II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull

Some dialogue modifications were implemented for the foreign versions – Ollie: Did you have an uncle?
Stan: He’s at the University of Berlin. Ollie: As a professor? Stan: No, preserved in a jar soaked in spirit! –a
joke mirrored in the Spanish version by placing Stan’s uncle at the University of Barcelona!
SPUK UM MITTERNACHT successfully played in its opening venue for a full 18 days, easily beating the earlier
ROGUE SONG, and also Danish competitors Pat and Patachon’s latest silent.
ollowing a long search, a slightly incomplete print of the film has since been recovered. Supplemented
with a few sequences from the English and Spanish versions to replace the missing German footage, the
film re-premiered on August 14, 2004 during the Bonner Sommerkino, 73 years after it was first shown. The
original length of the 1931 German release of SPUK UM MITTERNACHT – at four reels, or 1095 metres – does,
however, pose yet another research question. The German SPUK is shorter than the Spanish NOCHE DE DUEN-
DES, but it is known that an Austrian variant of the German-language edition (retitled DREI MILLIONEN DOL-
LAR, or «Three Million Dollars») was released in Vienna during November 1931 at five reels, or 1600 metres,
or in other words at a length similar to its Spanish counterpart. There is the possibility that the overlong
sleeping-berth sequence of NOCHE (which was shot before the German version) was tightened immediately
before SPUK was produced, although this poses the question as to why the final version of NOCHE was not
edited accordingly. Equally possible – and indeed probable, given the availability of a longer German version
in Austria – is that SPUK started life at the same length as NOCHE, but that the German office of MGM decided
to edit their release, whereas the distributors in Austria left their version unaltered.
One of the more intriguing German counterparts of American Laurel and Hardy films is that of HOLLY-
WOOD REVUE O 1929, which was essentially re-made with German artists substituting for some of their American
colleagues as WIR SCHALTEN UM AU HOLLYWOOD. Among the actors taken over from the original release
of the film was Buster Keaton; the German version survives, but Laurel and Hardy do not appear in it. However,
subtitled prints of the English language variant, with the Laurel and Hardy segment included, were
shown in Austria.
The era of phonetic Roach versions soon came to an end – M-G-M had a hard time using the concept
with the likes of Garbo and Gable and preferred the technique to be suspended – but before that was to
happen, Laurel and Hardy had to repeat their linguistic struggles once more, this time in a genuine feature-length
format.
HINTER SCHLOSS UND RIEGEL («Behind Lock and Bolt») was the phonetic German equivalent of PARDON US,
a parody of M-G-M’s prison drama THE BIG HOUSE, which in turn had been reshot with a German cast as MEN-
SCHEN HINTER GITTERN («Men Behind Bars»). Coupled with a vintage Chaplin short (A NIGHT IN THE SHOW,
from 1915), the comedians’ take on the subject premiered on April 23, 1932. Heavily streamlined in its US
version following previews, the expanded foreign versions retained much of what was cut from the domestic
release.
It is reasonable to assume that the German version followed the lines of the expanded Spanish version,
DE BOTE EN BOTE, which has resurfaced and been distributed on TV and video. The complete rench version,
SOUS LES VERROUS – and possibly an additional Italian version called MURAGLIE – remain elusive (which is
especially frustrating in the case of the rench version, since Boris Karloff is seen in one production still
from this variant), and so does most of the German one. However, a precious couple of minutes have been
rediscovered in the form of a Danish (!) trailer, which film historian Peter Mikkelsen obtained in July 1999.
Hearing Laurel and Hardy speak German for the first time (or at least trying) in this footage was an incredible
thrill for German aficionados, and they had a chance without much delay: the rediscovery even made it
into the German television news, clips and all. The TV news reports remained available on the internet for a
while, and nowadays the fragment is readily available on DVD.
At the time, some critics reacted coldly, believing the film’s subject matter should not be the target of
ridicule, and the old Chaplin short was considered funnier anyway. Once again they elaborated on the rather
heavy accents of the comedians — «Dick und Dof, Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel, are the two brighter brothers
of Pat and Patachon... They speak German themselves.... that American German, like [that] of Buster
Keaton, rolling the sounds in the mouth until they resemble broad American slang.» — a notion that the rediscovered
footage certainly does not dispel.
ollowing Laurel and Hardy’s first feature, the phase of phonetic variants was over, but a package of
nine talkie shorts passed censorship for the German market, starting with an abridged version of THE MUSIC
BOX with German subtitles.