New Silent Releases from Alpha

[mtw12055]

So these came out last September. Looks promising.


Hal Roach's Rascals, Volume 2

One Terrible Day (1922)
The Big Show (1923)
A Pleasant Journey (1923)
Circus Fever (1925)
Monkey Business (1926)
Thundering Fleas (1926)
Uncle Tom's Uncle (1926)
Shivering Spooks (1926)

Hal Roach's Rascals, Volume 3

Jackie's Fire Brigade (home movie version of Fire Fighters) (1922)
Young Sherlocks (1922)
A Quiet Street (1922)
The Champeen! (1923)
Back Stage (1923)
The Buccaneers (1924)
High Society (1924)
Buried Treasure (1926)


www.oldies.com/product-view/7999D.html


www.oldies.com/product-view/8032D.html

[antifrodis]

So who bought them and how are they?

[mtw12055]

Not I! Not yet, anyway. I'm genuinely curious, though. Alpha's gotten a bad reputation over the years, but they've made more of an effort at getting decent film sources - particularly for the silents - in recent years. A friend of mine provided material for Alpha's "Hal Roach's Early Pathe Comedies" set from a couple of years ago, and I've heard good things about it. Definitely not expecting perfection, but I'm reasonably optimistic.

[mtw12055]

Interestingly, the running time on each is said to be about 160 minutes, which would mean each short is around the standard 20 minutes. Though this doesn't really say anything yet. I don't know if I should be too optimistic for a longer version of "A Quiet Street" just yet.

Incidentally, volume 1 of this series was released about a decade ago, and contained the more commonly-found silents - Dogs of War!, Derby Day, The Sun Down Limited, and the Brentwood Home Video titles.

[antifrodis]

It would be nice just to have better transfers of the same old footage at the very least.

[antifrodis]

Well, I decided to be the $18 guinea pig. The cases are nice, but that's about it. These are the same old, tired versions of these films in nearly unwatchable condition. They did cop my edits of Thundering Fleas and Buried Treasure from Youtube and put them on the discs in all their pixelated glory. Matter of fact, they probably culled all of these from Youtube. Abysmal quality. Unless you haven't seen these films already and are desperate, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

[rarefilms]

I thought Alpha had already sunk very low when I first realised they were videoing directly off a projector screen (or something), and slightly zooming in, then slightly moving the camera position while the film is running! I think the film I mean is their choppy print of "Lodge Night". I wasn't going to say anything just yet, but Our restoration of "Your Own Back Yard" and "The Love Bug" will be released hopefully this Spring. We are waiting to see if we can get a clip of a Hal Roach interview from 1986 where he mentions "Your Own Back Yard". I will give a release date as soon as I know it so you can order in advance. If this release is successful, we will restore and release many more silent Our Gang comedies with excellent picture quality. Our versions will be wide awake like you've never seen them before!

Robin of C-W Films

[elvinmasih]

Looking forward to this release.
Please keep us posted Robin

Thank you

[rarefilms]

I've created a Facebook page which will give details of our future releases, etc. It also has an article about when I restored "Your Own Back Yard" and part of the reason for the long delay in releasing the film on DVD. It's called C-W Films-Restoration. Better Presentation Releases.

Robin of C-W Films

[Buppster]

I hope that you'll still continue make posts here about future releases etc as some people (me for one) don't have or want FacePalm accounts.

[rarefilms]

I'll still continue to make posts on this forum about all future releases, etc. I just wanted somewhere to write about the history of what I'm doing.