II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull
II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull
should relate to the dry nordic sense of humour, without losing its intelligibility by carrying this too far. Since the silent film shown will largely be obvious to follow, too much — redundant — text needs to be avoided. Stylistically I could imagine some lightly ironic chat: whatever is timeless about these daddy and granddaddy films can be spiced up by occasional injections and references to the present. Topical elements should be treated with irony.» urther, Caloué addressed the issue of timing film, music, sound and narration by appropriate editing techniques. In essence, what Caloué proposed was a dramatic intrusion in the films’ artistic integrity. It is only logical that Caloué’s shows were harshly criticized for this very reason. Yet it should be noted that they were done with genuine affection for the original artists. The silents in particular benefitted from the narration and voice impersonations by top German cabaret artist Hanns Dieter Hüsch, who was first heard in the 1968 Pat and Patachon show and was to contribute to most of Caloué’s subsequent slapstick adaptations for the next fifteen years. In essence, a whole generation of movie aficionados and historians grew up on these programmes; for many kids, watching silent movies in this form once a week was a normal part of their childhood entertainment. And, what counted most at the time, the show was such a success that the idea of a follow-up was without question. After a brief, four-episode trial run of slapstick compilations, the new show started. As if Atlas’ efforts had been in vain, the title was obvious, too: Dick und Doof. As agreed with German TV station ZD («Zweites Deutsches ernsehen», 2 nd German Television), there were to be three categories: silents «adapted in the style of the Pat and Patachon show;» sound shorts (padded with solo material to fill the 24.5 minute time slot); and features (cut into sequential episodes). or the talkie shorts, generally the versions made by Kirch’s Beta Technik in the early 60s were used. Among the solo shorts used as fillers was, remarkably, a piece of SCORCHING SANDS, which was considered lost by mainstream film history for a long time after the Caloué version aired, until a print was turned up in a film archive and the title was «officially» rediscovered. Also, an episode including THE INISHING TOUCH provided a rare opportunity to see an alternate version of the film, deriving from the export negative and thus offering minor variations compared to the standard prints. In 1971, the KirchGroup managed to secure all rights to the Hal Roach Library ‹for the eastern hemisphere›, but this did not mean that the KirchGroup was in possession of all the Laurel and Hardy films. Soon, Beta was out of raw materials, and only an agreement with Erich Pietrek secured a further flow of feature films. Dick und Doof’s last episode aired in May 1973. Cut in DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID style, the two comedians travelled to Mainz, Germany, to visit the ZD’s main offices and meet Mechoff and Caloué. The episode ended with a preview of the next show to come: Spass mit Charlie (Chaplin). East Germans saw more of Laurel and Hardy, too, during these years. Two compilation films were released, and author Michael Hanisch published a companion volume to his previous Chaplin book, featuring Laurel and Hardy, Lloyd and Keaton – the first German Laurel and Hardy book ever published. Other appearances of Laurel and Hardy were noted in Michael Bentine’s GOLDEN SILENTS show, adapted from the BBC series; Larry Harmon’s cartoon spin-off featuring the comedians’ likenesses; and a TED disc (sort of a mechanical grand-grandfather of the Laserdisc and DVD, a needle-played PVC foil disc) of Pietrek’s German version of THE LYING DEUCES. The 16mm distribution market, as well as that for 8mm and Super 8, had also drastically expanded, the former providing viewing copies, the latter packages for outright purchase, which remain collectible to this day. Yet, Dick und Doof wasn’t the end of Laurel and Hardy on German TV. Spass mit Charlie was over, and further vintage comedy was needed. By now, Caloué and Mechoff went for colourful mixes, treating the audiences to the Väter der Klamotte (‹athers of Slapstick›) and Männer ohne Nerven (‹Gentlemen of Nerve›), including films by the like of Larry Semon, Charley Chase, Billy Bevan, Billy West and many others, and of course plenty of Laurel and Hardy solo shorts. Eventually, this show was followed by yet another revamp of Laurel and Hardy’s silents entitled Zwei Herren dick und doof («Two Gentlemen fat and dumb»). The next step for Laurel and Hardy on TV was, however, a welcome return to a presentation more faithful to the originals. A new show, aimed a mature audience, presented 21 of the comedians’ features, newly dubbed (to be presented in a unified style) and with film history introductions. The latter were written by film journalist Joe Hembus and presented by popular German comedian Theo Lingen, as homage to his famous colleagues. Sitting at his desk with piles of books like those of McCabe and Durgnat, Lingen even managed to communicate with his late colleagues, interacting with carefully chosen (and re-dubbed) clips.
