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Podcasts Off-Ramp
Parallel Language Films: Laurel and Hardy speaking Spanish? German? French??
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
Feb 5, 2011
Listen • 6:36
Parallel Language Films: Laurel and Hardy speaking Spanish? German? French??
Back in the day of silent films, Hollywood studios could market their movies all over the world easily: all it required was a few translated title cards and you could ship any film anywhere. But as talking pictures crept in, things got a little more difficult. CLICK THROUGH to see what the solution looked (and sounded) like!
Four leading men, five different languages.
Four leading men, five different languages.
(
Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives
)

Back in the day of silent films, Hollywood studios could market their movies all over the world easily: all it required was a few translated title cards and you could ship any film anywhere. But as talking pictures crept in, things got a little more difficult. CLICK THROUGH to see what the solution looked (and sounded) like!

Back in the day of silent films, Hollywood studios could market their movies all over the world easily: all it required was a few translated title cards and you could ship any film anywhere. But as talking pictures crept in, things got a little more difficult. CLICK THROUGH to see what the solution looked (and sounded) like!

Dubbing and subtitles hadn't been invented yet, so studios had no choice but re-shoot each new movie with a different cast: one in English, one in Spanish, sometimes even Romanian and Polish. This Wednesday, February 9, the Hollywood Heritage Museum will show some rarely seen clips from these films and host a discussion about why they came to be. Off-Ramp's Kevin Ferguson with the Museum's president, Richard Adkins and film archivist Daryl Maxwell.