Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The release of Laurel and Hardy's films is a fairly hit and miss affair in the USA. Warners hold the rights to this film but have not released it on DVD. Outside of the US, the situation is different. Universal have previously released Sons of the Desert and Way Out West in excellent transfers in Region 4. There are large sets released or about to be released in Region 2. In Germany, Kinowelt have issued pristine copies of the films on 24 DVDs so far, with two more about to be released. However, while disc 12 is titled Die Teufelsbrüder (The Devil's Brother) it does not include this film. In the UK Universal are releasing a 21 disc box set in May 2004, but it does not include this film either.

    This film is being released as part of a two disc set in the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) in April 2004, mainly using the Kinowelt transfers. The other films in this set called Features Volume 1 are Pardon Us, Pack Up Your Troubles and Sons of the Desert. While it looks as though these releases will be of good quality, if you are interested in owning this film on DVD it might be best to wait until detailed reviews of the Region 2 set are available so that you can make an informed choice. While I can hardly imagine that the Region 2 will be as bad or worse than the Region 4, I will tentatively call this a draw until I have further information.