Film historian Cole Johnson has seen a surviving foreign-language Chase comedy, the rare "Una Cana al Aire" (1930) -- the Spanish-language version of one of his best shorts of the sound era, "Looser Than Loose" -- and provides his commentary on the film below as well as a wealth of still photographs from this little-seen comedy. -- Yair Solan.
The next scene only appears in the Spanish version. Charley and Carmen's taxi pulls up in front of a hotel. Once again, he assures her that the girl, "Juanita", is a nice girl. Then, as Charley walks up to the front of the hotel, he whistles loudly, which brings forth a torrent of keys from the windows above -- this gag also appeared in Chase's silent short, Innocent Husbands (1925). Carmen looks on, stunned. "A decent girl, eh?!" she asks. Juanita (Carmen Granada in the role essayed by Dorothy Granger in the English version) appears -- a small, laughing, gum-chewing, unsophisticated type. Pulling up to the client's hotel, Charley leaves the two girls alone. They have a discussion -- Juanita: "This fur piece is getting so dirty, it's making a mark on my neck!" Carmen: Oh, well scrub it with Kerosene." Juanita: "ON MY NECK?" Carmen: "No -- on the fur!" Even better: (Juanita fixing her stockings) Carmen: Put your skirt down -- Charley might see your garters!" Juanita: "It's all right -- Charley gave them to me!" Meanwhile, Charley asks for the client at the hotel desk and is directed to the barber shop. The big butter-and-tamale man is just leaving, and Charley sees the bill, itemizing an elaborately long list of services. Obviously the client (Alfonso Pedroza, in the part played by Del Henderson in the English version) is anticipating quite an evening with the ladies!
LEFT: Charley's proposal to his girlfriend (Carmen Guerrero), written down beforehand on a card. Notice the bracelet that Charley sports -- it spells out his name as "Charlie"!
CENTER: The boss calls during a romantic moment.
RIGHT: Amidst a key-strewn sidewalk, Charley picks up good-time girl "Juanita" (Carmen Granada).
When they get to the elaborate night club, the four are asked if they have brought any liquor, as "the police have forbid it." (Prohibition was still being imposed in this country.) Charley gets separated from the other three and can't penetrate a floor full of energetically dancing patrons. To get to the other side of the floor, Charley must enact a series of near-balletic moves around one couple after another! He makes it to the others in an enclosed booth. Carmen chews him out under her breath while everyone examines the menus. Carmen: "I thought you said she was refined -- Why didn't you stop her from telling that nasty joke?" Charley: "Well, I didn't think you had heard it before!" El cliente and Juanita aren't hitting it off that well. The tactless little Nita-juan tells everyone she thinks Sr. Pedroza is wearing a toupee! Charley and Carmen try to calm things by saying that they think she's in error and that Pedroza has a handsome head of hair. To prove them wrong, Juanita laughs and pulls the wig off Pedroza's head! Charley chews his menu, frustrated. Juanita then pours salt on Pedroza's shoulders, to simulate dandruff! Pedroza and Charley go off for a quick conference. He would rather have Carmen than the foolish Juanita. The first one back to table gets his choice of girls! Charley makes it back first, and Pedroza stews. Just then, the night club's master of ceremonies announces from the bandstand that the male half of the headlining tango dancers has broken his leg, so the show won't go on! Sr. Pedroza then speaks up -- right at his table, he says, is the "World's Best Tango dancer, Carlos Chase!"
Straight away, they take Charley off to the dressing room to get into costume. Pedroza then moves over to be with Carmen telling the girls that "This is what Charley wanted" and that he really preferred Juanita! Tango music is then played, while Charley, now dressed as a ridiculous gaucho, trips terpsichorean with a girl (Dorothy Granger). He bumbles along, cracking a silly whip, and twirls Dorothy onto the floor on her backside! He bows to the audience and jabs Dorothy with one of his spurs. He makes it back to the table, now having to sit next to Juanita. She makes an uninhibited fuss over him, and Carmen jealously responds with some heavy-handed flirting with Sr. Pedroza. (In the middle of this, Juanita yanks on Charley's hair to make sure that he's not wearing a toupee!) Charley eventually gives Juanita a big kiss on the lips -- and the ladylike Carmen can go no further. A waiter comes by to distribute funny hats to the men, as it is "Carnival night," and at midnight, hundreds of balloons will be dropped from the ceiling. Pedroza asks Carmen to see the ring on her hand, and laughs at the tiny size of the stone. "it's a solitaire!" chirps Carmen, eliciting big laughs. "Do you have a microscope on you?" Pedroza asks Charley. Juanita says that "it looks like freckle!" Charley embarrassedly pantomimes laughter with the others. Pedroza pulls out a ring of his own, with a diamond like a doorknob -- he slips it on Carmen's finger, and Charley is so sad he almost cries! Then the orchestra starts playing, and Pedroza quickly takes the ring off her finger. Juanita and Charley now laugh at the embarrassed Carmen as they join the rest of the patrons on the dance floor.
