Laurel & Hardy: The Knockabout 3 Film Collection [DVD] [1941]

comedy greats at the end of their career. Not quite as funny as they were but worth watching these two geniuses

Loved this DVD

Brilliant my dad loved these

more classic happy with order

My husband loves them

i love these guys and picture perfect great thanks terry.

Very pleased

There was a time when Laurel & Hardy's 1940's films were quite hard to obtain on home entertainment. Fox video in the late 80's early 90's released The Dancing Masters, A Haunting we will go and Great Guns on vhs, which I quickly added to my collection of L&H videos at the time.At the time the general consensus was that these were 'bad' movies, best avoided by fans. One of them was even listed as one of the worst films ever made.Probably because of the prevailing negative reviews of this era, I've had a lifelong obsession with it. I can recommend 'Laurel & Hardy From the Forties Onwards' by Scott MacGillvray (ISBN 978-1-4401-7237-3) as the ideal book companion to these movies offering insight into how they were made and how they were greeted by the audiences at the time.These movies are a repackaging of an earlier release 'The Laurel and Hard Collection Volume 1'.Great Guns 1941 is the first feature film that L&H made at Fox. It's different from their earlier pictures because this feels like a 'studio' picture - the sets are bigger and the budget seems higher there's an added gloss to the production. Its not the first time that L&H were in the army and its somewhat reminiscent of 'Pack up your Troubles' & 'Bonnie Scotland'. Although they are the stars, plot-wise they play second fiddle to the romantic leads but they do have some very funny scenes. My favourite is during parade training where Stan & Ollie try to hide their pet crow from the blustering general and it ends up down Ollies trousers with comic results. This film was a big hit for Fox at the time. The DVD mastering is really sharp and clean.Jitterbugs 1943 was the third film they made a Fox, and its often regarded as being the best of their Fox films. Again they play second fiddle to the romantic leads, but they have some great comic scenes together. Funniest scenes are when Ollie masquerades as a Southern Gentleman 'Colonel Bixby' and Stan in drag as 'Aunt Emily'in order to outwit some criminals. Apparently the negative was damaged for Jitterbugs and the first 10 or so minutes are slightly less good quality than the rest of the film.Finally, 'The Big Noise' 1944 was the fifth Fox movie. Notorious for being in the book 'The Fifty Worst Films of all time' by Michael Medved, most L&H fans would approach with caution (if at all). But, pleasingly its reputation is pure bunkum! Its a great little film! What helps this is wonderful comic support from a great comic cast. Stan and Ollie play detectives (well office cleaners who answer a phone call outside business hours!) in order to protect a new invention for a crazy scientist. This harks back to the silent era movie 'Do detective's think?' and features a gag from that movie where Ollie shins up a lam-post to see what the street name is only to find its a 'wet paint' sign. They also revisit 'Berth Marks' for a funny crowded bunk bed scene. Once again the film was a big hit with audiences at the time.So if you've not watched 40's L&H because of the bad reputation - try these three as you will probably be pleasantly surprised as I was.