Garv’s Pick of the Week: Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations [Blu-ray / MVD Visual]: The UCLA Film and Television Archive has undertaken a years-long restoration of the Laurel & Hardy films, and their painstaking labor has paid off in this 4-disc Blu-ray set. Two features (Sons of the Desert and Way Out West) and seventeen of their finest short subjects (including my favorite, Busy Bodies) are presented in 2K and 4K transfers from the finest original 35mm materials in the world. The set also represents the home video debut of the restoration of The Battle of the Century, which contains a full reel of footage previously thought lost. The discs also load on over eight hours of special features. That’s a whole lot of nice messes to get yourselves into.
Additional Titles of Interest —
Django + Texas, Adios [Blu-ray / Arrow Video]: Two Euro-Westerns starring Franco Nero are collected in this long-delayed box set. Hopefully, the rights issue that held up the release has been fully sorted out, and the set will finally make it in the hands of collectors.
The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection [Blu-ray + CD / Severin Films]: Four Italian thrillers starring Carroll Baker and directed by Umberto Lenzi are collected in this awfully expensive Blu-ray set. Included are Orgasmo (1969), So Sweet… So Perverse (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970), and Knife of Ice (1972).
Not for Publication [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Two 1980s comedies directed by Paul Bartel (Death Race 2000, Eating Raoul) are getting a release this week from Kino Lorber. This is the first.
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: And this is the second.
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