Les carottiers (1931)
*** (out of 4)
French language version of both BE BIG! and LAUGHING GRAVY is actually pretty good on its own terms, although I still prefer both the English language versions. The first part of the story, re-working BE BIG!, has the boys lying to the wives so that they can get out of a trip to Atlantic City and instead go to their lodge. In the second half, the boys are kicked out by the wives and end up in a boarding house where they must hide their dog from the landlord. LES CAROTTIERS is a pretty funny movie clocking in at just over an hours, a trick Hal Roach was using to sell this as a feature. For the most part I think fans will be happy with this film, although there's no question that both Laurel and Hardy spoke much better Spanish. The men always read their foreign lines phonetically and I thought the Spanish came off quite good but there's no question that they butcher some of the French and there are takes where it appears they're both having a slow time reading through the French. Still, it's quite impressive that they were able to do as good as they did. I thought the best sequences take place in the first half when Hardy is playing sick to the women. There's an extremely long sequence with trying to take a boot off that offers some slapstick but I think the majority of the jokes aren't quite that funny. The second half dealing with the landlord was good but I think the English version was a tad bit better.
*** (out of 4)
French language version of both BE BIG! and LAUGHING GRAVY is actually pretty good on its own terms, although I still prefer both the English language versions. The first part of the story, re-working BE BIG!, has the boys lying to the wives so that they can get out of a trip to Atlantic City and instead go to their lodge. In the second half, the boys are kicked out by the wives and end up in a boarding house where they must hide their dog from the landlord. LES CAROTTIERS is a pretty funny movie clocking in at just over an hours, a trick Hal Roach was using to sell this as a feature. For the most part I think fans will be happy with this film, although there's no question that both Laurel and Hardy spoke much better Spanish. The men always read their foreign lines phonetically and I thought the Spanish came off quite good but there's no question that they butcher some of the French and there are takes where it appears they're both having a slow time reading through the French. Still, it's quite impressive that they were able to do as good as they did. I thought the best sequences take place in the first half when Hardy is playing sick to the women. There's an extremely long sequence with trying to take a boot off that offers some slapstick but I think the majority of the jokes aren't quite that funny. The second half dealing with the landlord was good but I think the English version was a tad bit better.