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These are Tough Days for the SCREEN COMEDIANS
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy show Homer Croy, THE NEW MOVIE'S
Toastmaster, the second funniest derby in the world. It belongs to
Stan. The funniest is Chaplin's.
"Ich auch," said the tutor, tearing his throat slightly.
"Ick auk," repeated Hardy.
"No, do it dis vay already once," commanded the tutor and strange subterranean noises came gurgling up out of his tummy.
"Ick auk," said Hardy.
"Mein Gott, no — dis vay once — ich auch."
"Ick auk," piped Hardy.
Believe it or not, at last they got it right. Just how, I am not clear, for I have always held that the days of miracles are over. Anyway, Herr Germany was pleased and said dot it was goot.
Sometimes the two sufferers could not remember all the words, and so these were written on a blackboard and placed just outside the camera lines.
When they get stuck the boys raise their eyes to the blackboard and ick it all over again.
AT last the scene was all made in Ger'■man; but could they come home and call it a day? No, indeed. It had to be made encore in French; and then ditto in Spanish.
"The only words that I know in Spanish are toreador," said Laurel, "and we haven't had it yet. I know I'll be good that day."
Their work may seem haphazard and incongruous, as I fling, off these words, but as a matter of fact they are doing their foreign talkers remarkably well. One Spanish paper was so enthusiastic about their work that it came out and announced that Senor Laurel was of an old Spanish family and spoke the true Castilian. And the only Castile that Laurel ever heard of is the one in soap.
One reason why the team of Laurel and Hardy can get away with it so well is that they depend mostly on their pantomime for comedy. It is their actions and their expressions that tell the story. Words are just frosting on the cake.
Stan Laurel ought to know his way about in comedy. When that other notable Englishman, Charlie Chaplin, decided to try his wings in America in a sketch called "A Night in an English Music Hall," Stan Laurel was his understudy and came to America with him, and he roomed with him. But business was not always good with the English comedians. Instead of going to the hotels, as they toured the country, they went to boarding houses and fried their chops in their room. Laurel's part was to fry the chops while Charlie's duty was to sit by the door and strum his mandolin so (Continued on page 132)
The six who do it: James Parrott, who is the Laurel and Hardy director, the Spanish tutor, Messrs. Laurel and Hardy, the French instructor and the German teacher.
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