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.

Roland Varno

Dutch-born actor Roland Varno (1908-1996) is best known for his role as one of the schoolboys in the German classic Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930). Varno appeared in several German and Dutch films of the early 1930s and he also worked in Hollywood as a character actor, mainly in B-pictures.


Dutch postcard, no. 1.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5802/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard by M.B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The Girl With the Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934). Collectie: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


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 Enny Meunier.

Sleazy Shows

Roland (sometimes Rolant) Varno was born as Jacob Frederik Vuerhard in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in 1908. His sister, Anneke, was for many years the Dear Abby of Holland. Roland spent his younger years on the island of Java, but he moved back to Holland as a teenager.

At the end of the 1920s he went to Berlin to work in the film industry and soon he won leading parts in the films Zwischen vierzehn und siebzehn - Sexualnot der Jugend/Between 14 and 16 - Sexual Needs of Youth (E.W. Emo, 1929) and Jugendtragödie/Youth Tragedy (Alfred Trotz, 1929).

His next role was in the German classic Der Blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef van Sternberg, 1930), which made Marlene Dietrich an international star. He played one of the pupils of Emil Jannings who secretly frequent Dietrich’s sleazy shows in The Blue Angel cabaret.

Varno had another supporting role in the popular Heinz Rühmann comedy Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht/Looking for His Murderer (Robert Siodmak, 1931).

In 1930, he moved to the U.S. to shoot All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Mileastone, 1930). His ship was stalled in the Atlantic so the role went instead to Lew Ayers, who became both a major star and Roland's best friend.


Dutch autograph card, 1930. Caption: In memory to my visit to the Trianon Theatre, The Hague, December 1930.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 186/4, 1931-1933. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for As You Desire me (George Fitzmaurice, 1932) with Greta Garbo.


Dutch postcard for the Dutch film De Sensatie der toekomst (Dimitri Buchowetzki, Jack Salvatori, 1931) with Lien Deyers and Dolly Bouwmeester. Deyers was not in the film, but visited the Paramount studios during the shooting.

The Sensation of the Future

In the Paramount studio in France, he played in De sensatie der toekomst (Victor Buchowetzki, Jack Salvatori, 1931), a Dutch version of the French production Magie Moderne/Modern Magic (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1931). He starred with Dolly Bouwmeester in this SF detective film about the new phenomenon television - the 'sensation of the future'.

After this early Dutch sound film, he returned to Hollywood but there he found only small roles in films like Arsène Lupin (Jack Conway, 1932) and the Greta Garbo vehicle As You Desire Me (George Fitzmaurice, 1932).

Varno returned to the Netherlands to star as a girl-shy soldier in the musical comedy Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl with the Blue Hat (Rudolph Meinert, 1934), co-starring with Truus van Aalten and Lou Bandy.

Then he starred in another Dutch comedy Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Enny Meunier, Louis Borel and Johan Kaart.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Still for Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl with the Blue Hat (1934) with Truus van Aalten, Dries Krijn and Lou Bandy.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma.Still for Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl with the Blue Hat (1934) with Tony van den Berg.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Still for Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl with the Blue Hat (1934) with Truus van Aalten.

Bit roles

Roland Varno returned to Hollywood but for years he only found bit roles, often uncredited.

In 1939 he played a spy in a short film by Fred Zinnemann, While America Sleeps (1939). More supporting roles followed in the Nelson Eddy musical Balalaika (Reinhold Schünzel, 1939), the war drama Mystery Sea Raider (Edward Dmytryk, 1940), another war drama Underground (Vincent Sherman, 1941) and the Western Valley of Hunted Men (John English, 1941).

Varno had his first major screen credit in Hollywood in The Return of the Vampire (Lew Landers, 1944), starring Bela Lugosi and Nina Foch.

Varno was fluent in several languages and during WW II, he was placed in the Office of Strategic Services and appeared in several propaganda movies, including The Unwritten Code (Herman Rotsten, 1944). In this offbeat, better-than-average war drama Ann Savage and Tom Neal were top-billed, but Varno was the central character. He played a Nazi spy who sneaks into the U.S., hoping to release hundreds of German prisoners.

Other career highlights were the wartime drama Hostages (Frank Tuttle, 1943) with Luise Rainer and William Bendix and the Film Noir My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945) starring Nina Foch.

His linguistic versatility came in handy after the war and made him a popular performer in radio programs across the country. In the 1950s he was also often seen as a guest star in TV series.

He made his last movie appearance in Istanbul (Joseph Pevney, 1957) starring Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers.