or the new dub tracks, Walter Bluhm, now an elderly man, was back in the dubbing studios once more. If he was now slightly too old to voice a Stan in his 30s, Ollie´s new voice, Michael Habeck (‹Berenger› in the 1986 film THE NAME O THE ROSE), was talented, but clearly too young a choice. Worse, music and effects were rather aseptic, texts were sometimes copied – without necessary improvements – from previous editions, and occasionally scenes were still missing, e.g. still gone were the war references in the finale of THE BIG NOISE – in the German adaptation, the submarine was supposed to be a dangerous whale! Still, the very attempt to remain closer to the original was a welcome return to adaptation in the Schwier/Atlas approach. In 1979, Caloué presented his last ‹new› Laurel and Hardy show, Meisterszenen; a show focusing, as the title indicates, only on «masterwork scenes» excerpted from the comedians’ oeuvre. While the ZD was slowing down on silent film comedy product, other TV stations jumped in. What started as Stars der Stummfilmära («Stars of the Silent Era») and Abenteuer mit Larry («Adventures with Larry») soon became Klamottenkiste («Slapstick Chest»), one of the most long-lasting shows of this kind, airing for 15 years and even licensed to East Germany. Actor, omnipresent dubbing voice and trailer narrator Hartmut Neugebauer prepared the adaptations and supplied all the voices. Laurel or Hardy were usually back via the Larry Semon films, but on one occasion the show also presented Hardy supposedly supporting «Charlie Chaplin» (in fact Billy West!) in HIS DAY OUT. The show even featured the elusive THE RENT COLLECTOR, aSemon-Hardy short long erroneously believed also to feature Laurel in the supporting cast. Decades of TV presentations had still left out a few selected items from the Laurel and Hardy filmography, so fans were pleased when a huge packet of MGM films licensed to Germany brought about German premieres of HOLLYWOOD PARTY and PICK A STAR. At the same time, East Germans enjoyed new releases of RA DIAVOLO and NOTHING BUT TROUBLE. At about the same time, 1985, the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society SONS O THE DESERT also finally had their first official chapter. Even theatrically, Laurel and Hardy had a little renaissance. A new distributor, Kinowelt, tried their luck at something quite unusual in Germany, that is releasing the original versions of numerous Laurel and Hardy classics in the original English with German subtitles. Pietrek did not fail to notice the renaissance and threw in reissues of his old, dubbed Laurel and Hardy feature film versions for good measure. But another medium was to contribute to fresh Laurel and Hardy exposure. Home video was to make the title chaos even worse. Dubbed, retitled, colorized, the video boom also profited from another highlight. Hal Roach himself was to visit Berlin for the 42 nd Berlinale film festival to promote the controversial if colourful new video versions. The opportunity was not to be missed by the KirchGroup. Not only did Kirch own the rights for most of the Laurel and Hardy comedies by 1971, he had in fact started to collect all of Roach’s output since the 60s. Eventually, Kirch had accumulated material of essentially all of the surviving films in the Hal Roach Library, in what was an archival accomplishment as much as a marketing enterprise. The head of the Roach Library was an in-depth expert familiar with the films – Heinz Caloué. Together with American film historian Richard Bann, Caloué managed to obtain pristine Laurel and Hardy material from the Library of Congress in America. Now this wealth of material was ready for commercial release, and to accompany Roach’s visit, colorized Laurel and Hardy films first appeared on German TV. A Roach birthday portrait, some Rascals material and non-Laurel and Hardy Roach features were thrown in for good measure. Cinephiles’ concerns about the colorization were addressed by assuring them of late night, glorious black-and-white repeat showings, but these actually sported a suspiciously washed out image – the colourised version minus colour, plus of course any additional artifact from NTSC-to-PAL conversion. An abundance of video releases followed, and in 1993 Christian Blees published the first German book entirely devoted to Laurel and Hardy (that is, if one does not count Dick und Doof,aHeyne mini book by Heinz Caloué, which is more a nice collectible and practical joke, «the smallest Laurel and Hardy book in the world»). Soon, German Sheik Harry Hoppe added his bilingual Laurel and Hardy Life and Magic book, notable for quite a few rare photos. The video wave continued full steam. Likely inspired by a Dutch video series created largely due to Dutch Sons’ efforts, a complete, subtitled and restored Laurel and Hardy collection on VHS was launched in 1995. This included all their silents, in restored copies of variable quality but often wonderfully scored by the Dutch-based Beau Hunks Orchestra, using the Hatley & Shield music of somewhat later, talkie vintage, rather than from the silent era.
