The Battle of the Century Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

The Battle of the Century Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 28, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations.

Laurel and Hardy made well over one hundred films of various lengths to their combined credit as a comedy duo (spanning both the silent and “talkie” eras), but their output is still kind of woefully under recognized on Blu-ray. Two niche labels have helped that deficit at least a little, with VCI bringing out The Flying Deuces and Legend offering March of the Wooden Soldiers and then March of the Wooden Soldiers 3D, but that’s basically it for Region A consumers, perhaps unbelievably. (It does look like some other regions have their own peculiar releases, many afflicted with less than stellar technical merits, at least based on some member reviews on our site.) An amalgamation of folks including Kit Parker Films, Jeff Joseph (AKA SabuCat), Randy Skretvedt, the UCLA Film and Television Archive and (just for good measure) the Library of Congress have started to remedy that sad situation with this new collection which aggregates two of Laurel and Hardy’s best remembered “feature length” offerings (still on the short side compared to many contemporary outings) along with a glut of shorts, including a reconstructed version of The Battle of the Century, which many fans had considered the “Humpty Dumpty” of Laurel and Hardy films, unable to be “put back together again” after decades of improper curation which is detailed in the commentary track for that film.

With so much being offered in Laurel & Hardy - The Definitive Restorations, it might be a difficult task to choose a favorite, but my hunch is the most devoted fans of Laurel and Hardy are probably going to head straight to The Battle of the Century, since literally no one has seen the film in this relatively complete state since virtually the time of its original release. As is briefly alluded to in text cards reproduced in screenshots 9 and 10, documentarian Robert Youngson's redaction of the film for his pieces on silent cinema comedy had reduced things to just a few minutes, and a complete reel two was thought lost forever to the mists of history. While the second reel derived from a complete workprint that Youngson utilized for his documentaries is sourced from 16mm, it's in surprisingly good shape, and it finally offers viewers a chance to see one of the most epic pie fights in the history of film in its entirety.

The Battle of the Century Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Battle of the Century is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kit Parker Films and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. There's fascinating information about both the provenance of the "new" element utilized here, as well as some of the painstaking restoration this title underwent, in the highly recommended commentary by Richard Bann. Reel one of the film is sepia toned, and was sourced from 35mm, so detail levels are arguably a bit tighter, as is grain resolution. There's one very brief scene missing from reel one (evidently where things segued into black and white), featuring Eugene Pallette as an insurance salesman, and the transfer offers a still of that scene there. The second reel, sourced from 16mm, is noticeably softer and grittier looking, but it still offers generally quite good detail levels.

The Battle of the Century Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Battle of the Century has one of the best sounding LPCM 2.0 tracks on this set, courtesy of a new score by Donald Sosin, which sounds full bodied throughout, with excellent fidelity across all ranges.

The Battle of the Century Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Richard Bann is an absolute high point of this set, and is the "flip side" of those commentaries where you think they're going to run out of film before they finish, since Bann goes on for a good ten minutes or so after the film ends (see screenshot 7 for a shot of what happens after the film ends). This is fascinating from start to finish, and contains a glut of information (among other tidbits, Bann lets the listener in on the fact that there's a future famous part of an iconic comedy duo in the gallery behind the boxers), including some really captivating data about the discovery of the "missing" reel and subsequent efforts to get it out in the public square.


• Gallery (1080p; 7:38) features some interesting prefatory text.

This short is found on Disc One of this set, and those interested should peruse the Supplements section of the Laurel & Hardy - The Definitive Restorations Blu-ray review for a list of other supplements on this disc, some of which are at least tangentially related to the film.

The Battle of the Century Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Battle of the Century is fantastically funny, including in its perhaps lesser remembered opening boxing sequence, but of course for its now deliciously (sorry) restored pie fight sequence. This also features one of the standout commentaries of the set, along with solid technical merits. Highly recommended.