LEFT: The out-of-town client (Alfonso Pedroza) has amassed quite a tally at his hotel's barber shop. Charley is amazed.
CENTER: Charley gets shanghaied into becoming part of the night club entertainment -- tango dancing with Dorothy Granger.
RIGHT: Returning to his booth, "Carlos" finds the girls switched on him.
Still trying to teach Charley a lesson, Carmen makes an elaborate gesture of going to a private booth with Pedroza. There he confides that he really couldn't get by without the company Charley works for, he just takes advantage of the good times that are offered. Charley, still stuck on the floor dancing with the gum-chewing Juanita, sees this, but doesn't notice when a similarly-built man (Otto Fries, in the role played by Edgar Kennedy in the original version) and his girl replace them at the same table. Charley sits down with his unwanted Juanita in the next booth. He casts a quick glance and just sees the back of Otto's head -- he's wearing the same silly hat that Pedroza was! He listens in on the couple's whispered conversation, hearing the man ask the girl, "Why don't you get rid of that dope?" Charlie chokes on his cigar as the girl says "I'm all yours, big boy!" He chucks the stogie in disgust. The lit cigar lands right in the cluster of balloons, and they start exploding in a chain reaction! (Can this really happen?) The popping of the "globos" sound like gunfire, and the whole club freaks out! They fear it's a police raid, and dozens of liquor bottles are thrown away into the middle of the dance floor; this also happens in Chase's Stepping Out (1929). Charley points out that it's just the balloons, and sits down again. Reflecting on the situation, Juanita helpfully tells him "Remember, the customer is always right." Charley can't handle it anymore -- he reaches over and smashes a vase over Otto's head! While the whole club is scrambling in terror, crashing cars and jumping over walls in an elaborate panic sequence, Charley is shocked when the real Pedroza appears, loaded down with bottles discarded by fleeing customers. Cliente Pedroza wants to leave, expecting to take Carmen with him, but she now, at the end, really wants Charley after all. For some reason, unconscious Otto's girlfriend tells the cops it was Pedroza who attacked him. "What will my family think?" moans poor Sr. Pedroza. Charley and Carmen happily leave the joint, with one last balloon-bang as they exit. FIN.
The best thing about the foreign-language versions of the Roach comedies is the extra footage. This film is more fun than the already delightful original because the story is much more fleshed out, making a better story than in the briefer, two-reel format. New gags, new characters, and more time spent with Charley or Laurel and Hardy! In this film, the outstanding new cast member is Carmen Granada, simply hilarious in the bubbly "Juanita" character. As far as I know, her only other performance in a Roach short was the rather undemanding role of Seņora Laurel in Politiquerias (1931) -- the Spanish-language Chickens Come Home.
There was also a French version of Looser Than Loose called Gare la Bombe!, also five reels long. Several scenes only appear in the foreign versions, such as Charley angling around the dancers, the taxi scenes, and his tango duet with Dorothy Granger. Charley speaks Espaņol quite well, even though it is obvious at times that his eyes are looking beyond who he's supposedly talking to and reading an off-screen chalkboard with his dialogue on it!
LEFT: Charley and "Juanita" overhear what he thinks is his girl being unfaithful to him.
CENTER: Charley chokes on his cigar.
RIGHT: The breaking point is reached, and Charley's about to smash a vase over the innocent head of Otto Fries (Carmen Granada isn't really so happy in the film as this still would lead you to think.)
Cita en Hollywood (Bilbao, Spain: Mensajero, 1990) by Juan Heinink and Robert Dickson.
Hal Roach Studios Production Numbers and Dates (Temecula, CA: Split Reel Books, 1996) by Rob Stone.
Still photographs courtesy of Cole Johnson/Slapstick Magazine Archives.
Una Cana al Aire [A Spanish expression, "My hair in the wind," meaning "I'm going to let my guard down and have a good time."] Earliest known screening: California Theatre, Los Angeles, 11-21-30. Five reels, 41 minutes. Directed by James W. Horne. Cast: Charley Chase, Carmen Guererro, Alfonso Pedroza, Carmen Granada, Enrique Acosta, Otto Fries, Dorothy Granger. Production C-34-S, filmed 8-21 to 9-3-30. Spanish-language version of the original English-language two-reeler Looser Than Loose (11-15-30).
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