Herman Bouber's popular musical plays set in the region of Amsterdam known as 'De Jordaan' had already been turned into silent movies in the Twenties (the songs were performed live so the audience could sing along). Then in the following decade, all three were filmed again, but this time with sound. The last of the so called 'Jordaan trilogy' to be made was 'Oranje Hein', starring Bouber himself in the title role and his wife Aaf as Hein's missus, Aal. Though they receive top billing, they are merely supporting characters in the story. Hein is never even called 'Oranje Hein', just Hein Trip the cobbler. He does however refer to himself as 'Magere Hein' (the grim reaper) on on occasion. Even more confusing, the mangled and dusty version released by the Filmmusem on DVD lists the alternate title 'Feest in de Jordaan' at the start.
The story follows several members of an extended family living in De Jordaan who each are having romantic/marital problems. First and foremost are fishmonger Thijs van der Spil (Johan Elsensohn) and his wife Ant (Annie Verhulst). He has a drinking problem and she wants a divorce. One day when he comes home drunk again, he finds most of his furniture missing as she is moving back in with her parents. Their daughter, Mientje (Jeanne Verstraete) has a posh boyfriend called Herman (Max Croiset) and thinks he's too ashamed of her lowly background to introduce her to his mother.
Meanwhile, Ant's parents are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. Now I know people married and had offspring early 75 years ago, but Ant looks to be older than 40. Stranger still, she has a (much) younger sister, Dien (Fientje Berghegge), who looks young enough to be Ant's daughter. Dientje is preoccupied with handsome cabaret singer Jan Tollenaar (Theo Moens). Her parents want her to settle down with fisherman suitor Dorus (Harry Boda) but naturally Dien won't hear of it.
All in all it's much more of a soap than a musical comedy. Most of the family members are terminally unhappy and the songs are few and far between. The only comic relief comes from the two Boubers and Sylvain Poons as con-man 'Oom Bram' who is always one step out of trouble with the law. The latter even gets up to a couple of silly slapstick routines reminiscent of a silent movie. Though his antics on a bicycle that are involve freeze frames and re winded footage can hardly be called inspired comedy high jinx.
As noted before about these Filmmusem releases, they are really quite interesting as part of the oft forgotten Dutch film history, but the quality of the films themselves is really quite abysmal. Many frames are missing, causing the scenes to 'jump about' at leisure. Still, the fact that they are willing to release these rare old films is commendable. And now that they've released practically every sound film from the thirties, maybe they'll go back and bring out some of the earlier silent movies. It would be especially interesting to see the original versions of the Jordaan trilogy and use them as companion pieces.
7 out of 10
