La vida nocturna

In the early days of talking pictures, technology for dubbing or subtitling films for foreign markets didn't exsist. What film-makers had to do was to go back and RE-SHOOT the entire film in whatever language, Spanish, French, or German. English speaking actors had to learn these languages on the spot, often reading from off-camera blackboards.

In the case of Laurel and Hardy, the two boys do very well with Spanish. This short is a Spanish re-shoot of one of their best shorts, BLOTTO. Here the boys skip off to a speak-easy. Stan's annoyed wife decides to sabotage the booze bottle he is to bring along. The second half of the short takes place in the speakeasy where the boys cause more havoc than Godzilla through Tokyo. You don't understand what is happening, because it's all in Spanish.

And then there's this very strange exotic dancer who comes in and performs at the speak-easy. A terrific comedy short.