II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull

cast, plus the short TIT OR TAT added to the programme) finally did get the wertvoll certificate. Composer
Peter Schirmann took up Schumann’s legacy in re-orchestrating or re-scoring the films for the German
tracks. Atlas’ cineastic attitude towards these releases is also evident in the restrained trailers, effectively
employing the re-designed main titles and Schirmann’s music (some Atlas trailers can be found on the German
Kinowelt DVDs). Shortly after, Atlas presented new German versions of SONS O THE DESERT, BRATS, OUR
RELATIONS and OUR WIE.
In the same year, Hal Roach was honoured in Berlin on the occasion of the world premiere of the sound
film compilation THE CRAZY WORLD O LAUREL AND HARDY. The compilation was, however, never generally released
in Germany.
Silent comedy remained a regular attraction on TV as well. Among the shows were two imports: DIE KLEI-
NEN STROLCHE («the Little Mischief Makers» aka Our Gang), and British comedian Bob Monkhouse’s MAD MO-
VIES.
If Laurel and Hardy had gained new status – cult stars, boxoffice hits and film history icons at the same
time — then Erich Pietrek wanted to profit from it, too. Germans had barely learned the sad news of Laurel’s
death when NWD launched his new Laurel and Hardy programmes, including the previously unseen
JITTERBUGS. Also, Atlas continued with additional programmes, but eventually boxoffice takings went
down. Their last announced project, re-dubbing RA DIAVOLO, was never finished.
M-G-M provided Youngson’s latest, LAUGHING TWENTIES, and a fresh BONNIE SCOTLAND (with «Jerry Lewis»
Horst Genzten and «Ernie» Gerd Duwner providing the voices). Atlas went bankrupt, but its owner, cinephile
Hans Eckelkamp, soon was back on the screen with DIE TEUELSBRÜDER («The Devil’s Brother», the erroneous
German title maintained from the previous RA DIAVOLO announcement for another offering of PACK
UP YOUR TROUBLES) and DIE KLOTZKÖPE (BLOCKHEADS), before this new enterprise closed down its shop, too.
Eckelkamp’s former employees were near at hand and founded Alpha, which in turn took up Atlas’ project to
release WISSEN IST MACHT (A CHUMP AT OXORD) and DIE SITTENSTROLCHE (RA DIAVOLO, aka THE DEVIL’S BROT-
HER). Again, Duwner voiced Hardy, and he did the same for the 1967 German TV premiere of the solo Hardy
film ZENOBIA. urthermore, he could be heard as Hardy in the dubbed 1969 James L. Wolcott compilation
THE BEST O LAUREL AND HARDY.
The notorious Pietrek was back, once more, with his final «special» Laurel and Hardy offering, DICK UND
DOO DIE UNZERTRENNLICHEN («The Inseparable Dick & Doof») – a compilation of some of the team’s shorts
ridiculously presented in the halls of the famous Munich Deutsches Museum.
While some more shorts and features were to be released in theatres in the years to come, TV was to
re-shape the reception of the team. In 1970, the last of the Youngson compilations, OUR CLOWNS, was also
the last theatrical release prepared for the German market by Werner Schwier. Schwier, who had assisted
Jacques Tati for the German PLAYTIME track, continued to work in dubbing (among other things adapting
the popular Marty eldman show for German TV) and intended to publish a book about silent comedy. Being
one of the strongest advocates of Laurel and Hardy’s art, he was missed after his untimely death in 1982.
Part IV
1968 set a new standard in German TV presentation of classic comedy. The guiding spirit was Heinz Caloué,
now fully in charge of his own TV shows. A complete 55-episode series was solely devoted to the films of a
single comedy team. But it was not Laurel and Hardy. Once again, their success was preceded by a Pat and
Patachon prelude.
Caloué had worked for other shows before – those by Schwier as well as others. In general, their philosophy
was essentially to try to recreate what was considered the style of the original exhibition.
Together with German TV’s Gert Mechoff, Caloué tried an entirely different concept to revive the charming,
but often somewhat tedious and not exactly timeless Danish feature comedies. The basic pattern
was then maintained for the subsequent Caloué/Mechoff shows as well. As Caloué wrote, «Editing is feasible
without compromising the spirit of these film comedies, by removing or condensing narratically extraneous
parallel or subplots that do not feature the main protagonists. In dramatic terms, this is not a problem. On the
contrary, the films available will generally benefit from the resulting tightening. [...] The added narration