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"Laurel and Hardy Restoration Project"

Laurel and Hardy
October 8, 2012 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater
In-person: 
Scott MacQueen, UCLA Film & Television Archive

*Free admission. Tickets available at the theater beginning 6:30 p.m. night of the show.

The Archive’s recently appointed senior film preservationist, Scott MacQueen, has spent the last six months analyzing the surviving nitrate pre-print material in our Laurel & Hardy/Hal Roach Collection and putting together a preservation plan for future work. Scott will present his findings and screen both the preserved Busy Bodies, as well as a rare nitrate print of the film’s 1946 reissue, demonstrating how the film had already begun to devolve a mere dozen years after creation. Also screening is an excerpt from The Hoose-Gow (1929), a vintage acetate print, documenting the film’s downward spiral over three decades.

Read more about the Laurel & Hardy Restoration Project and how you can help. 

Approx. TRT: 58 min. 

Part of: 
"Out of the Past: Film Restoration Today"

Busy Bodies (1933)

Directed by Lloyd French

Fun with planks, saws and paintbrushes as Stan and Ollie take jobs in a sawmill.  

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hal Roach Studios. Screenwriter: Stan Laurel. Cinematographer: Art Lloyd. Editor: Bert Jordan. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charles Hall, Jack Hill, Tiny Sandford. 

35mm, b/w, 20 min. 

Busy Bodies (1946)

Nitrate Print!

Directed by Lloyd French

This second screening of the Laurel & Hardy classic employs a nitrate print of the film’s 1946 reissue, showing alterations made from the original, 1933 version after the title’s acquisition by new owners.  

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hal Roach Studios. Screenwriter: Stan Laurel. Cinematographer: Art Lloyd. Editor: Bert Jordan. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Tiny Sandford, Leo Willis. 

35mm, b/w, 20 min. 

Preceded by

Excerpt from The Hoose-Gow (1929)

Directed by James Parrott

Innocent bystanders at a raid, Stan and Ollie are taken to prison, where they create mayhem in the performance of their daily duties to the State.  

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hal Roach Studios. Screenwriter: H.M. Walker. Cinematographer: George Stevens, Len Powers, Glenn Kershner. Editor: Richard Currier. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Tiny Sandford, Leo Willis. 

35mm, b/w, 18 min.