Blazing Saddles 4K (1974/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Laurel & Hardy: Year Two (1928/Flicker Alley Blu-ray Set)/A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series (1965-1966/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray Set)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: X/B/B Sound: B-/B/B- Extras: B*/B/D Main Programs: B/B/B-

Up next we get some comedies, westerns and a classic combo of both....

PLEASE NOTE: The Man Called Shenandoah Blu-ray set is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles 4K (1974) remains one of the funniest, most politically incorrect comedies of all time, but it has to get racial to deal with racism and genocide only the way Brooks could. We reviewed his breakthrough hit in the long-defunct HD-DVD format at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3776/Blazing+Saddles+(HD-DVD

Playing like a time capsule of another time more than ever, the cast is amazing and some of the jokes are not just political or racial, but just very funny and hold up in whole new ways. In is also odd to watch this after a cycle of 'too clean' phony pseudo-Westerns that are high on revisionist history and re-reminds us how a real Western is supposed to be. Hard to believe it sometimes takes a comedy like this to do that, but the genre has been dead for so long (Cimino's Heaven's Gate in 1980 ended it, even beyond anything the makers of that film intended) and the older classics are not being see or saved enough (cheers to warner for the 4K upgrade of Ford's The Searchers we'll be covering soon) and this will hopefully lead to the rest of the Brooks comedy catalog hitting 4K as this and Spaceballs do the same.

*Extras are those on the 4K disc, plus those in the larger box set. The 4K includes a Scene Specific Commentary by Mel Brooks
- Inappropriate Inspiration: The Blazing Saddles Effect: In the 50 years since it redefined cinematic comedy, the wickedly satirical Blazing Saddles has inspired generations of comedians, writers, actors and filmmakers. Some of today's most creative comic minds detail the film's brilliance and reveal how it continues to challenge and inspire them.
- Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild Wild West
- Back In The Saddle
- and Additional Scenes

The box set adds SteelbookArtwork
- Rigid Slipcase Artwork
- Tip-On Artwork
- Envelope
- Double-Sided Original Poster Art
- 10x Art Cards
- Double-Sided Bookmark
- Double-Sided Retro Artcard
- 3x Double-Sided BTS Cards

- a regular Blu-ray that repeats some of the 4K extras is also included and adds
- Black Bart: The 1975 Pilot Episode of the Proposed TV Series Spinoff
- and an Original Theatrical Trailer.

We would obviously rate the box set higher and will look at it if we ever get one.

Laurel & Hardy: Year Two (1928) features all 11 hit silent short films the legendary duo made for the Hal Roach Studios (distributed at the time by #1 Hollywood studio MGM) that year and is not only the first full year they worked together, it would be the first and last fully silent set of films in one year they would ever make. Though some of these shorts have a little overlap and they are working out their act and the direction they would be taking, some of these shorts here are their most well known and (with the second and third film holding up particularly well against some classics) include:

Leave 'em Laughing
The Finishing Touch
From Soup to Nuts
You're Darn Tootin'
Their Purple Moment
Should Married Men Go Home?
Early to Bed
Two Tars
Habeas Corpus
We Faw Down

Selling well from their theatrical release to rentals and sales of actual film prints, including 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm film prints for the home, then on VHS, Beta, LaserDisc and DVD, they have stayed popular all this time. Laurel's characters were more willing to fight Hardy's in this time, but they eventually made him more of a passive sidekick, Laurel's decision since he wrote and came up with the vast majority of their routines and situations. Either way, they were set, even more than they knew and the most successful comedy duo in cinema history was only just getting warmed up.

Extras include Feature Length Audio Commentary Tracks for each film by historians and authors Randy Skretvedt and Richard Bann

• Exclusive, Rare Audio featuring Anita Garvin, Thomas Benton Roberts, and Hal Roach, from personal interviews conducted by historian Randy Skretvedt

• Additional Musical Scores: Alternate audio options, including fully restored original 1928 Vitaphone tracks on Habeas Corpus and We Faw Down

• Laurel & Hardy On-Location in Year Two: A video essay by historian John Bengtson on selected location exteriors

• Eve's Love Letters (1927): One of Stan Laurel's final solo films, directed by Leo McCarey and written by Laurel himself, from rare 35mm elements

• Galloping Ghosts (1928): Two surviving fragments of a rare solo Oliver Hardy comedy

• Now I'll Tell One (1927): A rare fragment of a Charlie Chase two-reeler featuring appearances by Hardy in a brief early scene and hardy in the latter part of the short

• A Pair of Tights (1928): A short starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron, who were teamed to try and replicate the success of Laurel and Hardy

• George Mann's Home Movies from behind the scenes of Hal Roach Studios, including the filming of Should Married Men Go Home?

