A wonderful inclusion to the awesome 21-volume “Laurel & Hardy: The Collection” DVD Boxset, “Laurel & Hardy: A Chump at Oxford” features the much longer and much better European 62-minute version of their 1940 film. Volume 1 also includes one silent short and one talkie short as well!
© 1928-1940 CCA. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Laurel & Hardy: A Chump at Oxford and Related Shorts v.1 (as part of the Laurel & Hardy: The Collection)
YEAR OF FILM & SHORT RELEASE: A Chump at Oxford (1940), From Soup to Nuts (1928), Another Fine Mess (1930)
DURATION: A Chump at Oxford (1:00:57), From Soup to Nuts (18:41), Another Fine Mess (1930)
DVD INFORMATION: Region 2 (PAL), 4:3, Black and White and Color, English subtitles
COMPANY: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: May 3, 2004
A Chump at Oxford
Directed by Alfred J. Goulding
Original Story and Screenplay by Charles Rogers, Felix Adler and Harry Langdon
Produced by Hal Roach
Associate Producer: Hal Roach Jr.
Music by Marvin Hatley
Cinematography by Art Lloyd
Edited by Bert Jordan
Art Direction: Charles D. Hall
Set Decoration by William Stevens
From to Soup to Nuts
Directed by Edgar Kennedy
Written by Leo McCarey, H.M. Walker
Produced by Hal Roach
Cinematography by Len Powers
Edited by Richard C. Currier
“Another Fine Mess”
Directed by James Parrott
Based on the play “Home from the Honeymoon” by Arthur J. Jefferson
Dialogue by H.M. Walker
Produced by Hal Roach
Cinematography by Jack Stevens
Edited by Richard C. Currier
“A Chump at Oxford”
Starring:
Stan Laurel as Stan/Lord Paddington
Oliver Hardy as Ollie
Forrester Harvey as Meredith
Wilfred Lucas as Dean Williams
Forbes Murray as Banker
Frank Baker as Dean’s Servant
Eddie Borden as Student Ghost
Gerald Rogers as Student Johnson
Victor Kendall as Student Cecil
Gerald Fielding as Student Brown
Charlie Hall as Studen Hector
Peter Cushing as Student Jones
“From Soup to Nuts”
Starring:
Stan Laurel as Hired Butler
Oliver Hardy as Hired Butler
Dorothy Coburn as Party Guest
Buddy the Dog as Dog
Otto Fries as Chef
Anita Garvin as Mrs. Culpepper
“Another Fine Mess”
Starring:
Stan Laurel as Stan
Oliver Hardy as Ollie
Thelma Todd as Lady Plumtree
James Finlayson as Colonel Wilburforce Buckshot
Charles K. gerrard as Lord Leopold Ambrose Plumtree
One of Laurel & Hardy’s best-loved featured films, “A Chump at Oxford” sees them traveling to England to obtain an education, only for Stand to be revealed as a long-lost British aristocrat! Also, included is the classic silent comedy from “Soup to Nuts”, which the team remade as a section of “A Chump at Oxford” only with Stan switching the character to that of “Agnes”, the maid! Also, in this compilation is an earlier glimpsed of “Agnes” in one of their greatest talkie shorts, “Another Fine Mess”.
When it comes to Laurel and Hardy, many fans have of the comedy duo have been waiting for many of their shorts and films to be released on DVD in the U.S.
The good news is that many of the shorts have been released courtesy of Image Entertainment on DVD, the bad news is that these out-of-print and are very hard to find and if you don’t find them, expect to pay a lot of money for them.
While some companies have released Laurel & Hardy shorts and films (some in worse condition than others), in 2004, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released a magnificent box set featuring 21 volumes of “Laurel & Hardy” with many of their films and shorts shot during 1920-1940.  The good news, as of 2010, this magnificent box set can be purchased for a pretty low price these days. The bad news (for those in America), it’s only available in the UK and for some reason, Universal has passed on releasing this set in the U.S. Which is truly unfortunate and thus many Laurel and Hardy fans have been purchasing the PAL release from Amazon UK (which has dropped in price considerably since its initial release) and watching them via an all-region player (which are sold quite cheap at Target and Wal-Mart stores).
In the first volume, we get the feature extended version of the film “A Chump at Oxford”. In the US, the film was released as a “streamlined feature” running 42 minutes long. For the European simultaneous release, a 20-minute prologue was added and the version on this DVD release is the 62 minute version.
“A Chump at Oxford” is about a group of two men looking for a job. Unfortunately, each job they get, they end up screwing things up and as quickly as they get a job, as quickly they lose it. Both realize that they need more education to get better jobs and vow to go back to school. But first, they need to eat lunch. So, as they sit outside of a bank and eat lunch. Stan throws a banana right near the steps of the door.
