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[Christoph Nestel]

Dear Ken,

May be you would be able to help me with a very specific question please allow me to ask you today. The passaway of great entertainer Bob Hope motivates me in doing researches about the old original theatrical German language versions of Bob's early Paramount films, which are missing or no more available today.

I have relations to the Kirch Group in Munich which holds TV licenses of many Paramount films and owns lots of old theatrical prints and German negatives or sound negatives. But with all these films they have no elements at all. But the possibility was pointed out to me that Paramount itself may keep the original German sound negatives in America. Unfortunately there is no German branch of Paramount I would be able to get in contact with.

I wonder if you can supply me with an e-mail-adress or adress of somebody at Paramount International, who knows and is concerned about stock vaults and would supply me with information about German film material which is still in existence there abroad.

I know the dubbing of films in Germany may be a really strange thing to foreign people and difficult to understand. But these old theatrical dubbings were done very carefully and participated many of the most renowned actors of its days and so are important part of our movie history. Just think of one of your most favourite actresses or actors. Imagine there would be not only the films she or he appeared in, but also a huge amount of films where the actress or actor just can be heard speaking the lines for a
foreign actor. Take O.E. Hasse, who became also an international acclaimed actor. I counted 78 movies he made throughout the years, but you would have to add another 80 foreign films where he did just German voice acting for stars including Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart or Michel Simon. In some of the dubbings he would be able to prove even more of his talents than he was allowed to do in some
pictures he starred in visibly.

The films I'm concerned about are the following (in brackets the German release title and the year of the German dubbing and theatrical release is given):

ROAD TO ZANZIBAR, 1941 (DER WEG NACH SANSIBAR, 1950)
ROAD TO MOROCCO, 1942 (DER WEG NACH MAROKKO, 1949)
ROAD TO UTOPIA, 1945 (DER WEG NACH UTOPIA, 1951)
ROAD TO RIO, 1947 (DER WEG NACH RIO, 1949)

MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, 1946 (MIT PINSEL UND DEGEN, 1950)
SORROWFUL JONES, 1949 (DER BESIEGTE GEIZHALS, 1951)
FANCY PANTS, 1950 (HERZ IN DER HOSE, 1951)

I suppose most of the German versions of these films were produced by the acclaimed Berliner Synchon Wenzel Lüdecke, Berlin and outstanding Georg Thomalla would be the German voice for Bob Hope. Most probably Paul Klinger starred for Bing Crosby in the ROAD-TO-pictures.

Georg Thomalla also provided the German voice for Danny Kaye, Jack Lemmon and Red Skelton for many years, always performing with the special own touch each of these greats deserved. All these stars and their popularity in our country are unseparably connected with Thomallas name. To get an idea of his qualities just have a look on the 1954 German audio on the UK Code 2 WHITE CHRISTMAS-DVD and listen to him speaking for Danny Kaye. Pictures of several decades of him can bee seen here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.steffi-line.de%2FBildergalerie%2Fnost_film50_deutsch%2F77_thomalla.htm&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=de&ie=ISO-8859-1&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

Many thanks for your help and all the best wishes,

Christoph

[Ken Barnes]

Dear Christoph,

Thanks for yet another interesting message. As it happens, my colleagues and I are looking at various old Bob Hope Paramount films with a view to DVD ( probably in one or two boxed sets ). Our first priority is to find decent prints which, as you know with films over 50 years old is not easy.

Some of the titles you mentioned are under consideration.
I don't know yet whether they will include the German dubbed versions, but I'll try and investigate this for you.

It may be a couple of weeks before I know anything positive, but I'll try and come up with a contact or, at least, some information for you.

I think it would be interesting if we could locate the dubbed versions because, obviously, we'd like to release in as many countries as possible.

Regards
Ken Barnes

[Mario & Roderick Gauci]

Dear Mr. Barnes,


We had written to you in the past, congragulating you on some of your releases as well as suggesting others. We’re very glad your Special Edition 2-Disc Set of CITIZEN KANE (1941) has been a resounding success, comparing very favorably indeed with its Region 1 counterpart.
Like everybody else, we were saddened by the passing of the great Bob Hope. In fact, we’ve been having ourselves a small marathon of some of his best movies (on VHS and DVD) in his honour.

There are still a few films of his we haven’t watched, foremost among them THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939), a classic comedy-thriller which was actually his very first starring role. For some reason, this film has been overlooked by Universal when they released their line of Hope DVDs last year in anticipation of his centenary birthday. Knowing of your close association with Universal (and the fact that you are already planning to release some of his work on R2 DVD, as part of “The Laureate Collection”), we would be very grateful to you if you could mention this title as a possible candidate.

Other obvious suggestions would be those Bob Hope films which have fallen into the Public Domain, and which have consequently been mistreated by several budget labels on DVD. We know quality prints of these titles are not easy to come by, but your record so far has been very impressive in this regard – so we can rest assured that these films will be in safe hands, and that you’ll give them all you’ve got no matter what! Among the films we would like you to tackle are MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE (1947; one of the films we have watched this week by way of a very soft print which, we are sure you agree, is not the best way to watch the classics!), SON OF PALEFACE (1952) and ROAD TO BALI (1952), as well as two that we never had the opportunity to watch - THE GREAT LOVER (1949) and THE LEMON DROP KID (1951).
We have no idea what supplementary material can be obtained for such movies but, as always, we leave that up to you; we do not doubt that your company will come through in this department as always!

Thanks for keeping the classic films of the past alive through your respectable (and respected) line of DVD releases; these have always proven to be as much educational (in view of the informative and carefully planned extras) as they are entertaining to watch – to say nothing of great value for money!

Sincerely Yours,

MARIO & RODERICK GAUCI

Naxxar, Malta,

[Christoph Nestel]

Dear Ken,

thanks for this good news. The perspective that these films which have been released for several times on cheap region 1 labels in bad condition will get a quality Laureate issue is fine. And the idea to get Laureate DVDs with both languages in future is exiting. Kirch also has various sometimes very good prints and foreign audio, e.g. the German TV version of ROAD TO BALI has a very good Technicolor image and carries English titlecards.

Thanks and best wishes,

Christoph