- Seite 593 und 594: Sugar Daddies Zwischen Bestien und
- Seite 595 und 596: The Live Ghost Gespenst an Bord = D
- Seite 597 und 598: With Love and Hisses Käse mit Knob
- Seite 599 und 600: Way Out West Dick und Doof im Wilde
- Seite 601 und 602: Going Bye-Bye! Der große ang = Dic
- Seite 603 und 604: Towed In A Hole Dick und Doof kaufe
- Seite 605 und 606: XVI. Übersicht über die Kinos (mi
- Seite 607 und 608: Lange Leitung Blockheads W.B.T.-Lic
- Seite 609 und 610: Dick und Doof die Schwerenöter Bea
- Seite 611 und 612: Dick und Doof wie immer auf eigene
- Seite 613 und 614: Deutsches Plakat von 2003 zum Kabar
- Seite 615 und 616: WIR SIND VOM SCHOTTISCHEN INFANTERI
- Seite 617 und 618: XVIII. Quiz-Fragen zu Laurel und Ha
- Seite 619 und 620: 13. Was will der Küchenchef in SWI
- Seite 621 und 622: 2. Hier im Bild sehen wir Oliver Ha
- Seite 623 und 624: XIX. Antworten auf die Quiz-ragen A
- Seite 625 und 626: * Als Alles oder nichts ausgestrahl
- Seite 627 und 628: XX. Adressen der deutschen Laurel-u
- Seite 629 und 630: XXI. English Summary or Internation
- Seite 631 und 632: The next appearances of the emergin
- Seite 633 und 634: Some dialogue modifications were im
- Seite 635 und 636: Bluhm was born on August 5, 1907 in
- Seite 637 und 638: Keaton has meanwhile resurfaced (CA
- Seite 639 und 640: In September 1951, the dubbing supe
- Seite 641 und 642: Youngson’s next film, WHEN COMEDY
- Seite 643: cast, plus the short TIT OR TAT add
- Seite 647 und 648: Deutsche Inseratmatern von 1937 fü
- Seite 649 und 650: At any rate, obviously the history
- Seite 651 und 652: singing! As is well-known, the film
- Seite 653 und 654: Cuts were also imposed on Laurel an
- Seite 655 und 656: 900 club members were to expect «a
- Seite 657 und 658: a musical setting as effective as t
- Seite 659 und 660: ATOLL K was followed by another ela
- Seite 661 und 662: team’s American successors into t
- Seite 663 und 664: should relate to the dry nordic sen
- Seite 665 und 666: Kirch also launched the first Laure
- Seite 667 und 668: XXII. English Captions or Illustrat
- Seite 669 und 670: Page 62, top They really were calle
- Seite 671 und 672: Page 122, bottom left Stage setting
- Seite 673 und 674: Page 178 Article in «ilmpost Magaz
- Seite 675 und 676: Page 203, top «Without dressing»
- Seite 677 und 678: Page 241, top German 1951 center sp
- Seite 679 und 680: Page 271 Take 126 to 129 of the Ger
- Seite 681 und 682: Page 300 Bus + rollercoater = plast
- Seite 683 und 684: Page 340 Rough scetches in the Köh
- Seite 685 und 686: Page 367 German 1962 lobby card for
- Seite 687 und 688: Page 397 «Detrimental for adolesce
- Seite 689 und 690: Page 429, top Rudolf Günter Wagner
- Seite 691 und 692: Page 459 NWD-Unitas 1972 advertisin
- Seite 693 und 694: Page 487, top Title sequence of the
or the new dub tracks, Walter Bluhm, now an elderly man, was back in the dubbing studios once more. If<br />
he was now slightly too old to voice a Stan in his 30s, Ollie´s new voice, Michael Habeck (‹Berenger› in the<br />
1986 film THE NAME O THE ROSE), was talented, but clearly too young a choice. Worse, music and effects<br />
were rather aseptic, texts were sometimes copied – without necessary improvements – from previous editions,<br />
and occasionally scenes were still missing, e.g. still gone were the war references in the finale of THE<br />
BIG NOISE – in the German adaptation, the submarine was supposed to be a dangerous whale! Still, the very<br />
attempt to remain closer to the original was a welcome return to adaptation in the Schwier/Atlas approach.<br />
In 1979, Caloué presented his last ‹new› Laurel and Hardy show, Meisterszenen; a show focusing, as the<br />
title indicates, only on «masterwork scenes» excerpted from the comedians’ oeuvre.<br />
While the ZD was slowing down on silent film comedy product, other TV stations jumped in. What started<br />
as Stars der Stummfilmära («Stars of the Silent Era») and Abenteuer mit Larry («Adventures with Larry»)<br />
soon became Klamottenkiste («Slapstick Chest»), one of the most long-lasting shows of this kind, airing for<br />
