Malle gevallen (1934)

Johan Kaart Jr. and Louis de Bree starred in the Dutch romantic comedy Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934), produced by the Dutch film mogul Loet C. Barnstijn.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Johan Kaart in Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Louis de Bree in Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).


Dutch postcard, no. 1. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still for Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (1934) with Johan Kaart and Louis de Bree.


Dutch postcard, no. 2. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still for Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (1934) with Roland Varno, Annie van Duyn, Johan Kaart, Enny Meunier, Louis Borel, and Jopie Koopman. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Dutch postcard, no. 3. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Annie van Duyn, Enny Meunier, Johan Kaart, and Roland Varno in Malle gevallen (1934).

Three students and three girls

Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (1934) was one of the dozens of Dutch sound films, made after the success of the musical De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1933). The producer of De Jantjes, film distributor and former cinema operator Loet C. Barnstijn, engaged director Jaap Speyer, who had worked for years in the silent film industry in Berlin and who had directed De Jantjes.

In 1929, Barnstijn had Philips developed the ‘Loetafoon’, his own projection system for sound films. In the years that followed, he imported sound-film cameras and was the first person in the Netherlands to produce a short sound film.

Malle gevallen is a romantic comedy written by Hans Martin and Simon Koster based on Martin's 1913 novel. The plot is about three students, Bram, Boy and Hans (Johan Kaart Jr., Roland Varno, and Louis Borel) who fall in love with the schoolgirls Kitty and Toos, and the secretary Loeki (Enny Meunier, Annie van Duyn and Jopie Koopman). The girls live above the grumpy Mr. Smallebroek (Louis de Bree). Johan Kaart Jr. (1897-1976 was appointed to the lead role in Malle gevallen for his popular interpretation as the cross-eyed tar in De Jantjes. Kaart starred in seven Dutch films between 1934 and 1937. After the war, he played in several other Dutch films. He also worked often on radio and TV, but his main stage was the theatre.

At the time, Roland Varno (1908-1996) was already known for his role as one of the gymnasium students in Josef von Sternberg's Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930). He later worked in Hollywood as a character actor, mainly in B-pictures. Louis Borel (1905-1973) appeared in films in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Hollywood. He also adapted, translated, directed and starred in many plays. At the end of his career, he became a popular TV star. 

Enny Meunier (1912-1996) was a celebrated stage actress, who also performed on radio and TV. During the 1930s she starred in a few Dutch films. Stage actress Annie van Duyn (1915-?) played in six films of the 1930s and also in a film after the war. Later she moved to the USA. Jopie Koopman (1910-1979) was a pretty cabaret artist, who sang and played in several revues and early sound films.


Dutch postcard, no. 4. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still of Roland Varno, Louis Borel, and Johan Kaart in Malle gevallen (1934).


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 5. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Louis Borel and Jopie Koopman in Malle gevallen (1934).


Dutch postcard, no. 6. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still for Malle Gevallen (1934) with Johan Kaart, Annie van Duyn, Roland Varno, Adriaan van Hees, Louis Borel, Enny Meunier and Jopie Koopman. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Dutch postcard, no. 7. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Johan Kaart Jr. in Malle gevallen (1934).


Dutch postcard, no. 8. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Roland Varno, Jopie Koopman and Annie van Duyn in Malle gevallen (1934).

Coarseness and bad taste

Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (1934) was intended as a light romantic comedy, but it was made into a musical with songs by orchestra leader Max Tak. Although scriptwriters Martin and Koster had wanted to make something sophisticated, the final result was a farce. 

The famous Dutch film critic L.J. Jordaan complained about the "coarseness and bad taste" in the film. Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success. The film was regularly shown in Dutch cinemas until it was banned in 1942 by the Nazis. Why the Nazis forbade the film is still unknown.

In 1935, Loet C. Barnstijn released De familie van mijn vrouw/The family of my wife (Jaap Speyer, 1935) with Sylvain Poons. That same year he bought the Oosterbeek Estate near Wassenaar and built two film studios. He called this Filmstad (Film City). It consisted of an office, a storage film, a recording studio and a technical workshop.

This studio produced the successful film Merijntje Gijzen's jeugd/Merijntje Gijzen's Youth (Kurt Gerron, 1936), based on the novels by A.M. de Jong. When World War II broke out, Barnstijn stayed in the United States because of his Jewish background. The film studios of Oosterbeek were confiscated by the German film company Ufa and were later destroyed during an air raid. 

