Own it:
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With: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Tom Kennedy, Sam Lufkin, James Finlayson, Jack Hill, Harry Bernard, Jean Harlow, Ed Brandenburg, Dell Henderson, Josephine Crowell, William Gillespie, Charlie Hall, Tiny Sandford, Lyle Tayo, Edgar Kennedy, Mae Busch, Thelma Todd, Hans Joby, Sam Lufkin, Charley Rogers, Rolfe Sedan, Pat Harmon, Baldwin Cooke, Paulette Goddard, Sammy Brooks
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Written by: Leo McCarey, H.M. Walker, Lewis R. Foster
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Directed by: Leo McCarey, Lloyd French, James W. Horne, Lewis R. Foster, Hal Roach, James Parrott
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MPAA Rating: NR
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Running Time: 181
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Date: 11/11/2025
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Laurel and Hardy: Year Three (1929)
Yet Another Fine Mess
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Continuing Flicker Alley's extraordinary releases of restored Laurel & Hardy films, this new two-disc set includes eleven two-reelers (unfortunately Men O' War and Perfect Day are not included, presumably because of restoration challenges) and a plethora of bonuses.
It starts off with a bang, with Leo McCarey's amazing Liberty, which follows our heroes as they escape prison, quickly change out of their prison garb and accidentally wind up wearing each other's pants; as they try to find private places to switch them, they wind up on the top of a partly-built skyscraper, teetering on various girders. It's a gobsmacker. McCarey co-directs another classic, Big Business, in which the duo play Christmas tree salesmen and get into a continuously-escalating battle of vandalism with a potential customer (James Finlayson). The destruction is formidable. I consider it a seasonal holiday film, even if it's not very festive.
Double Whoopee finds the boys playing bellhops at a hotel, with Stanley mistaken for an Erich von Stroheim-like prince; Jean Harlow makes an appearance in this one. And Angora Love tells the tale of the boys being followed home by a goat. Three of the shorts, They Go Boom!, The Hoose-Gow, and Unaccustomed As We Are, feature full sound, with music and dialogue, and the rest feature sync audio scores. (1929 was the first year of sound in Hollywood, and, famously it was still working out the kinks, but L&H seemed to adapt quite handily.) The other shorts in the set are: That's My Wife, Wrong Again, Bacon Grabbers, and Berth Marks.
Bonuses include new audio tracks for several shorts, and commentary tracks for every short. Other extras include a video essay, a clip from The Hollywood Revue of 1929, a dubbed version of Double Whoopee from 1970, a fragment of the Spanish version of Berth Marks, a message from L&H to the MGM Sales Convention of 1930, image galleries, and optional subtitles. The set includes a 32-page booklet packed full of information about the films and the restorations. Highly Recommended.
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