bellosh
June 26th, 2008I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark the other day, and was reminded of a scene that has bothered me for a long time. When they first get to Cairo, Sallah is telling Indy about the archaeologist the Nazis have hired, a man named “Bellosh“. Indy laughs and corrects him, “Bellock“. What I initially got out of this was that someone saw the name written, and read a ‘ch’ as soft instead of hard.
But, in the credits, Paul Freeman’s character is written as “Belloq”. Is that even a name? Googling for “belloq”, even excluding words like “Raiders”, “Indiana”, or “Rene”, still doesn’t return much that looks like anyone’s real name, mostly just online profiles. “Belloche”, however, does appear to actually be a real name, and it fits with Sallah’s confusion. I guess that’s what his name should be.
These are the troubles I face, day in, day out.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I found your post here looking for the answer to this very question.
If is his name spelled “Belloq”, how could Sallah mispronounce it? It’s not like he read it incorrectly, and I doubt other people on the dig were unaware of his name and the proper pronunciation.
The real question is why does Indy find this so funny? Is there some meaning to “Bellosh”/”Belloche” that we aren’t aware of?
I too have too much time on my hands.
December 6th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
ARRRRGH! I came to this site in order to find an answer to the question, not this horrible mindbending painstakingly unanswered question itself! Solve it & post the solution!
November 18th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I, too, found this site looking for the answer.
My theory is that it’s German slang for “bullshit” or something, and Indy realizes that the Nazis are secretly laughing about Belloq behind his back.
Short of that, I have no idea why Indy would find a simple mispronunciation so hilarious.