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Post by 4farina2 on Mar 5, 2011 14:18:56 GMT -5
It is oh too frustrating that in other countries there seems to be a PAL availability of rare Roach films of things not so easily available here in the USA. It's a shame, only because it is HERE in California where most ,if not all these delicious films were made. I want to collect all the early talkies Laurel&Hardy-Roach films also!.. same annoying situation! If Hal Roach were alive, he would probably be both surprised and frustrated . Can you or anyone steer me into the direction of decent quality Silent Our Gang films from say, 1925-1929?
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Mar 5, 2011 15:55:44 GMT -5
Can you or anyone steer me into the direction of decent quality Silent Our Gang films from say, 1925-1929? The Reel Classic DVD compilations of some of the Our Gang silents from that time period are of good quality. The collection isn't totally complete and is spread out among several separate DVDs, but you'll probably be satisfied with the quality of the prints that are used. I'm hoping that the majority of the Roach Pathé Our Gang shorts will be released soon in a more compact set, if the Turner Classic Movies marathon in January really was a showcase for the new product. It is oh too frustrating that in other countries there seems to be a PAL availability of rare Roach films of things not so easily available here in the USA. I'm not sure why it's like that. There must be a much bigger demand for Our Gang films in Germany than one might expect. From what I can tell, the dialogue is always still in English; are German subtitles available on these DVDs, or do the Germans just watch them in English, which presumably would be a second language to many people living in Germany?
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Post by mtw12055 on Mar 5, 2011 16:51:52 GMT -5
I'm not sure why it's like that. There must be a much bigger demand for Our Gang films in Germany than one might expect. From what I can tell, the dialogue is always still in English; are German subtitles available on these DVDs, or do the Germans just watch them in English, which presumably would be a second language to many people living in Germany? I'm pretty sure the German Little Rascals DVDs are dubbed in German. As for the silents, on the more recent German DVD release, German subtitles are included whenever title cards (or for that matter anything with english words) shows up; the problem for us is that the subtitles can't be turned off.
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Post by mickeygubitosifan on Mar 6, 2011 2:46:54 GMT -5
I figured that the silents were probably subtitled in German (my mention of "dialogue" being a reference to the spoken lines that are occasionally written out for us on the screen in the silents), but I didn't know that the talking films were dubbed. Did they bring in a whole new cast of voice actors, then, to reenact the shorts? It might be interesting to see who is the German Alfalfa, or Scotty Beckett, or Darla. :-)
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Post by mtw12055 on Mar 6, 2011 13:48:35 GMT -5
I figured that the silents were probably subtitled in German (my mention of "dialogue" being a reference to the spoken lines that are occasionally written out for us on the screen in the silents), but I didn't know that the talking films were dubbed. Did they bring in a whole new cast of voice actors, then, to reenact the shorts? It might be interesting to see who is the German Alfalfa, or Scotty Beckett, or Darla. :-) They did get voice actors to dub the Gang. I don't speak German, but while watching some of these dubbed versions, I noticed that the voice actors were sometimes told to dub dialogue over intentionally silent scenes. For instance, in the German dubbed version of "Bargain Day", every time one of the kids puts a hat on Chubby's head, the voice actor for Chubby conintuously shots, "Nein, Nein, Nein!" (meaning "No, No, No!"). And it was decided to use a voice actor for the kid wearing baby clothes in "Mama's Little Pirate". You can find quite a few of these on Veoh. The versions I saw were colorized.
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