24.05.24.
Laurel & Hardy: the Silent Years (1927)
Fifteen silent shorts featuring Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, is to be released on Blu-ray in the UK presented from restorations sourced from the best available materials. Available from 19 August 2024 as part of The Masters of Cinema Series, the first print run of 2000 copies only will exclusively feature an O-card slipcase.
The set contains the following shorts: Lucky Dog, 45 Minutes From Hollywood, Duck Soup, Slipping Wives, Love ‘Em and Weep, Why Girls Love Sailors, With Love And Hisses, Sailors, Beware!, Do Detectives Think?, Flying Elephants, Sugar Daddies, The Second 100 Years, Call of the Cuckoo, Putting Pants On Philip, and The Battle of the Century.
The set has been available in the USA for some time and many UK readers have imported copies. This is an excellent set and is recommended to anyone who has so far missed out.
Rolduc
Over the weekend starting 17 May, around fifty Sons of the Desert gathered for a special event at Rolduc in the Netherlands.
All the usual attractions made the event a big success.
Horror-on-Sea
In a couple of weeks time, the Southend-on-Sea Film Festival will take place at the Park Inn Palace Hotel between Thursday 6th and Sunday 9th June. As always there is a great selection of films, many with a local Southend connection. Check out the website for full details.
https://www.visitsouthend.co.uk/event/southend-film-festival-2024
I will be presenting a programme of Laurel and Hardy films. The theme this year is ‘horror’. Although some of these films were shown at our May Saps at Sea meeting, here is an opportunity to see these films on a VERY LARGE screen + there is LIVE PAINO accompaniment to the silent film + there will be a VERY RARE L&H clip.
On the following day, there will be the Saps at Sea meeting in the Naval and Military Club... so you could make a weekend of it.
Roger Robinson
Return to the Forum, Hexham
At the Panopticon, Glasgow
In Oldham
Släpstick
This looks as though it could be a fun event. Wilton's Music Hall is a short walk from Fenchurch Street Station.
Roger Robinson
7th October to 12th October . 7:30PM Mon - Sat / Thu & Sat matinees 2:30PM . Please note: This show is in English, it can be enjoyed by English and non-English speakers.
£13 - £27.50 | £10.50 - £25.00
Chaplin meets Tchaikovsky
Internationally renowned musical clowns Släpstick present Schërzo, classical music as you've never experienced it before, fresh from a smash-hit run at Edinburgh Fringe and now at Wilton's Music Hall!
scherzo [noun] joke, banter
Join Släpstick’s unique brand of mischief where physical theatre, world-class musicians and raucous humour collide.
Masterpieces from Rossini, Brahms, Schubert, Saint-Saëns, Gershwin, and more, meet comedy heroes such as Victor Borge, Laurel & Hardy, Danny Kaye, and Charlie Chaplin.
Neither bewigged composer nor magnum opus is safe from buffoonery in this clownish concerto. Expect yodelling Schubert in a ventriloquism battle with Beethoven, a speed devil on the double bass and the popular '21 masterpieces in 1 minute'.
Awarding-winning Släpstick have sold out concert halls from The Netherlands to New Zealand. Now Schërzo lands in London, following a world premiere at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and concerts in Germany and South Korea.
Spotted on Facebook
On the set of Our Relations.
Stan tribute
I saw Gavin Mitchell of Still Game fame (Boaby the barman) doing a Stan sketch on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6j8ZFPrWkh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.
Glynne MacDonald
Spiff Up - Stop Press
There is now a new meeting point.
...and finally
