Laurel & Hardy's FUN HOUSE #8 And for previous L&H fun, click HERE or HERE (or heck, click 'em both!)

By special request from a lot of anxiously-awaiting fans around the world... Here's a look at the new MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS DVD from MGM/Fox, available ONLY as part of the three-disc "MGM Holiday Collection" (SRP $29.99) along with reissues of The Bishop's Wife and Pocketful of Miracles. Clearly, what is most of interest is Hal Roach's 1934 version of March of the Wooden Soldiers (a/k/a Babes in Toyland), which to date has only been available in rather poor prints from duped masters, or (horrors!) colorized, or more usually, both. The best previous print of this film we'd ever seen here in the Balcony was the German DVD, and this new one appears to be much better.

March of the Wooden Soldiers is the first L&H film your Balcony Webmaster can recall seeing, courtesy of a 16mm projector set up at YMCA camp when he was a kid, and it's still one of his favorites (and isn't it annoying when he talks about himself in the third person? WE think so!). This new set from MGM/Fox is worth it just to finally get a good copy of this film. Here's a comparison with the German DVD disc (on the left) and the new USA disc (on the right). No, YOUR right. Sheesh.

The GERMAN DVD version from KinoWelt:	The USA DVD version from MGM/Fox: