Blotto

Blotto (1930)

Stan fakes receiving a telegram so he can go to a club with Ollie and a bottle of his unsuspecting wife's liquor, but she overhears his plans.

Date of release
1930-02-08
TMDB
7.3 / 10 (54)
Runtime
25m
Genres
Comedy
Director
James Parrott

Casting

Interesting facts

Blotto is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by James Parrott and starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The short was produced by Hal Roach and originally distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Production notes

The name of the film refers "to be blotto", still in use in British English (albeit archaic in US English), meaning to be drunk.

The initial release of Blotto did not incorporate a music score apart from the orchestral "Dance of the Cuckoos" tune played during the opening titles. The original version of the film is no longer extant, with only a censored 1937 re-release print surviving. This re-release edition underwent alterations, including the removal of approximately one reel of material containing pre-Code sequences.

To address the absence of a music score in the original release, a background music track was integrated into the 1937 version. This musical accompaniment comprised a combination of Leroy Shield's jazzy compositions and other musical selections commonly featured in 1937 Hal Roach films. A distinctive feature of Blotto is that it represents the sole Laurel and Hardy production where Laurel's character is married while Hardy's remains unmarried.

Although the original 1930 version is now considered a lost film, a Spanish language version produced right after the English version entitled La Vida Nocturna has survived. It shows how the film was originally presented, including a gag involving an electric fan after Stan says he needs some "fresh air". This is not available in the English version due to negative damage.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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