8mm Forum: "Chickens Come Home" Spanish version question ...

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 04, 2014, 01:19 PM:

For the Laurel and Hardy experts out there ...

I just ran into a Spanish version of "Chickens Come Home" on a database for download, but I was surprised to see that it has a running time of 55 minutes, where I have always known the English language version to run approximately 30 minutes.

So ....

Was "Chickens Come Home" released abroad (Mexico, for instance) as a feature, while it was a 30 minute short subject elsewhere?

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on September 04, 2014, 02:03 PM:

The definition of short and feature may differ from one country to another. Classicaly, in French, a short (coutr-métrage) is less than one hour, so, starting from 60 minutes, it is regarded to a feature (long métrage). But not everyone agrees with that and there is something between short and feature (called moyen-métrage). About this specific, title, all I know is that at the beginning of the talkies, it was common to shoot different versions in different languages, so it may explain the duration difference.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on September 04, 2014, 02:05 PM:

The film was released in Spanish as "Politquerias", in a six-reel version with changes to the cast, Linda Loredo as Mrs. Hardy and Carmen Granada as Mrs. Laurel.

The English language release was three reels.

Posted by Zechariah Sporre (Member # 2358) on September 04, 2014, 03:57 PM:

This version is definitely worth watching. They have a few extra things including a scene with Hadji Ali. He could do some incredible things. Politiquerias/Chicken Come Home might be my favorite L&H film.

Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on September 04, 2014, 07:43 PM:

Foreign audiences desired longer films and sometimes Roach pieced together the

shorts to expand a story.

Birth Marks (1929) and The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930) were combined to

make a German release featurette as Spuk um Mitternact (1931)

Spuk um Mitternacht, Hunting at Midnight

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 05, 2014, 12:55 PM:

I wonder how much of the almost 25 minutes of extra footage was actually extra Laurel and Hardy?

Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on September 05, 2014, 03:22 PM:

The featurette is sandwiched between Big Business and alternate versions of
The L-H Murder Case on this You Tube link. It's interesting that in the first alternate version there are men walking behind the boys as they are sitting on the dock. There are additional mannerisms in the scenes. Some scenes are extended.

The first version has the boys speaking in their own voices. Roach placed chalk boards as cue cards that were off camera and the script was written phonetically to enable them to speak foreign languages before films could be dubbed.

You Tube: Spuk um Mitternact

Compare it to the original BirthMarks Stan is not carrying the cello in the German release.

Birthmarks

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