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The simple answer: universiality

Posted by Audiophilander (A) on April 6, 2005 at 10:21:57

In Reply to: Film history Query: Why weren't subtitles used in the silent era? posted by Bambi B on April 5, 2005 at 14:55:46:

In the silent era there was no such thing as "foreign" films per se; what would be done by all major studios, international & domestic, is to have prints made inserting the appropriate title card transalations of the scripted dialogue, story interludes, etc., in the language of the country importing the print.

Had processed subtitling been achievable BEFORE sound films it would most certainly have added greater expense to export prints (i.e., having to create additional negatives for each set of international prints in the language of the country importing), and it's doubtfull that such processing could be added to finished prints without producing a separate set of negatives for each language. OTOH, language specific title cards, openning credits, etc., could theoretically be inserted at any point in the process, spliced in and out, revised, censored, re-edited, etc., as required.

Subtitling didn't enter the picture (pun intended) until the early 30's talkies, and even then not right away. Many of the early talkies were shot multiple times in various languages by studios in America as well as other countries. For instance, Von Sternberg shot The Blue Angel shot in both German & English with the same casts; The Testament of Dr Mabuse was filmed in both German & French with different casts by Fritz Lang; the original Dracula was shot in this country in both English, by day, & Spanish, at night, using the same sets with separate casts and crews (Note: Of the two versions the Spanish directed version has been critically assessed as being better in just about every way except that Bela Lugosi's performance is supposedly superior than the Spanish actor).

Of course, once subtitling arrived on the scene the added expense of shooting foreign language versions for export became a moot issue.

Cheers,
AuPh

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