COMEDY SPECIALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 5 (Supplement)

COMEDY SPECIALS.

SHORT AND LONG FEATURES

VIEWS OF HAL ROACH.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE VERSIONS,

Hal Roach, discoverer of Harold Lloyd. Bebe Daniels, Lupe Velez and stars, has emphasised the increasingly important part foreign dialogue picture® are playing in the Hollywood scheme of things by preparing films in five languages at his coast studio. Mr. Roach was the first short feature executive to make plans for the multi-lingual screening of comedies. The first foreign dialogue comedies prepared at the Roach plant "were Spanish adaptations of two Laurel and Hardy farce vehicles. These were shown in Seville and stirred up such a vociferous response that arrangements were made to send out Spanish versions of a large percentage of the Roach product. Meanwhile, Italian, French and German departments were installed at the studio, which took on an international atmosphere in a short time. Not Error-proof. No attempt was made by the Roach executive and technical corps to achieve error-proof foreign dialogue. Pre-view tests convinced studio officials and Mr. Roach that a comedian is often funnier if he stumbles through a Spanish or German speech than if he is too glibly fluent. Spanish audiences took special satisfaction in seeing Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy squirming under the burden of a difficult Castilian phrase. There ■was only one imperative requirement —sub-characters in the plot h. d to speak the foreign language perfectly. In most cases a character of minor importance in the original English dialogue comedy was given far more lines in the foreign adaptation so that -he might "carry the plot," while the chief comedians' lines were reduced to the medium best suited for comic efficiency. The old adage "Actions speak louder than words" was recognised as having' special value in these adaptations. Not all the thirty comedies prepared on the Roach lot during the current season are to 'be made in five languages. Obviously this would cozi-stitute a physical impossibility, since in no 'case is a comedy "dubbed" for foreign dialogue. Each foreign language version is a separate production, and frequently more time is required to adapt and photograph the French or Spanish adaptation than the original picture. Laurel and Hardy. Most of the Laurel and Hardy comedies will be made in Spanish and French, because of the exceptional popularity of this oddly contrasted pair of comedians in Latin countries. Charley Chase vehicles will also be made —most of them—in at least three languages. Some of the "Our Gang" juvenile comedies will 'be made in German, Spanish and French, as an experiment to determine foreign audience ractions. The new group of "Boy Friends" releases, narrating the farcical adventures of youngsters of seventeen and eighteen, will be produced in the same number of

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languages. Comedy stars drill many hours a day on. foreign languages, so that they may carry their parts. A 1930 innovation at the Roach studio, in addition to the unusual emphasis on foreign language versions, is the decision to abandon all arbitrary restrictions on comedy footage. For some years all comedy short features had been limited to two reels and had been regarded in most quarters as prorrainme "fillers." The Roach idea was to make comedies with exactly the same care and attention to detail that one would exercise in the production of features. It is the opinion of Mr. Roach that superior three, four, five or six reel comedies will be welcomed by the theatre-going public and that the coming two or three seasons will see comedies occupying a more important place on the programme of first-run theatres than ever 'before. Hurriedly Prepared. "Many persons don't realise the difference between hurriedly prepared programme odds and ends and the comedies on which we've been concentrating," said Mr. Roach. "We have been endeavouring to produce comedies which from every angle of production can ba treated as features. The difference is merely in length. We are seleoting stories and casting for type in our comedies exactly as we would do for fulllength pictures. "It haß always been my feeling that it was unfair to such high-ranking comedians as Laurel and Hardy to keep all story vehicles, regardless of the space needed to develop the plot properly, within a twenty or twenty-five-minute limitation. Some comedies are best in two reels, but others suffer when they have to be cut down from three or four to two. Under-estimated. "I believe that theatre owners have under-estimated in many cases the interest of the public in good comedies. The big majority of children and' certainly a good proportion of adults would rather see comedies of this sort than many of the other elements now making up a theatre programme." Hal Roach is the first studio head to visit branch offices and attend conferences throughout the country by airplane. The comedy producer is an enthusiastic polo player and automobilist, and about six months ago he acquired a Thavelair monoplane. Since that time he has spent all his available time in the air, and has made eight crosscountry trips.