Several years into his retirement, Varno's language skills again came in handy on the set of the TV miniseries War and Remembrance (1988).

Roland Varno died in 1996 in Lancaster, California. His son is the Emmy nominated sound editor Martin Varno. His daughter is Jill Taggart.


Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 2. Photo: still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934). Collectie: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z, no. 3. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).


Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z, no. 4. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 6. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).


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


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


Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 14. Photo: still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934). Collectie: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Het meisje met de blauwe hoed (1934)

Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The girl with the blue hat (1934) is a Dutch 'army film', directed by Austrian director Rudolf Meinert. Stars are Roland Varno, Truus van Aalten and Lou Bandy. The film is an adaptation of the book Het meisje met de blauwe hoed by Johan Fabricius and was remade in 1972 as a popular television series with colour and new songs.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma.Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Tony van den Berg and Roland Varno.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/ The Girl with the Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Truus van Aalten. Collection: Egbert Barten. Comment by Ali Gardener at Flickr: "It looks like taken very spontaneous and still so perfectly posed! I like also the shadow of the shoes and all those splendid details."


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The Girl With the Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Roland Varno. Collectie: Egbert Barten.

Unusual for the Netherlands

Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The girl with the blue hat was an unusual production for the Netherlands in the 1930s. It was the first production by Filma, the film production company of 27 years old Wil Tuschinski, son of cinema chain owner Abraham Tuschinski. For the first time, a moving camera was used in the Cinetone Sound Film studios in Amsterdam. The production costs amounted to 100,000 guilders - a record for the Dutch film industry at the time.

The three stars were also interesting. Dutch-born actor Roland Varno (1908-1996) is best known for his role as one of the schoolboys in Josef von Sternberg's Der blaue Engel/The blue angel (1930). He appeared in several German and Dutch films of the early 1930s and then moved to Hollywood, where he made a film with Greta Garbo, As You Desire me (George Fitzmaurice, 1932). However, he mostly worked in Hollywood as a character actor, often in B-pictures.

The female leading role was played by another Dutch film star with a career abroad, Truus van Aalten (1910-1999). She starred in 29 European films during the 1920s and 1930s. She made most of them in Berlin and Vienna, and Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat was the only film she made in the Netherlands.

Singer and entertainer Lou Bandy (1890-1959) played a dual role in Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The girl with the blue hat as Toontje and as himself. Bandy was one of the most popular artists of The Netherlands between the two world wars. His songs Zoek de zon op (Look for the sun) and Louise zit niet op je nagels te bijten (Louise, don't bite your nails) became Dutch evergreens. In this film, Bandy sings the songs In de petoet (In the brig) and Vaste verkering (Steady dating) which soon became hits in the Netherlands.


Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Lou Bandy.


Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Lou Bandy.


Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Eberhard Erfmann, Lau Ezerman, Gusta Chrispijn-Mulder, Tony van den Berg, Adrienne Solser, Roland Varno and Truus van Aalten.

Too wild for him

The film is also described as an army comedy. The story was based on a semi-autobiographical novel which Johan Fabricius published in 1927 and follows the story quite well. Roland Varno plays nerdy Daantje Pieters, who works in a grocery shop in Gouda when he is suddenly called to The Hague to serve for the Dutch army.

In the army, Daantje is the victim of teasing of his fellow soldiers. Especially his roommate Toontje (Lou Bandy) has great pleasure in keeping him fooled. The only thing that keeps Daantje going is the thought of 'the girl with the blue hat' (Truus van Aalten), a beautiful girl he spotted aboard the train to the garrison.

Despite the unfriendly beginning, smart and sneaky conman Toontje takes Daantje under his wing (not to mention his grocery supplies). During a visit to a revue of Lou Bandy Daantje notices again the girl with the blue hat. He is too shy to approach her, but Toontje arranges a meeting in a bar, to the chagrin of her date. The girl, who answers to the name Betsy, is attracted to Daantje and the two spend a romantic evening.

Daantjes mother (Adriënne Solser) is not impressed by the sexually liberated Betsy and sees her son would rather marry his neighbour Hilda Jansma (Tony van den Berg). Back in The Hague Betsy realizes that she and Danny do not fit together. She explains that she is too wild for him and breaks off the engagement.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Truus van Aalten.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Roland Varno and Truus van Aalten.


Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (1934) with Lou Bandy.

War Propaganda

During the Second World War, Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat was banned by the Nazis along with two other Dutch films, De Big van het Regiment/The Regiment's Mascot (Max Nosseck, 1935) and Ergens in Nederland/Somewhere in the Netherlands (Ludwig Berger, 1940) because of 'war propaganda'.