Not knowing that inside the bank, the bank is being held up by a robber. As the robber tries to make his escape, he slips on the banana peel and ends up falling on Laurel and Hardy. The two grab on to him until the police come and they are hailed as heroes.  The bank offers them jobs but they tell the bank manager that before they can work, they need to go back to school and get an education. So, the bank decides to send them to the most prestigious college for an education, Oxford University. But will Oxford be ready for Laurel & Hardy?
For “From Soup to Nuts”, this silent short is about Laurel and Hardy getting a job as butlers. With a party taking place, the two try their best to serve the posh guests food but Oliver gets on Stan’s bad side and the two end up trying to compete with each other on who can give the best service. Unfortunately, even for Laurel and Hardy, they always find ways to screw it up.
For “Another Fine Mess”, Laurel and Hardy call a police officer names and now they are being chased by him. The two end up running and hiding at the residence of Colonel Wilburforce Buckshot (who is gone on vacation) and now, Hardy pretends to be Colonel Buckshot and Laurel pretends to be a servant and try to entertain the guests of Colonel Buckshot. But both are unaware that Colonel Buckshot is returning back home from his traveling.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“A Chump at Oxford” is presented in restored black and white and also computer-colored version. The picture quality for “A Chump at Oxford” is actually very good for this 70-year-old film. Dialogue is clear and detected no severe hissing.
“From Soup to Nuts” is a silent presented in 4:3, black and white. The quality is not great but considering that this short is over 80-years-old, I have seen worse quality with some other silent films. But it does have interlacing issues. As for audio, music is played, actually the music is is very noticeable with Hal Roach’s “Little Rascals” shorts. Audio is fine ala monaural.
“Another Fine Mess” has its share of flickering and scratches and dust is seen on the print but it’s not that bad compared to the fading/interlacing print of “From Soup to Nuts”.
As for the colorized version, I am not sure if the colorization is spot on but truthfully, it’s not as good as the Legend Films colorization and is reminiscent of the colorization of the 1990’s in which you can detect that black and white a little from the characters and colors don’t seem as natural.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
These Laurel & Hardy DVD releases from Universal do not come with special features but they do include colorized versions of the feature films.
Laurel and Hardy are one of the most amazing comedy duo’s from the silent and talkies era.  It’s unfortunate that with a duo who has such an impressive career, there has not been solid treatment for many of their films and shorts in the US. Granted, we have a handful of releases from TCM, Legend and KINO which are still available but yet, a lot of their silent work and classic films have not been released on DVD yet and those that have been released, the DVD’s are out of print and are extremely costly.
With that being said, after waiting for years to see if an American version of this box set would be released in America, I have given up. It’s more than likely this won’t be released and if it does, it would probably be part of Universal’s DVD on demand via their “Vault Series” ala DVD-R. So, if you want these Laurel & Hardy shorts and films all in one box set which cost around $41 (US), you can definitely take advantage of it’s lowest price point (again…21 DVD’s).
Although these DVD’s are not being released via chronological order and are released on a theme, I still am very grateful for these Laurel and Hardy releases and for the first volume “A Chump at Oxford” is just a hilarious film. And the prologue added to the European release is actually makes the film even more entertaining and it also includes a newer version of what they did in their silent film “From Soup to Nuts” incorporate into the film. And the fact that you get the silent short included on this first volume is also awesome as well.
But going back to “A Chump at Oxford”, although I have always enjoyed their silent film work, I really enjoy their talkies and feature films that really explore the group’s comedy, physical comedy and literally show us why they were one of the greatest comedy duo’s of all time. With our without the prologue, it’s just hilarious to watch. As we see the students pranking Laurel & Hardy in a maze and then having a ghost chasing them around. Another scene in which Laurel gets bonked in the head and goes from the dumbwitted character to the very intelligent and not afraid to fight (and long lost) hero of Oxford. The way how things played out and how many sight gags there are is just a testament to their comedy and what a wonderful way to start off their collection by starting off with this first film.
“Another Fine Mess” is a good classic Laurel & Hardy short and wonderful addition to this first volume although not really related to the theme but more of an extra short to add to the disc. Although not my favorite Laurel & Hardy short, I do enjoy the chase scenes through early Los Angeles.
The first volume DVD does not come with any special features but considering that you get one feature film and two shorts is awesome and then as an extra incentive, you do get the colorized versions of “A Chump at Oxford” and “Another Fine Mess”. Although, personally, I could care less about these colorized versions as it looks more like ’90s colorization, not well-done and personally, I feel that this takes even more space on a DVD and would rather see them dedicate better video (higher bitrate) towards the black and white original releases.
Overall, “Laurel & Hardy: A Chump at Oxford and Related Shorts v.1” is an entertaining Laurel & Hardy release but I highly recommend purchasing “the Laurel & Hardy: The Collection” box set for all 21 DVD volumes than the single volume as you get more for your money. A wonderful inclusion to the DVD Box set!’