• A Complete, 20-minute Interview by Tony Thomas with Stan Laurel, recorded in January 1959, the year after Oliver Hardy's death

• Film Specific Image Galleries containing original publicity materials, press reviews, and rare production stills

• and another high quality Souvenir Booklet containing a new collection introduction by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange; A look at the supporting players and other creative personnel in the world of Hal Roach Studios by historian Sara Imogen Smith; A new essay exploring the development of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in 1928 by Randy Skredvedt; and comprehensive notes on each film.

You can read more about the Year One set, which also has a link to the terrific Laurel Or Hardy set at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16353/Barbie+4K+(2023/Warner+4K+Ultra+HD+Blu-ray

A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series (1965 - 1966) stars Robert Horton as the title character, who has totally lost his memory and has settled in a town where in each show, we start to piece together his past as he does. Sort of a variant on the Revenge Western, it lasted only 34 half-hour shows, but they are up there with smarter TV Westerns like Have Gun Will Travel.

Additionally, the guest star list impresses with the likes of Warren Oates, Cloris Leachman, Edward Asner, Leonard Nimoy, Sally Kellerman, DeForest Kelley, Bruce Dern, Martin Landau, Frank Gorshin, Harry Dean Stanton, George Kennedy, John Dehner, L.Q. Jones, Beverly Garland, Jeanne Cooper, Claude Akins, James Gregory, Robert Loggia, Madlyn Rhue, Lloyd Bochner, Charles McGraw, Henry Jones, Juliet Mills, Leif Erickson, Jeanette Nolan, Nehemiah Persoff, Charles Aidman, John McIntire, Dennis Patrick, Kent Smith, Gregg Palmer, Whit Bissell, Ken Lynch, Elinor Donahue, Michael Burns, Nina Shipman, Norman Leavitt, Stuart Nisbet, James Frawley, Joyce Van Patten, George Mitchell, Hal Baylor, Robert Random, Albert Salmi, Fay Spain, Ed Peck, Sandy Kenyon, Susan Oliver, Michael Ansara, Vic Perrin, Russell Thorson, Geraldine Brooks, Karl Swenson, J.D. Cannon, Lynn Loring, Andrew Duggan, Elisha Cook Jr., Joanna Pettet, Warren Stevens, Norman Fell, Pat Hingle, John Ireland, Nina Foch, Louise Latham, Strother Martin, Bert Freed, Antoinette Bower, Fred Beir, Jay C. Flippen, Robert Cornthwaite, Jon Lormer, Herb Vigran, Diana Hyland, Harold J. Stone, Tim Herbert, Arthur O'Connell, Martin Milner, Ross Elliott, Anne Loos, Gary Merrill and Virginia Christine among others.

That is a staggering cast for a single-season, half-hour show, but the acting is as strong as the names and besides a big group of curios alone just on the guest star power, it is nicely done and more than just Western fans should consider catching up with the show. Nice its been saved and brought back. A pleasant surprise.

There are sadly no extras, though you'd think someone would want to do a commentary track or something..

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Blazing Saddles 4K looks really good, better than the decent transfer used eons ago for the Blu-ray/HD-DVD versions and that was not bad for its time. Detail, depth and definition are king here, with decent color, though it slightly misses the full impact of what a dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor version of the film would deliver if you could see such a print. It still looks fine and has an effective use of the Panavision scope frame. The sound has been upgraded to a lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) mix that is not bad and brings out the music, but the sonic improvements also reveal the limits of the old, original theatrical monophonic sound. A DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix version of that original sound is also included, but I like the Atmos better and both are better than the lossy Dolby Digital Mono from that old HD-DVD and many a DVD.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfers on the Laurel & Hardy set can obviously and often show the age of the materials used, but then you get the restored parts and moments that are incredible and the hard work it took to get these to look as good as they do and that they survived as well as they did is remarkable. Note that these were big hit shorts, negatives were used initially to make all the prints and preservation was not happening much at the time. I was more familiar with these shorts than those of the first set and can tell you these deliver some aspects of the comedy more effectively than you would even expect. What a nice job and fine work all around.

The sound is in PCM 2.0 Stereo for all the new music scores PCM 2.0 Mono for older soundtracks that somehow survived. These all sound as good as they ever will.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfers on the Shenandoah episodes rarely show the age of the materials used and is the best these shows have ever looked outside of rare 35mm and 16mm film screenings. The Alaskans, also a Western TV show from Warner Archive looks a little clearer with purer video white despite being a little older, but this still looks fine and it seems to be the look the makers were going for. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes sound as good as these episodes ever will and have few flaws or issues. Fans and those who have never seen the show before will be pleasantly surprised.

To order the A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Warner Archive Blu-ray set, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20

- Nicholas Sheffo