Which is the best black and white Dvd release to buy?
I've heard the colourized version is really good, but I could never get used to Laurel & Hardy in colour, no matter how much I try.
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"I've never seen a sight that didn't look better lookin' back".
In the UK the 'Poundland' shops are selling the DVD of 'flying deuces' and 'toyland' for just £1
(They call it 'toyland' not 'babes in toyland')
The poundland £1 "Toyland" in the UK comes in at just over 59 minutes and so I suspect it is an edited down version as IMDB running time is 77 minutes."Toyland" is definitely the title on the opening credits and yet this is not listed in the alternatives on IMDB. The version released in the UK as "March of the Wooden Soldiers" (a Eureka release) is 67 minutes 20 seconds. I realise that films can play at different speeds and this creates running time discrepancies. This is still 10 minutes under the IMDB time so I am wondering if this one is cut down too? Does anyone know?
shareThe best edition comes from Legend Films. It contains a newly restored and remastered black and white version and a new colorized version. It is from the absolute best and most complete film elements. Highly recommended.
Here's the link from Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B000HLDFKO/sr=1-1/qid=1191403406/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_recent/002-7333275-8227253?ie=UTF8&n=130&qid=1191403406&sr=1-1#customerReviews
thank you archiezappa - I will certainly check out that Legend version.
shareThe UK poundland version cuts out almost all of the songs, hence the shorter running time. Could be argued that it improves the film, though!
share[deleted]
re: Felix Knight
If you enjoy the singing of Felix Knight, Decca Broadway has released some old recordings of operettas from the '40s. The most appropriate one for you would be a Victor Herbert "double-header"- "Babes in Toyland" and "The Red Mill". Knight is featured in the latter, but the tenor role in "Toyland" features Kenny Baker. Baker was another big radio star, and also played Nanki-Poo in the 1939 film of "The Mikado". Incidentally, Felix Knight sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1949, notably in "Barber of Seville".
There is supposedly a better copy than the Legend version, recently released by MGM themselves
http://www.amazon.com/March-Wooden-Soldiers-Stan-Laurel/dp/B001D8W7FE/ref=sr_1_8?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280802844&sr=1-8
Best Black and White DVD:
MGM Version - http://www.amazon.com/March-Wooden-Soldiers-Stan-Laurel/dp/B001D8W7FE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1288649866&sr=8-3
Best Colorized DVD:
Legend Films Version - http://www.amazon.com/March-Wooden-Soldiers-Colorized-Black/dp/B001BSBBI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288649866&sr=8-1
Best Blu-Ray:
Legend Films - http://www.amazon.com/March-Wooden-Soldiers-Blu-ray-Laurel/dp/B003XSTS4K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288649866&sr=8-2
The Legend Films B&W print is almost as good as MGM's but just a little bit less fidelity is some parts. I would recommend that everyone pick up the Legend Films Blu-Ray. It's cheap (10 bucks) and the High-Def image quality upgrade is worth it.
Does the Legend blu ray have an updated copyright during the end credits?
shareI just bought the Legends Film DVD and was shocked to find that on "The End" screen (the storybook closing shot) of the "original" black and white version was this newly imposed copyright notice:
"Color Version copyright (c) 1991 Samuel Goldwyn Co. All rights reserved."
Apparently, Legend Films took Goldwyn's colorized version, stripped out the color, and used it as their black and white version. Why they couldn't use the original film that they colorized, pre-colorization, is beyond me.
I know that they did their own colorization because I have the Goldwyn colorized version on tape, and the colors are definitely different than Legend's colors.
Here's what's strange: the Goldwyn colorized version has altered the title shown on the toy block at the beginning ("March of the Wooden Soldiers" instead of "Babes In Toyland"), while Legend's B&W version has the original title on it (and the MGM logo before it, which Goldwyn leaves out)
For those who may be wondering, the Legend colorized version also has a newly imposed copyright notice on "The End" screen (the storybook closing shot): "Legend Films, Inc. Copyright (c) 2006. All rights reserved." However, this text completely covers over the original NRA logo that appeared at the bottom of the screen (the logo has been digitally erased).
The copy of the film shown on Fancast.com...
http://www.fancast.com/movies/Babes-in-Toyland/101961/1491072616/Babes -In-Toyland/videos
... has a new MGM logo preceding it, which would seem to indicate that it's the same version found on the official MGM DVD released in 2008. This version shows that before the original MGM logo was a 15-second-long screen that said, "This motion picture approved by the Production Code Administration of the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America. Certificate No. 401" (with the MPPDA logo behind the text). This screen was displayed while the movie's music started playing.
With that in mind, it's disappointing that in both B&W and color versions on the Legend Films DVD this original 15-second-long screen is replaced by new video, though the music remains underneath. On the color version there are two color screens that say "Legend Films Presents" (logo on red bg with soldiers at bottom) and "Laurel & Hardy in March of the Wooden Solders" (title text seen on DVD cover, Laurel & Hardy heads on the sides of the title, soldiers at bottom, red bg). On the black and white version it's a screen of white text on a black bg that says "Another black-and-white classic restored by Legend Films", with their logo above the text (the color in the logo changes into black and white). In both versions, after this screen is the original MGM logo and the rest of the movie.
So in regards to being just like the original 1934 film, both of the "restored" versions on the Legend Films DVD have 15 seconds of replaced video at the beginning and an altered "The End" screen. I can't comment much on what's in between, but that all appears to be complete and unaltered. It would seem that if you want the film in as complete and unaltered form as possible (not counting colorization as an alteration), the black and white MGM DVD from 2008 would be the way to go (assuming it's the same video as shown on Fancast.com).
By the way, the original 1934 trailer for the film included on the Legend Films DVD (and found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7YGHCKPyg) proclaims the film as 1 1/2 hours long. The most this film has run is 77 minutes. Is there 13 minutes of footage that's been missing all these years, or did the studio round up the runtime back then to make the film seem longer? Any thoughts?
IMAGE COMPARISONS
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1. Comparison of the pre-MGM logo text screen - http://i51.tinypic.com/2rp353n.jpg
2. Comparison of the toy block title screen - http://i55.tinypic.com/153te6t.jpg
3. Comparison of "The End" screen - http://i51.tinypic.com/m7uqt4.jpg
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Paul R.
http://1shop.bravehost.com
http://spookcentral.cjb.net
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Black and white as it was intended. It give that old depression-era, had black and white television until I was 20 (1982).
shareTalking about not as intended, there are now Blu-ray versions. One version is in 3d and in color(Legend's 3d Classics). They also have a version with both color and black and white from Legend.
shareThis year, I finally threw away my old VHS version and bought the DVD that has both the B/W and colorized versions plus a lot of extras. I got it at Barnes and Noble.
With great power comes great responsibility.
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