Chip Douglas at IMDb loves the film: "As a piece of Dutch cinema history this film is a clear standout. " About Varno and Van Aalten he notes: "They play their parts well, but it is Bandy who dominates the picture. His contribution, as well as the musical numbers managed to bring in a large enough audience to break even. However, writer Fabricius apparently wasn't very pleased when he found out they turned his book into a musical."

In 1972, a seven-part Dutch television series was broadcast, Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Dick van 't Sant, 1972) with Huib Rooymans, Jenny Arean and André van Duin in the lead roles. Rooijmans and Arean were married at the time, but divorced in 1973. Due to its length, the story was reworked and the very popular TV series contained more scenes and even more songs. Fabricius possibly turned in his grave.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed (1934) with Roland Varno, Truus van Aalten, Dries Krijn en Lou Bandy.


Dutch postcard by R.E.B., no. 3. Photo: publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (1934) with Lou Bandy and Roland Varno.


Scene from Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (1934). Source: Kanaal van Johanpa3 (YouTube).


Scene from the TV series with André van Duin singing Vaste verkering. Source: Johnny Keurntjes (YouTube).

Sources: Henk van Gelder (Hollands Hollywood - Dutch), Kathinka Dittrich (Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Film en Bioscoop tot 1940 - Dutch), Chip Douglas (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Lou Bandy

This week EFSP has its yearly Netherlands Film Star Postcards Festival again. During the Netherlands Film Festival (26 September - 5 October 2012) we provide you daily with postcards and bios of Dutch film stars. Today we pay tribute to singer and entertainer Lou Bandy (1890 - 1959), who was one of the most popular artists in The Netherlands between the two world wars. His songs like 'Zoek de zon op' (Look for the sun) and 'Louise zit niet op je nagels te bijten' (Louise, Stop biting your nails) became Dutch evergreens. During the 1930s, Lou Bandy starred in two Dutch shorts and two feature films.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed (1934).


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed (1934).

Standup comedian avant-la-lettre

Lou Bandy was born as Lodewijk Ferdinand Dieben in Den Haag (The Hague) in 1890. He grew up in a poor, working-class family as the youngest of a family of five children. He was the son of Franciscus Albertus Jacobus Dieben, a bricklayer, later a town clerk, and Frederika Wilhelmina Ninaber. Although there was poverty in the family, there was a lot of singing. When mother was not afflicted by headache attacks and depressive moods, she used to sing self-penned lyrics behind the washtub.

At school, a lot of attention was paid to singing and recitation. In these, Lou excelled more than in learning. After primary school, Dieben was successively piccolo in a hotel in The Hague, domestic servant with the Holland-America Line and street singer in London. In 1908, he served in the navy. After his service, Dieben went sailing again. Mobilisation in 1914 brought him back into military service. He was posted to the naval dockyard in Amsterdam. Among his mates, he was popular as a song singer and joker, but he found it difficult to conform to military discipline. For this reason, he was declared unfit for service in 1915.

In 1915, he made his stage debut in a variety show.He appeared with his four years older brother Wil as The Bandy Brothers. Their stage name was a phonetic anagram of their real surname Die-ben. The brothers separated soon because of their clashing personalities. Unlike Willy, Lou was known as a difficult person. Wil would become a popular entertainer in The Netherlands, known as Willy Derby. For the first three years, the lyrics of his songs were almost all by 'Ferry', lyricist Ferry van Delden

Lou continued under the name Lou Bandy. In 1921 Lou married the pianist and dancer Eugenie Küch. The German officer's daughter had a major impact on his career. She taught him neater manners, made him realise the importance of speaking in general Dutch and got him his first lucrative contracts. She would manage him to the top of the Dutch entertainment world. In 1927, their daughter Louise was born. In 1927, it came to a new collaboration with his brother Willy Derby. With their own company, they performed the grand revue 'Vergeet je me niet?'(Don't you forget me?) at the 'Trianon-Theater' in The Hague. The lyrics were by Ferry van Delden. Bandy and Derby performed separately, not as a duo. Apart from some banter back and forth, the collaboration went reasonably well. The revue was a great success in The Hague, but a subsequent tour was not long-lived.

In the following decades, Lou Bandy became a standup comedian avant-la-lettre. In the period between the two world wars, Bandy was one of the Netherlands' most popular artists. From 1931, Bandy was the crowd-pleaser for the revue company De Nationale Revue, which he traded to Jong Nederland in 1939. His trademark was a straw hat. Bandy became known to the public as a singer of cheerful lyrics, usually by Ferry van Delden or Philip Pinkhof (aka Rido). Among persons close to him, he had a less cheerful image. The anecdotes in which Bandy scolded his colleagues with a sour comment are numerous.


