LAUREL & HARDY OVERSEAS

3 Mrs. Laurel's? 3 actresses come together from 3 different versions of Blotto

3 Mrs. Laurel's????
BLOTTO (1930)
Anita Garvin in the American BLOTTO
Linda Loredo in the Spanish LA VIDA NOCTURNA
Georgette Rhodes in the French UNE NUIT EXTRAVAGANTE


As most fans are well aware, many Laurel and Hardy films were shot specifically for other countries. Stan and Babe would read their lines in foreign languages phonetically, and sometimes were quite unaware of exactly what they were saying. Foreign fans wanted no substitutes, they wanted to hear the real Laurel & Hardy. Supporting roles were cast with popular French, Spanish, German or Italian actors and actresses in place of the familiar American supporting players the U.S. fans had come to know and love. The same sets were used for all of the productions and usually the foreign versions were considerably longer than the U.S. versions.

According to Randy Skretvodt's excellent book, Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind The Movies, Stan Laurel stated that after shooting the entire picture in English, editing it and previewing it, they would bring in "French, German, Italian and Spanish interpreters. And they translated our dialogue into each language...we'd set up the camera, and we'd do the French version of the first scene...and each scene we did four times before we moved the camera for the different change."

CHICKENS COME HOME (1931) was released as the Spanish POLITIQUERAS. In this foreign version Rina Liguoro played Mae Busch's vamp role, Linda Loredo* played Oliver's wife and Carmen Granada took over the role of Mrs. Laurel.

* See the Co-Stars page for more information about LINDA LOREDO


a scene from the American version of CHICKENS COME HOME in 1931
the Spanish version of CHICKENS was POLITIQUERIAS (1931) compare the two shots

Compare these two scenes from the 1931 short CHICKENS COME HOME with the American version (top)
and the Spanish POLITIQUERIAS (bottom)