II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull

Youngson’s next film, WHEN COMEDY WAS KING, finally revealed, if only in abridged form, the classic BIG
BUSINESS to the Germans. Unlike in the original version though, it was presented in a strange but reasonably
effective mixof voice-over and voice dubbing, treating the silent classic like a talkie – even with the
familiar Paulsen and Bluhm in the voice cast – years before Chuck McCann and Al Kilgore tried the same
thing in the US with their controversial «talkie version» of DOUBLE WHOOPEE.
Meanwhile, Pietrek provided a German version of BABES IN TOYLAND under one of its alternate titles, RE-
VENGE IS SWEET, in a solid adaptation. Bluhm was Doof once more, Hardy was voiced by an actor named Bruno
W. Paulsen, who had begun to establish himself as yet another Dick dub alternative in THE BOHEMIAN
GIRL. Old King Cole’s voice was effective and provided by Alexander Welbat, an actor whose voice any German
would recognize a decade later as that of Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster.
Paulsen, in turn, got a chance to work with Welbat and voice a really vintage — and hungry! — Hardy in
a section of Youngson’s DAYS O THRILLS AND LAUGHTER, taken from the 1917 Billy West comedy THE HOBO.
Actually, Paulsen and Bluhm had lots of work ahead. It was barely noticed at the time, but Dr. Leo Kirch
began his tremendously influential career as a film business man. Kirch knew about the value of vintage
film, and he knew about the value of good German versions. Thus, he founded dubbing company Beta Technik,
allowing him to handle film import and dubbing in one hand. Among his first acquisitions from the US
was a huge package of 36 Laurel and Hardy shorts. or Kirch, composer Conny Schumann, dialogue author
Wolfgang Schick and – of course – the inimitable Bluhm and Paulsen joined forces, providing dub tracks
that were only generally to be seen (or rather, heard) about a decade later. Schumann, though, changed
his scoring philosophy in the process. Instead of a continuous, nearly permanent musical score as featured
in the originals – or in Schumann’s earlier works, for that matter – the music was now more restrained, leaving
breathing space for the wonderful (and carefully recreated) dialogue and the visual humor.
Also, in April 1961, another newcomer joined the project. Heinz Caloué, actor, radio artist and author,
was born Heinz Landwehr in 1920. Caloué worked on music and effects recording, but his influence on Laurel
and Hardy in the later two decades was to go far beyond that.
At this time, another medium was to gain significance in the reception of early comedy. Much as it had
in the US a few years before, TV now was to provide additional revenue from vintage comedy films. Indeed,
two of the freshly dubbed L&H shorts from Kirch soon appeared on German TV, in the influential show Es
darf gelacht werden («eel free to laugh») where actor-comedian Werner Schwier presented vintage comedy.
Schwier – and composer Konrad Elfers – had successfully established a pattern for exhibiting the films
«like in the olden days», both on stage and with a 1957 theatrical feature which recreated a vintage Chaplin
show. In the TV incarnation, Laurel and Hardy – sound or silent, complete or abridged – were soon
among the regular «guests». By the way, unlike Laurel or Hardy, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd even appeared
on the programme in person. Soon, it was the above-mentioned Heinz Caloué who took care of everything
from Kirch’s side for this show – compiling, adapting and translating (in the form of intertitles) the
silent source films.
While Schwier’s TV show represented a comparatively respectful and faithful presentation, theatrical
distributor Pietrek embarked on his most bizarre compilation, PAT UND PATACHON ALS DETEKTIVE JAGEN MIT
DICK UND DOO GESPENSTER. As if bigger always means better, he tried to milk cash out of two classic comedy
teams at the same time.
As mentioned before, the famous Danish duo Pat and Patachon had been tremendously popular in Europe
in the silent days, but several years into the talkie era their artistic heyday was well past. While their career
formula had been invented in their Danish home country by director Lau Lauritzen during the 20s, the
team had actually worked in a number of European countries, e.g. in Austria, Germany, and even England,
shooting silents and talkies of variable quality. Returning from a two-year career hiatus, their 1937 Swedish
feature BLEKA GREVEN («The Pale Count») is arguably among their poorest works. It also happened to
be in NWD’s stock of films.
Probably Pietrek was aware of the limited quality of the film. His troubles with getting films passed for
the children’s matinee had made him cautious. So, just in case, he tried to have the film passed for kids in
its original Swedish version, with a rough translation separately provided, since «otherwise it is without
interest, since older kids and grown-ups will hardly want to watch a Pat and Patachon film.»
His wish was granted, but when preparing dubbing, Pietrek realized that the passing did not make the
film any less «tedious, boring and nearly tiring». So besides some heavy editing, he just threw in the