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed (1934).


Dutch postcard by R.E.B., no. 3. Photo: publicity still for Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (1934).

Grand revues

As a celebrated artist, Lou Bandy was involved in the Dutch sound film early on. In 1929, he could be seen - and heard via a synchronised gramophone record - in one of the films Hofstad Film commissioned from well-known Dutch artists. Two years later, he acted in Zijn belooning/His Reward, the first short Dutch feature film with sound. In his biggest success, the army comedy Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl with the Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934), he co-starred with the internationally known Truus van Aalten and Roland Varno. Lou played a dual role as Toontje, one of the soldiers, and as himself, Lou Bandy the variety artist. The film songs were written by Alex de Haas and Max Tak. Bandy recorded two of them, 'In de petoet'(In jail) and 'Vaste verkering is niets voor een soldaat' (No soldier should have a steady girlfriend), and they became popular hits.

In the flop Het leven is niet zoo kwaad/Life Isn't That bad (Haro van Peski, 1935), he costarred with Dutch film diva Fien de la Mar. Bandy was foremost a star of the revue and stayed so after the war. In 1940, he bought a villa in Doorn. He enjoyed spending time there and furnished the house with, among other things, a collection of paintings by Dutch masters.

In 1942, Bandy was arrested for anti-German provocation. This was because he had imitated Seyss-Inquart's limp walk during a performance. NSB members present among the audience reported the incident to the occupying forces. He spent a night in Scheveningen prison and was later transferred and interned in a hostage camp in Haaren. By simulating a heart condition, he was released. He also wrote a submissive letter to the occupying forces asking to be allowed to perform again. A short time later, he was arrested again and transferred to a hostage camp. There he attempted suicide. After being nursed, he returned home around Christmas 1942. He was put under house arrest and had to stay in Doorn. As a result, he did not perform again during the remaining war years.

In 1944, he suffered another setback. His wife Eugenie died in February and his brother Willy Derby in April. In the 1950s the grand revues became less fashionable and Bandy had to content himself with smaller gigs. He also started to work for the radio. He often performed at the very popular radio show De Bonte Dinsdagavondtrein (The Colourful Train of Tuesday Evening).

His life ended tragically. After the death of his wife in 1944, he had many escapades with young girls. Two such affairs ended in marriages: to Sinia Franke (1948-1949) and to the 43 years younger Carla van den Hurk (1952-1958). During the 1950s, Lou Bandy lost his public and after the divorce from Carla, he had to be treated in a psychiatric clinic. Alone in his flat in Zandvoort, he committed suicide in 1959. He was buried in the Old General Cemetery in Doorn (grave S-37) next to his first wife. Lou Bandy had one daughter from his first marriage, Louise (1928).


Scene from Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl with the Blue Hat (1934). Source: Johanpa3 (YouTube).


Campy clip of De zingende broeder singing Lou Bandy's evergreen 'Louise zit niet op je nagels te bijten' (Louise, Stop Biting your Nails). Source: De zingende broeder (YouTube).

Sources: Ben Leenders (Historici.nl - Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 23 May 2023.

Lau Ezerman

Actor and stage director Lau Ezerman (1892-1940) played in several Dutch films, both silent and sound, from the pre-WWII era. The Jewish Ezerman committed suicide in 1940.


Dutch Postcard by m.d. This postcard was probably produced for Ezerman's jubilee as an artist in 1938.

Lost and Found

Laurens Ezerman was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 1892. Originally a bank employee, he played in dilettante societies in his spare time. In 1911, he attended the Toneelschool, Amsterdam. He joined Mertens and Kinsbergen's operetta company (Frascati), but by then had already made his stage debut. As a student of the drama school, he played the role of Viscount de Jodelet in Molière's "Ridiculous Courtly Misses" on 1 February 1912.

Two years later, he was able to get an engagement at the Hollandia Filmfabriek in Haarlem and put an end to his education. His film debut was Nederland en Oranje/Netherlands and Orange (Louis Chrispijn Sr, 1913), a short silent film that portrayed twenty highlights from Dutch history.

He became one of the actors of the ‘troupe’ of the Filmfabriek-Hollandia, the most active producer of silent films in The Netherlands. The company’s main directors were Maurits Binger, Louis Chrispijn Sr and Theo Frenkel Sr.