Loet Barnstijn died in the USA in 1953. In 2007, the Dutch Filmmuseum presented a DVD of Malle gevallen.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 9. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Roland Varno and Enny Meunier in Malle gevallen (1934).


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 10. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Roland Varno and Enny Meunier in Malle gevallen (1934).


Dutch postcard, no. 11. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still for Malle gevallen (1934) with Roland Varno, Johan Kaart, Annie van Duyn, Louis Borel, Jopie Koopman and Enny Meunier. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Dutch postcard, no. 12. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Louis de Bree in Malle gevallen (1934).


Dutch postcard, no. 14. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still for Malle gevallen (1934) with Roland Varno, Johan Kaart, Annie van Duyn, Enny Meunier and Adriaan van Hees. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Johan Kaart and Riek Berkhout in Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Johan Kaart in Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Sources: Eye (Dutch - page now disfunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 4 February 2024.

Enny Meunier

During the Netherlands Film Festival (21-30 September 2011), EFSP presents the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. Our festival ends this year with Dutch actress Enny Meunier (1912-1996). This celebrated stage actress also performed on radio and TV. During the 1930s, she starred in three Dutch films.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 13. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle gevallen (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Annie van Duyn and Jopie Koopman.

In her parents' footsteps

Enny Meunier was born as Anna Maria Cornelia Josephine Mulder in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 1912. She was the daughter of actor Maurice Meunier and actress Marie Nagtegaal. Emmy worked for a short time at the press bureau Vaz Dias but then decided to follow in her parents’ footsteps. She made her stage debut at the Schouwtoneel, and a long theatre career followed.

During the 1930s, she starred in three films. She was the schoolgirl Kitty opposite student Roland Varno in the comedy Malle gevallen / Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934), based on a novel by Hans Martin.

Although the critics did not like the film, Malle Gevallen did return its investments and was re-released several times. In 1942, during their occupation of the Netherlands, the Nazis banned the film in 1942 for unknown reasons. In the film itself is nothing anti-German, but actor Roland Varno worked at the time in Hollywood for anti-Nazi films.

In 1935, Meunier appeared in the crime drama Het Mysterie van de Mondscheinsonate / The Mystery of the Mondschein Sonata (Kurt Gerron, 1935) starring Louis de Bree.

Her final film was the drama Rubber (Johan De Meester, Gerard Rutten, 1936) co-starring Johan de Meester and Frits van Dongen (aka Philip Dorn). It was one of the few Dutch films set in a colony, the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). The film focuses on a Dutch newlywed couple (played by Meunier and Van Dongen) who try to adjust to the rough life on a Sumatran plantation.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 9. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle gevallen / Silly Situation (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Roland Varno.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 10. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle gevallen / Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Roland Varno.

Colombina

Twice, Enny Meunier was awarded a prestigious Dutch theatre award, the Columbina as Best Supporting player in a Dutch stage play, for her roles in 'Ornifie' (1955-1956) and 'Schakels' (1963-1964; Connections), written by Herman Heijermans.

On TV, she was seen in the crime series Maigret (1968) starring Wies Andersen and Jan Teulings, and in such TV plays as Gevaarlijk tussenspel / Dangerous Interplay (Paul Cammermans, 1961) written by F. Wyndham-Mallock.

In De dood van een handelsreiziger / Death of a Salesman (Jan Retèl, Jan Teulings, 1967), she starred opposite Ko van Dijk. It was a TV recording of Arthur Miller's play as performed by theatre company Het Nieuw Rotterdamse Toneel.

Her final screen appearance was again opposite Ko van Dijk in Mooi weer vandaag / Home (Karl Guttman, Berend Boudewijn, 1971), a television recording of David Storey's play as performed by theatre company de Haagse Comedie

Enny Meunier died in 1996 in Den Haag (The Hague), The Netherlands. She was 84. She was married to Jujutsu and Judo pioneer Maurice van Nieuwenhuizen, and since 1930, they lived in Den Haag.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 3. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle gevallen / Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Johan Kaart.


Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 11. Photo: still for Malle Gevallen / Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with at right Louis Borel. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Sources: Film in Nederland (Dutch - now offline), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 29 August 2025.