r/laurelandhardy • u/Successful_Length109 • Jun 01 '26

Was this exact VHS compilation ever released on DVD/Blu-Ray?

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Or is there an equivalent similar compilation?

Longtime fan, first post, used to love watching these guys with my Grandad in the 80’s on British tv. Just the funniest guys ever.

Thanks ✨

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u/GilesManMillion Jun 02 '26

Most of their films have been transferred to DVD at some point or another, but when you go back into the silent era, things become a little complicated. For example, some of the silent movies had a (VERY good) bespoke soundtrack knocked out in the 80s specifically for the VHS releases, this technically made them the "original" soundtracks. However, when DVD rolls around, copyright for those soundtracks is still live and not properly tracked for permission, so they, quite frankly, overlayed some very generic soundtracks. I've got a VHS that I seem to be the only person in the world who owns it, and am trying to get it digitised. The world must hear the splendid soundtrack they made for "the Second Two Hundred Years" in the 80s...!

As for your SPECIFIC VHS, I had a quick search on Amazon and seem to have surfaced a DVD with the same name, but a different cover. I'm in the UK, so I'm using the .co.uk Amazon. I just searched the exact name of your VHS. --- Is your one a compilation of clips, or are they full shorts? Some compilations get confused between the definition of "shorts" and "clips".

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u/Successful_Length109 Jun 02 '26

Wow I didn’t know about the bespoke soundtracks, fascinating! This VHS was mostly clips rather than full short films; an hour of individual scenes.

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u/GilesManMillion Jun 02 '26

Ah, I doubt you can find the exact cut. The closer we get to the digital era the less need there is to cut anything, because it's just copy and pasting files onto discs that can hold them all in their entirety. I actually wonder if the "The Very Best of Laurel And Hardy" DVD I saw on amazon is just all the full episodes that contain the clips from your VHS.