Laurel & Hardy - The Collection (21-disc Box Set) [DVD]

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Hardy, a native of Harlem, Georgia, was the mustachioed long-suffering big one, the deluded “strong” who grandiosely took it upon himself to help the “weak” Laurel. Serving him a summons is only half the battle; next comes thwarting his efforts to keep them from getting the radio.

The set contains 2K and 4K digital restorations of the team’s two best features, Sons of the Desert and Way Out West, plus 17 mostly essential shorts, along with over eight hours of commentaries, interviews, archival photos, posters and studio files, and rarities, such as “That’s That,” an outtakes reel compiled for Laurel’s birthday in 1937.

Stan and Ollie, self-professed “victims of the Depression,” are so moved by an elderly woman’s act of kindness toward them that they set out to raise the money for her when they mistakenly believe she is on the verge of being evicted by a heartless landlord. studio prop house and found an unframed black-and-white Laurel and Hardy poster from their 1928 short Leave ’Em Laughing. They survived the transition from silent to sound films and made more than 100 shorts and features together.

Plus, we get Mae Busch as Hardy’s wife, who rebels when Hardy brings Stan home unannounced for dinner, and Thelma Todd as the next-door neighbor, whose husband, a policemen (Edgar Kennedy), will not understand the wholly innocent but nonetheless compromising situation she’s in when she offers to cook for the boys and burns her dress in the process. Mae Busch is the blackmailer; Thelma Todd is Hardy’s wife, who is throwing a dinner party for her husband’s campaign backers; and Jimmy Finlayson, master of the double take, is Hardy’s butler.Friends set decorator Greg Grande said in a phone interview he was reminded of Laurel and Hardy when he watched rehearsals for the fledgling series’ pilot episode and saw in roommates Joey and Chandler a similar comedy dynamic and close-knit bond.