ItвЂ™s been a long wait, but now the Roach films have returned in high style, as a 10-disc box set, вЂњLaurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection,вЂќ produced by RHI Entertainment, the company that currently owns the Roach library, and distributed by Vivendi.

The films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, or at least that central group of sound shorts and several features that remained under the copyright control of the Hal Roach studios, largely dropped out of circulation, except for questionable bootleg videos that would surface here and there, or arrive as expensive European imports. The two-reel shorts, with their 20-minute running times, fit nicely into half-hour slots, with time left over for introductions by the local kiddie host and plenty of commercials for toys and candy.Д«ut television changed, and that exposure seemed to dwindle in the вЂ™70s and вЂ™80s, and fade out almost entirely in the вЂ™90s. For my generation, that meant the extensive exposure their short films and features received on television in the вЂ™50s and вЂ™60s, when they were a staple of Saturday-morning and after-school programming. In the end, the final film of Laurel and Hardy was a sad end to their brilliant careers.MOST of us who love Laurel and Hardy, IвЂ™ve found, came across them first as children.

In a final humiliation, the producers found it impossible to get the film into theaters. As Aping notes, when production had to be halted for the actors to recover, the result is scenes where Stan Laurel appears to age a decade in a matter of seconds.

The Sunday Post reports that both men were considered heavy smokers in an era when smoking was common and accepted, which didn't help their conditions. Hardy was at his heaviest, and suffered heart problems as well as a serious bout of the flu, while Stan Laurel was dealing with his diabetes and a prostate condition. There were language barriers and a terrible script to contend with - but the truly tragic aspect was Laurel and Hardy's health. Oliver Hardy died surprisingly broke, and New Statesman reveals that in 1946, Stan Laurel was forced to admit he only had $2,000 in his bank account - and $200 a month to live on.ДЄccording to Norbert Aping, after World War II ended, Laurel and Hardy's celebrity suddenly took off internationally as their films were finally widely distributed, and so it was decided that there was potential to relaunch their film careers with a French-Italian co-production that eventually became known as Atoll K. By the 1950s, Laurel and Hardy had to embark on a live tour of English music halls to try to pay some bills - which failed when Hardy took ill and the tour had to be canceled. Roach also ensured that they never held any of the copyrights, or got any screenwriting credits, although they usually took a very active role in the writing and directing of their films.ДЄs both men went through several divorces, alimony payments piled up, and Oliver Hardy developed a gambling problem.

He paid them a flat wage instead of a percentage of the profits. For example, he staggered the expiration dates of their contracts so they could never negotiate as a team, which allowed Roach to consistently undervalue them. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Roach managed to keep the upper hand through shrewd negotiating. From that point on, the pair rose to stardom under Roach's guidance - but Roach was a sharp businessman, and Laurel and Hardy were.

Laurel and hardy movies dvd