Laurel & Hardy Marathon TCM

[stethacantus]

I don't really have to do this, considering I own Babes in Toyland  uncut on DVD, but every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas I check to see if it is airing on television. The re-release version retitled March of the Wooden Soldiers has been airing on Thanksgiving day on local Channel 11 every year since the mid 70s, and is airing this year as well. ( For the past decade Channel 11 has counter programmed it against the NBC airing of the M*A*C*Y*S parade, so it has already aired earlier today, and will air again at 3:00 against the rebroadcast of the M*A*C*Y*S parade. ) I also found out that the Catholic Faith Network will be airing March of the Wooden Soldiers at 8:00 pm.  That's right, a channel that airs 24 hours of live mass from around the world  will be airing this movie.

Anyway, I found out that it is also airing next week on TCM as part of an 18 hour Laurel and Hardy marathon ( Beginning on Monday, December 7 at 1230 in the afternoon), including a lot of films that were not on the Essentials Collection. These include the silent shorts Do Detectives Think, Putting Pants on Phillip, You're Darn Tootin'. Two Tars, Habeas Corpus, Big Business, Double Whoopee, and Angora Love, and the feature films The Devil's Brother, Hollywood Party, and Babes in Toyland

[stethacantus]

Out of curiosity, I recorded the Catholic Faith Network broadcast of March of the Wooden Soldiers to see exactly what print they were using. For those of you who are not Laurel & Hardy geeks, here's a brief recap of the release history of the film. It was originally produced at Hal Roach studios and distributed by M.G.M.  under the title Babes in Toyland. In the early 40's the master print and film rights were sold to M.G.M. as part of an out of court settlement resolving law suits between Roach Studio and M.G.M. In the mid 40s a distributor called Astor Films leased Babes in Toyland from M.G.M. under the condition they distribute it under a different title, so they changed it to March of the Wooden Soldiers. In the 1950s M.G.M. wanted to distribute Babes in Toyland to television to capitalize on the Disney Studios remake that was in the theaters. They found out the original copyright  agreement between Hal Roach Studios and the owners of the musical Babes in Toyland did not extend to television, as television didn't exist in the 1930s. Disney's agreement did include television broadcasts, so could block M.G.M. from broadcasting the film as only they had exclusive rights to the musical on television. M.G.M. lawyers discovered a workaround.  They could broadcast the Laurel & Hardy movie as long as they changed the title.  So they took an Astor Film distribution print of March of the Wooden Soldiers and sold that to television, allowing local stations to advertise that it was the original movie version of Babes in Toyland.  Astor went bankrupt, and the copyrights to their release of March of the Wooden Soldiers became public domain, theoretically making the film Babes in Toyland public domain as long as only the Astor print was used. M.G.M. could do nothing to stop stations from broadcasting March of the Wooden Soldiers, or later releasing it on video, without their permission or paying them royalties, because the original copyright deal didn't include television or home video. In the 80s Hal Roach, who regretted loosing the rights to some of his Laurel and Hardy films, had a restored print of Babes in Toyland colorized and released to both television and home video under the title March of the Wooden Soldiers. The rights to the colorized print are with the Samuel Goldwyn Company. While the film is public domain, the colorization is copyrighted. The television broadcast includes a bonus short, The Live Ghost, also colorized, which pads the running time out to two hours. So basically, there are a variety of different poor quality prints of the abridged Astor re-release, the restored and colorized Samuel Goldwyn syndicated print, and a recent M.G.M. print taken from the original master. M.G.M. made two home video masters, one with the original title, and one with the title altered to March of the Wooden Soldiers. Their DVD release has March of the Wooden Soldiers on the box cover, but has the original Babes in Toyland on the  film on the DVD.  For television distribution, they give the station broadcasting the movie the option of which title to use. TCM uses the Babes in Toyland title while it appears this network chose to use the more familiar title March of the Wooden Soldiers

Anyway, a friend of mine pointed out how odd it was that the Catholic Faith Network would be broadcasting a film by a director who was accused of being a child molester. Gus Meins, who directed many of the classic Our Gang films including Mama's little Pirate which would inspire the film The Goonies, was picked by Roach to direct Babes in Toyland. In 1940 six of the former Little Rascals came forward to accuse Meins of molesting  them. Meins denied the charges, but committed suicide the night before he was to be officially arrested. No other Our Gang member came forward, and as far as I know, the identity of his accusers were not made public.

[Darth Geek]

Anyway, a friend of mine pointed out how odd it was that the Catholic Faith Network would be broadcasting a film by a director who was accused of being a child molester.

Why? Would they be jealous that he wasn't one of their child molesters?

[stethacantus]

TCM will be having another Laurel & Hardy marathon next week ( December 14th ) once again beginning at 12:30 in the afternoon with different movies. This time including the feature films not found on the essentials set Bonnie Scotland  ( Airing at 12:15AM Tuesday ) Flying Deuces ( 3:15am Tuesday ) and Pick a Star which they only guest star in. ( 4:30am Tuesday Morning )

It looks as if TCM will be airing L&H marathons every Monday for the rest of the month. 

[stethacantus]

  TCM will reair  Babes in Toyland on Christmas morning.

Then next week, Monday the 28th, there will be another Laurel and Hardy marathon, beginning at 1:00 in the afternoon with The Golden Age of Comedy, a compotation film from the 50s  featuring clips from various silent comedies, mostly those of Laure & Hardy, including  an edited version of the pie fight from Battle of the Century. It will be followed by a lot of shorts and their last two feature films for Hal Roach Studio. Then three films not found in the Essentials set. Nothing But Trouble, Air Raid Wardens and Utopia which is the American edit of A-toll K.  These are all films they made after they left Hal Roach Studios, so you can really tell how much the quality dropped off.