Laurel and Hardy: the girl from the Bohemian Forest

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Movie
German title The girl from the Bohemian Forest
Original title The bohemian girl
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 69 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director James W. Horne ,
Charley Rogers ,
Hal Roach
script Alfred Bunn ,
Frank Butler
production Hal Roach
music Nathaniel Shilkret
camera Francis Corby , Art Lloyd
cut Bert Jordan ,
Louis McManus
occupation

Das Mädel aus dem Böhmerwald ( The Bohemian Girl ), initially published in German-speaking countries under the title “ Dick und Doof werden Papa ”, is an American comedy film by the comedian duo Laurel and Hardy from 1936. The film is based freely based on the opera The Bohemian Girl by Michael William Balfe , published in 1843. After “ Hands up - or not ” (1933) and “ Revenge is sweet ” (1934), it was the duo's third operetta film.

action

Stan and Ollie move as gypsies with their fun-loving gypsy tribe - and their caravans - through the country. When the gypsy people settled in the area of ​​the strict Count of Arnhem, he asked the gypsies to leave his estate immediately, otherwise he would have them flogged. The count has very good reasons for this, because at night the gypsies - Stan and Ollie among them - go into the village and steal from the population there. Stan and Ollie also try their luck as pickpockets, but repeatedly get into mishaps and can barely avoid arrest. Finally, angry and angry, the people obey the Count's orders. On the way, however, Ollie's wife (in German dubbing: Ollie's sister) and her southern lover kidnap the Count's daughter Arline as revenge. Ollie's wife tells her husband that Arline is his child. Then she leaves Ollie together with her lover, leaving only the child behind.

The new seat of the gypsies is not far from the castle of the count, but the search of the guards for the princess is unsuccessful. For the next twelve years she lived as a gypsy girl under the loving care of Stan and Ollie. After this time, one day the now grown-up princess is hanging around the count's court and is locked up. Ollie and Stan do everything in their power to protect them from being whipped, but are caught themselves and taken to the torture chamber. He recognizes her through a medallion that the count hung around his daughter's neck shortly before his daughter's disappearance. Arline asks her father to save Stan and Ollie. The count orders that the torture of Stan and Ollie be stopped. But the ordeal has already left lasting consequences: Ollie has become a stretched giant and Stan a compressed dwarf.

backgrounds

The screenplay for the film was written as early as 1934, but the implementation was then delayed for a long time, so that filming only began in October 1935. In the opening credits the film is referred to as "A Comedy Version of The Bohemian Girl" , the opera by Michael William Balfe is much darker and does not have a happy ending. The characters of Laurel and Hardy also do not appear in Balfe's opera, but have been added. Balfe's opera is itself loosely based on the work La Gitanilla by Miguel de Cervantes .

Originally Thelma Todd was supposed to play the role of the gypsy queen and lover of Antonio Moreno . Todd died on December 16, 1935, just a few days after the preview of the film, at the age of 29 of carbon monoxide poisoning at the wheel of her car in her ex-boyfriend's garage. To avoid that their death under mysterious circumstances would negatively overshadow the film, Hal Roch and Stan Laurel decided to cut out most of the scenes with Todd. The plot was rewritten so that Ollie's wife (who was made a sister in all German versions), played by Mae Busch , took over the role of Moreno's lover. In addition, the character of the old gypsy queen, played by Zeffie Tilbury , has been added. As a memorial to Todd, the scene in which she sings the song Heart of a Gypsy was left in the film.

Paulette Goddard can be seen in an extra role as a gypsy before her breakthrough as a film star.

German versions

  • The film was banned by the Nazis in 1936 because, in their opinion, it gave "a false image of a gypsy life to be rejected in a kitschy form", a "representation that [...] had no place in its overall attitude [in the Third Reich]" . So it lasted until 1957 for the German premiere. In Austria the film was already shown in December 1937 under the title "Lustig ist das Gigeunerleben" and came back in May 1950 after the war, this time under the title "Komödiantenblut" the cinemas.
  • The first synchronized version was created in 1957 by Berliner Synchron . Because the 1957 film was viewed as too short, the film "Thick and Doof Adopt a Child" (Their First Mistake) was added. It should give the impression that Stan and Ollie experience “The Bohemian Forest Girl” in a dream. The dialogue book was written by Horst Sommer and Klaus von Wahl directed the dialogue. Stan was spoken by Walter Bluhm and Ollie by Bruno W. Pantel . This dubbed version is available on DVD, but the original version of the film has been restored.
  • The beta technology created another version under the title The Runaway Princess , in which the dialogue book of the first version was used. Bluhm and Pantel can be heard again as Stan and Ollie. Rosemarie Fendel spoke to Mrs. Hardy and Hanns Dieter Hüsch made introductory comments.
  • The third version with the title Das Mädel aus dem Böhmerwald was created in 1975 during beta technology for the series Lachen Sie mit Stan and Ollie . Walter Bluhm spoke to Stan again and Michael Habeck lent Ollie his voice. The dialogue book was created by Wolfgang Schick , who again used the original version from 1957 as the basis.

swell

  • Laurel & Hardy : “The girl from the Bohemian Forest”, DVD 2005, production notes, information on the German dubbed version

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Bohemian Girl at Lordheath
  2. ↑ Dick and Stupid become dads. Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF eV, November 3, 2008, accessed on February 4, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b c Norbert Aping: Das kleine Dick-und-Doof-Buch Schüren, Marburg 2014, appendix p. 389ff.