It’s time to (re)discover Laurel and Hardy’s early silent films with new box set

Like many film buffs of my time, I fell in love with the work of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy through teatime reruns of their 20-minute shorts on BBC 2 in the 1970s.

I loved these beautifully crafted little stories about two mismatched friends trying to make their way through Depression-era America, and once Stan and Ollie’s comic misadventures sink in, they never really leave.

Even today, I have a huge soft spot for boys – and even just writing about them makes me smile.

There’s something about the combination of perfectly choreographed physical comedy and effortless pathos seen in Stan and Ollie’s best exchanges that puts them on a par with the truly great comedians, in my eyes.

Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel in the silent film era

Even watching Ollie, exasperated, break the fourth wall of cinema and stare at the camera in despair as his dimly lit partner-in-crime’s insane antics leave him in trouble up to his armpits felt revolutionary in some way.

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As a kid, I devoured the last shorts they made for Hal Roach in the talkie era of the 1930s. For a long time, the early silent films they made in the previous decade simply eluded me.

Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years (1927), due out next month from Eureka Entertainment, is a box set of 15 silent shorts that takes us back to that time of primitive magic, way back in time, and reminds us that the duo had their comedic chops in place long before we heard their voices.

This neatly packaged collection brings together Stan and Ollie’s earliest films, The Lucky Dog and 45 Minutes To Hollywood, and traces their artistic journey right up to their days as an official duo. That means we get early gems like Duck Soup, Slipping Wives, Love ’em and Weep, Why Girls Love Sailors, With Love and Hisses, Sailors Beware!, Do Detectives Think?, Flying Elephants, Sugar Daddies, The Second 100 Years, Call of the Cuckoo and Putting Pants on Philip.

There is even the possibility of seeing The Battle of the Century, a short film that had previously only been shown in incomplete versions until several missing scenes were found and restored in 2015.

Unlike many of the big stars who tried to make the jump from silent to sound, Laurel and Hardy adapted beautifully to the new world, with Stan’s manner of speaking and Ollie’s Southern gentlemanly tones perfectly suited to audiences looking for a verbal edge to their slapstick physical comedy.

This two-disc set includes a limited edition O-card case with new artwork by Scott Saslow, while extras include audio commentaries for each film and a collector’s booklet featuring notes from comedian and long-time fan Paul Merton.

If that’s not impressive enough, all of the hardware on offer here has been given a glorious 2K restoration, leaving the guys looking better than ever.

Personally, I can’t think of anything better.