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[Christoph Nestel]

In late 1959 something very unique happened in Berlin when the German language dubbing 5 PENNIES MACHEN MUSIK (literally FIVE PENNIES MAKE MUSIC) of the film THE FIVE PENNIES was recorded. Something equal never had happened before and never would happen again later.


Of course Danny Kayes lines were provided by his regular German voice Georg Thomalla. But the songs were also dubbed into German - by Mr. Danny Kaye himself ! There are pictures which were published in a German movie magazine in early 1960, which show Danny and his wife Sylvia Fine at the dubbing atelier of Berliner Synchron Wenzel Lüdecke. There is also a picture of Danny together with company owner Wenzel Lüdecke but sadly I know none which shows Danny and Georg together. Unfortunately I found no way to bring these pictures online here.


It's very obvious that Danny doesn't understand a word of what he sings at all, but nevertheless he does very well. His performance is charismatic, very symphatethic and works surprisingly fine in spite of his strong accent and pronounciation.

The musical program is:
„Der kleine Penny“ („Five Pennies“)
„Wiegenlied in Ragtime“ („Lullaby in Ragtime“)
„Gut‘ Nacht, schlaf sacht‘“ („Good Night – Sleep Tight“)
„Die Musik fährt Karussell“ („The Music goes round and around“)
„Klingeling, klingeling, läutet’s immerzu“ („Jingle Bells“)
„Ist das nicht... ?“

Sigrid Lagemann, the German voice of Barbara Bel Geddes, also joins in singing together with Danny in „Wiegenlied in Ragtime“ and finally sings the reprise of „Der kleine Penny“ on her own. All songs Danny does together with Louis Armstrong remained in the original English (although Armstrong was at Berlin that time and did a guest appearance in the film LA PALOMA).


The German lyrics were written by Fritz A. Koeniger who was one of the most skilled writers for dubbing dialogues in the 50s and also provided the entire dialogue for this film. Other famous films he wrote the German dialogues for include Disneys BAMBI (old 1950 dub), KNOCK ON WOOD, CASANOVA'S BIG NIGHT, THE COURT JESTER, THAT CERTAIN FEELING but also REAR WINDOW (old 1955 dub) or 23 PACES TO BAKER STREET (Henry Hathaway's finest film desperately would need to be released to DVD btw).


I wonder how it happend that Danny went singing in German. Was he at Berlin that time anyway ? Did he go there on purpose just to do the singing ? Whose idea was it - Wenzel Lüdecke's or his own ? I didn't find to read anything about this so far and I wonder if this is known to English audiences at all. I guess the German songs were never released commercially on record. You would only find them on the German film track.


Does anybody know ?

[Ken Barnes]

As always, Christoph, you come up with such fascinating detail. You're knowledge and enthusiasm never fails to intrigue me - as I'm sure it does all visitors to the Laureate website.

I'm sure Danny Kaye learned his German lyrics phonetically. He always had a really good ear for inflections and dialects.


You've reminded me that I must keep after Paramount to release "Knock On Wood" - possibly his funniest film.

Thanks for this

Best
Ken