Laurel and Hardy were a universally loved British-American comedy team who made over 106 films together. They were a wonderful juxtaposition of extremes - skinny/fat; slow/clever; English/American. They were two of the few actors of the silent-film era to successfully make the transition to talkies. In fact, it is said that their differing accents, revealing their different origins, added to the dimensions of the characters and their relationship with each other.
In the early years of talking films, Hollywood would often make the same film in various languages. Producers would replace secondary characters with foreigners and coach the stars to phonetically interpret their lines in a variety of foreign languages. They did try to make the same film with, let's say, Spanish actors. But no one in Latin America or Spain wanted to see Diego Grantile. They wanted Cary Grant.
As film-making became more expense, Hollywood soon realized that reshooting the same film four or five times was not a wise investment. And so the dubbing industry quickly took off in Latin America and Europe, an unfortunate enterprise that still persists to this day, especially in Spain and Italy.
Laurel and Hardy were among this group of actors that interpreted their own films in various languages. In fact, they insisted on doing so for as long as possible, fearing that artificial dubbing would rob their slapstick of its spontaneity and of its humanity.
Perhaps they were right.
Their films were invariably world-wide hits. It is thought that, with their universal humor, enhanced by their silly Spanish, French and German accents, they reached more audiences than anyone.
People loved them.
So much so, that when Spain's dubbing industry took off, Spanish voice-over actors imitated the flawed accents of Laurel and Hardy speaking Spanish in the hopes of appealing to a wider audience.
They say that today English is the universal language. They're wrong, of course. Laughter, especially the physical, clown-like laughter that Laurel and Hardy brought to millions, is more universal than any spoken language could ever be.
Sometimes words hinder understanding, rather than promote it. That is why symbols are so important: a smile; a tear; an outstretched hand; a football; a green light; a, dare I say, paperclip - designed to bring things, and often ideas, together.
