Politiquerías

Laurel and Hardy speak their Spanish lines with the same conviction as they do their lines in the English language version. The supporting cast is great. They have the same flair as the supporting cast more often associated with Laurel and Hardy. The added sequences slow the pace down somewhat - but the two added vaudeville acts entertaining at "Senor Hardy's" home are absolutely amazing. I'm glad their routines have been preserved.

It is very interesting and fun to see little bits of business being improvised by both Laurel and Hardy in this version. Creative geniuses at work.

This is a treasure, in my opinion.

I saw this film once on the American Movie Classics Channel (about 1999).

Laurel & Hardy gained an international audience in the silent film period, mostly due to the physical nature of their comedy, but also because it being silent the dialog could be covered from one non-English speaking country to another with dialog cards that were in the language of that country. Along came the coming of sound and they faced the loss of most of their audience (the idea of dubbing had not taken root yet). So Hal Roach and the boys constructed a number of films in the period from 1930 to 1931 that were in German, Spanish, and French. Not all of these films have survived - one in particular is sorely missed: the French version of PARDON US, in which the villain played by Walter Long is played by an up-and-coming performer named Boris Karloff. It was Karloff's only appearance with Stan and Ollie, and only a single still photo (of him threatening them in the prison yard) still exists.

POLITIQUERIAS was the Spanish version of the short CHICKENS COME HOME, wherein Ollie is a successful businessman who is the reform candidate for Mayor. A shoe-in, he is unsettled by the discovery that a former girlfriend is threatening to reveal their relationship unless he pays her up. But she is trying to force him to see her that very night, when he is entertaining the reform leadership at his home. So he sends Stan to occupy her until he can visit himself. Naturally, Stan will screw up and she will show up at the Hardy mansion.

The English version, that most fans are aware of, is about twenty five minutes long. But the Spanish version was quite a bit longer - almost a mini-feature film. In the English version Hardy's dinner party is taken for granted - he is the host who is trying to keep a good face before his biggest supporters, and in the face of increasing heat from his suspicious wife. On top of that his butler, Jimmy Finlayson, is blackmailing him continuously (William Everson pointed out, in THE COMPLETE FILMS OF LAUREL & HARDY that while Finlayson is usually the social superior of the boys in their films, here, although he is a servant, he still getting the better of Ollie). Also, there are some cuts to Stanley's failure to control the other woman (Mae Busch, of course), and how a friend of Mrs. Hardy (a dried up old prude) follows Stan and acts as a vindictive bolt of lightning on the boys.

In this Spanish version Hardy's party takes center stage, with his hired entertainment acts being filler between the story line sequences. In particular there is the scenes with Hadji-Ali, the great regurgitator of the music halls and vaudeville houses of Europe and America. Oddly enough, a few years ago, in a special documentary about magicians and the like, the footage of Hadji-Ali from POLITIQUERIAS was used to demonstrate his remarkable act. He also teaches Jimmy Finlayson a lesson, when he uses him as an assistant in his act, and Jimmy gets soaked as a result.

That the sound of that Scottish voice and that Georgian voice are now struggling with phonetically written Spanish is not a negative. Both do well enough, and it does not harm an English speaking audience, who would recall the English version. The film remains funny for the boys work and Finlayson, and one gets a rare opportunity to see a one time headliner who astounded audiences with his curious magic act.

This version of Chickens Come Home is much more longer than the original, a magician and a strange man called Hadji-Ali enjoy the party with the Boys. Linda de Loreto shows us a very wild performance in the guise (and dress) of the more sophisticated Mae Busch, blackmailing Oliver and having a hard fight with Stan. (watch to believe). The finest thing is Carmen Granada playing the role of Stan's wife,very pretty and little and so revengeful and angry. The Boys are as good as ever, playing separately for the central part of the movie. maybe a little wildest than the original, with a prolonged "search for the key" in Stan's pockets (it makes ma laugh all the time)and a lot of guests in Ollie's home!

Politiquerias (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Spanish version of Laurel and Hardy's CHICKENS COME HOME features pretty much the same plot with an added twenty-minutes worth of vaudeville acts. The plot is the same as Hardy is trying to run for office but his hopes can possibly go up in flames with an old woman he knew shows up to blackmail him. I've always found it amusing that Hal Roach would have his biggest stars film an English, French and Spanish version of their films and while I've yet to see one of the alternate versions be better than the English one, they're still well worth watching if you're a fan of the duo. The main reason for this is simply a curiosity factor because it's interesting to see what the writers and the boys would change. Since they would shoot the English language version first it allowed them to go back and either correct jokes that didn't work or at least try them in a different way. I think most of the jokes done here were much better in CHICKENS COME HOME but the romp around the office at the start of the picture is still very funny here. The part of this that doesn't work at all is the added footage. Most of them is in the home of Hardy as he's having a party and trying to sneak out. To do this he introduces a couple acts to perform for the guests. I really thought both of them took away from the actual plot, although if you were watching these acts on their own they would have been entertaining. POLITIQUERIAS isn't a classic and it's not even worth watching over the original, however, if you're a fan then you'll want to check it out.

While this is the Spanish version of Chickens Come Home with Stan & Ollie and James Finlayson speaking the language by reading off a blackboard out of camera range, the above title actually translates into "Playing at Politics". The rest of the supporting cast is changed to that of either the native country or someone who happens to speak the language well. Countess Rina de Liguoro-who takes the Mae Busch part of the blackmailer-for instance, is from Italy as explained in a line specifically spoken here in order to acknowledge the Spanish-speaking audience of their detection. For Thelma Todd's role of Mrs. Hardy, Linda Loredo is picked and, boy, is she even more of battleaxe than Ms. Todd as evidenced by an additional scene where she destroys Ollie's hat, coat, and then kicks him for good measure! For the Norma Drew role of Mrs. Laurel, it's Carmen Granada and she's also quite hilariously suspicious with her reactions. It should be noted that these foreign versions are usually longer than the American ones and this one is no exception as there are a couple of vaudeville acts added to pad the running time. One is magician Abraham J. Cantu who has tricks involving cards, cigarettes, handkerchiefs, and newspapers. The other is Hadji Ali, an Egyptian who downs lots of water, hazelnuts, and some kerosene before spitting them all out. You really have to see them to believe them! Oh, and both acts involve Finlayson getting roped in, to his consternation. While neither act was really necessary to the story, it's fascinating to watch them just the same. So in summary, I don't consider Politiquerias as consistently funny as the English-language predecessor mainly because of the padded acts, but it's still very entertaining to watch because of those acts. Oh, and the incriminating photo Rina presents to Ollie is even more spicy then the one Mae showed in the original short.