15 years and even licensed to East Germany. Actor, omnipresent dubbing voice and trailer narrator Hartmut<br />
Neugebauer prepared the adaptations and supplied all the voices. Laurel or Hardy were usually back via the<br />
Larry Semon films, but on one occasion the show also presented Hardy supposedly supporting «Charlie Chaplin»<br />
(in fact Billy West!) in HIS DAY OUT. The show even featured the elusive THE RENT COLLECTOR, aSemon-Hardy<br />
short long erroneously believed also to feature Laurel in the supporting cast.<br />
Decades of TV presentations had still left out a few selected items from the Laurel and Hardy filmography,<br />
so fans were pleased when a huge packet of MGM films licensed to Germany brought about German<br />
premieres of HOLLYWOOD PARTY and PICK A STAR. At the same time, East Germans enjoyed new releases of<br />
RA DIAVOLO and NOTHING BUT TROUBLE. At about the same time, 1985, the Laurel and Hardy appreciation<br />
society SONS O THE DESERT also finally had their first official chapter. Even theatrically, Laurel and Hardy<br />
had a little renaissance. A new distributor, Kinowelt, tried their luck at something quite unusual in Germany,<br />
that is releasing the original versions of numerous Laurel and Hardy classics in the original English with<br />
German subtitles. Pietrek did not fail to notice the renaissance and threw in reissues of his old, dubbed<br />
Laurel and Hardy feature film versions for good measure.<br />
But another medium was to contribute to fresh Laurel and Hardy exposure. Home video was to make the<br />
title chaos even worse. Dubbed, retitled, colorized, the video boom also profited from another highlight.<br />
Hal Roach himself was to visit Berlin for the 42 nd<br />
Berlinale film festival to promote the controversial if colourful<br />
new video versions.<br />
The opportunity was not to be missed by the KirchGroup. Not only did Kirch own the rights for most of<br />
the Laurel and Hardy comedies by 1971, he had in fact started to collect all of Roach’s output since the 60s.<br />
Eventually, Kirch had accumulated material of essentially all of the surviving films in the Hal Roach Library,<br />
in what was an archival accomplishment as much as a marketing enterprise. The head of the Roach Library<br />
was an in-depth expert familiar with the films – Heinz Caloué. Together with American film historian Richard<br />
Bann, Caloué managed to obtain pristine Laurel and Hardy material from the Library of Congress in<br />
America.<br />
Now this wealth of material was ready for commercial release, and to accompany Roach’s visit, colorized<br />
Laurel and Hardy films first appeared on German TV. A Roach birthday portrait, some Rascals material and<br />
non-Laurel and Hardy Roach features were thrown in for good measure. Cinephiles’ concerns about the colorization<br />
were addressed by assuring them of late night, glorious black-and-white repeat showings, but<br />
these actually sported a suspiciously washed out image – the colourised version minus colour, plus of course<br />
any additional artifact from NTSC-to-PAL conversion. An abundance of video releases followed, and in<br />
1993 Christian Blees published the first German book entirely devoted to Laurel and Hardy (that is, if one<br />
does not count Dick und Doof,aHeyne mini book by Heinz Caloué, which is more a nice collectible and practical<br />
joke, «the smallest Laurel and Hardy book in the world»). Soon, German Sheik Harry Hoppe added his<br />
bilingual Laurel and Hardy Life and Magic book, notable for quite a few rare photos.<br />
The video wave continued full steam. Likely inspired by a Dutch video series created largely due to<br />
Dutch Sons’ efforts, a complete, subtitled and restored Laurel and Hardy collection on VHS was launched in<br />
1995. This included all their silents, in restored copies of variable quality but often wonderfully scored by<br />
the Dutch-based Beau Hunks Orchestra, using the Hatley & Shield music of somewhat later, talkie vintage,<br />
rather than from the silent era.