
Here the filmmakers rotate through yet a fourth actor to solve the alleged murder of poor old Ebeneezer Laurel. This time Alfonzo Pedroza, fluent in both Italian and Spanish, carried the dialogue as the recast detective in the Spanish version of THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE, which was called NOCHE DE DUENDES (meaning “night of the ghosts”), and which happily does exist today. Its working title was DUENDES Y DUENDES. The other five actors pictured are holdovers and appear in all four incarnations of the motion picture. Close examination of the costumes, hair, makeup, lighting, and props placement in these still photos indicates that the alternate versions were filmed simultaneously, with cast, crew, and dialect coaches working through four essentially identical scenes, consecutively, before going to the next camera set-up and writing different words on cue cards and blackboards for Laurel and Hardy to see!