Chrispijn directed Lau Ezerman in such melodramas as Zijn viool/His Violin (Louis Chrispijn Sr, 1914), Gebroken levens/Broken Lives (Louis Chrispijn Sr, 1914) starring the grand Louis Bouwmeester) and Weergevonden/Lost and Found (Louis Chrispijn Sr, 1914). Most of these films are presumed missing, but Weergevonden was literally found again in 1976.

In 1920 Hollandia united with a British company and Ezerman played in their historical adventure film De zwarte tulp/The Black Tulip (Maurits Binger, Frank Richardson, 1921) and their crime film Bulldog Drummond (Oscar Apfel, 1922), based on a popular novel and play by Sapper (Herman C. McNeile).


Dutch postcard for the stage play 'Don Quichot op de bruiloft van Kamatcho'(Don Quichot on the Wedding of Kamatcho) (1711) by Pieter Langendijk, starring Lau Ezerman as Don Quichotte and Johan Kaart Jr as Sancho Panza. The play was performed by the Schouwburgtoneel of Jan Musch in the open-air theatre in Valkenburg in 1920. In 1925 the play was performed again with Kaart as Sancho Panza at the Amsterdam open-air theatre Frankendaal, this time by the company Vereenigd Tooneel.


Free admission ticket for a screening at the Cinema Américain in the city of Alkmaar on Thursday 10 January 1935. Photos: stills from the advertising film Wasch gemakkelijk, wach voordelig/Do your laundry easily and affordably (Johannes Guter, 1933). Collection: Roloff de Jeu@Flickr.
The Persil 'Klankfilm' (film with sound) 'WASCH GEMAKKELIJK, WASCH VOORDELIG' was a film produced by Persil director E. Ostermann & Co. and distributed throughout the Netherlands by Henkel's laundry detergent brand from 1934 to 1936. Housewives and young women exclusively were invited to see the film for free at private screenings in their local cinema. Other brands in use in the film were Henco, Ato, iMi and Sil. Apparently, this was the first Dutch feature (137 minutes!) with sound with Dutch actors. Some sources label it as a musical. It was directed by the Latvian director Johannes Guter who fled to Germany twice in the early 1900s to become a pioneer in German silent and expressionist cinema. The film was shot at the UFA studios in Berlin, Germany and recorded in several languages (using the same Dutch actors). WASCH GEMAKKELIJK, WASCH VOORDELIG premiered in Amsterdam's Tuschinski Theatre on November 29th in 1933. Newspaper reviews were quite positive.

Philiwood

In 1934 film companies competed to produce the first Dutch talkie. Lau Ezerman played in the 'winner', Willem van Oranje/William of Orange (Jan Teunissen, 1934). This historical drama was shot at the Philips Studios ('Philiwood') in Eindhoven, using the Philips-Miller Filmband, a new system for recording sound.

In the 1930s, directors like Detlev Sierck (Douglas Sirk) and Ludwig Berger and scriptwriters like Walter Schlee went into exile from Nazi Germany and gave the Dutch film industry a healthy impulse.

Ezerman played character parts in such films as the comedy Bleeke Bet/Pale Beth (Richard Oswald, Alex Benno, 1934) and Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl With the Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934) with Truus van Aalten.

In the second half of the 1930s, Ezerman led a wandering existence both in his work and private life. He played in the films Komedie om geld/The Trouble with Money (Max Ophüls, 1936), the popular romcom Vadertje Langbeen/Daddy Long Legs (Frederic (Friedrich) Zelnik, 1938) starring Lily Bouwmeester, Morgen gaat het beter/Tomorrow It Will Be Better (Frederic Zelnik, 1939), and the thriller De spooktrein/The Ghost Train (Carl (Karel) Lamac, 1939), based on the play 'The Ghost Train' (1925) by Arnold Ridley.

In 1938-1939, he worked on stage with his own group, Het Hoofdstadtooneel and with the ABC Cabaret, where he celebrated his 25th anniversary in 1938. In 1941 the Nazis censured films such as Bleeke Bet for reissues and all the Jewish actors including Lau Ezerman were cut from the film, but he would never know that. In 1940 Lau Ezerman committed suicide in Amersfoort at the age of 47.


Dutch Postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag (The Hague). Lau Ezerman and other cast members in Bleeke Bet/Pale Beth (Richard Oswald, Alex Benno, 1934).


Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Filma. Roland Varno, Truus van Aalten, Dries Krijn and Lou Bandy in Het meisje met den blauwen hoed/The Girl With the Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934).

Sources: TheaterEncyclopedie (Dutch), Geoffrey Donaldson (Of Joy and Sorrow) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 26 February 2024.