Watched "March of the Wooden Soldiers" Last Night

We watched Laurel & Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) over a big bowl of popcorn last night. The DVD contains the original black and white version as well as a colorized version. My roomie wanted to see the colorized version, so we did. I am not fond of colorizing old black and white movies, but I have to admit that the colorists did a good job and it aided in the enjoyment of the movie.

Above, the DVD box art.

We also checked out some of the extras the DVD contained, and there are a lot of them. We watched the (purported) only technicolor film short of Laurel & Hardy called, "Tree In A Test Tube" for the Dept. of Agriculture's Forest Service on materials made from trees and wood products. It was filmed on November 29, 1941, eight days before the Pearl Harbor attack. This short has been posted on YouTube. To see it, go here.

The DVD had trailers on other programs including one of a storybook television show (I vaguely remember this) hosted and starring Shirley Temple, circa 1960. There were also vintage toy commercials from Remco, Hasbro, Ideal and Mattel. I remembered a couple of them.  One was of a drive-in theater toy that had a mini film strip projector inside that I had when I was a kid. It struck me that the toys back then (late-1950s to early-1960s) allowed kids to use their imaginations while playing, something that seems missing today. There was also a Max Fleisher cartoon of "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer." The DVD also contained a Christmas greeting message by the kids of the "Our Gang" comedies and a Christmas greetings message shown in theaters in 1945, following the end of World War II. There were other extras that we didn't get to.

For around $6.00, the March of the Wooden Soldiers DVD was a great buy at Amazon.com.

Until last night, my roomie never saw March of the Wooden Soldiers before. She enjoyed it.

Latest DVD/Blu-ray Arrivals

Today turned out to be DVD/Blu-ray day.

Diamonds Are Forever

While Christmas shopping at Best Buy, I browsed through the bargain bin and found a number of classic James Bond movies. As I have most all of them, I picked up Diamonds Are Forever (1971). It starred Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Lana Wood and Jimmy Dean.

Diamonds is probably the worst Connery Bond movie. The story was silly (better fitted for Roger Moore) and much of the acting was terrible. Connery was fine, as he had an old pro's grace about him, but some of the co-stars were awful. It had its moments and it was better than the last two Roger Moore Bonds.

I hadn't seen Diamonds Are Forever for a long time as I just had an old VHS tape of it. The transfer of the DVD was excellent. The movie looked as if it were made recently, not 42 years ago. It was fun to see Las Vegas as it was in the early 1970s, the time I started going there. It was not the congested mess it is today.

I am not too thrilled about the box art, but that is just a minor quibble.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

The Blu-ray of this 2011 documentary arrived today from Amazon. My roomie borrowed the DVD from her culinary school's library and we both enjoyed it. I reviewed it almost a year ago. I decided to buy the Blu-ray edition.

March of the Wooden Soldiers

The DVD I ordered arrived right on schedule, so we'll be watching it tomorrow night over a big batch of popcorn.

"March of the Wooden Soldiers" (1934)

Since this is the Christmas season, I was on the lookout for a copy of March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) (also known as Babes In Toyland) starring comedy greats Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It has been a while since I last saw the movie and I wanted a copy for viewing.

Above, Charlotte Henry.

Being unsuccessful at local stores, I turned to Amazon and ordered a copy. They told me that it will be arriving tomorrow. My roomie and I plan to pop some popcorn and enjoy it.

The movie is based on Victor Herbert's 1903 operetta Babes In Toyland, but tailored by Hal Roach Studios for Laurel and Hardy. Along with Stan and Ollie, the other standouts are Charlotte Henry (what a hottie!) as Bo Peep and Henry Brandon as the evil Silas Barnaby.

Brandon was a regular attendee of the Way Out West Tent (Los Angeles) of the Laurel and Hardy fan organization, Sons of the Desert, back in the 1980s. I was a member of the Way Out West Tent back then. Brandon was a very nice guy who enjoyed mingling with fans. The members hissed at him when he was introduced at the meetings. It was all in fun. Brandon was around 22 years old when he made March of the Wooden Soldiers. You really couldn't tell he was that young with the Silas Barnaby make-up he wore. He passed away on February 15, 1990.

I am looking forward to viewing it tomorrow night!