Verba et Litterre: Explorations in Germanic Languages and German Literature

Essays in Honor of Albert L. Lloyd

EDITED BY ALFRED R. WEDEL and HANs-JbRG B USCH

Linguatext, Ltd. Newark, Delaware -

Copyright © 2002 by Linguatext, Ltd. 270 Indian Road, Newark. DE 1971 1 (302) 453-8695

ISBN: 0-942566-33-5 Das Doppelte Lottchen. From Munich to Napa Valley FRANZ A. BIRGEL

n So wares wirklich: Der deutsche Nachkriegsjilm, Manfred Barthel I reports on a curious event during the summer of 1979: there-release of Josef von Baky's 1950 film Das doppelte Lottchen, adapted for the screen by Erich Kastner from his 1949 novel of the same name. 1 This seems like an unusual film to be shown in German theaters twenty-nine years after its original premiere. It is quite understandable that this de­ lightful and sentimental film should be popular during its release in 1950 and one year later win the first German film prizes for production, screenplay, and direction. But young and old standing in line to see this relatively low-budget, black-and-white film in 1979, the year of Su­ perman and Schulmadchenreport 12? At a time when the socially criti­ cal New German Cinema was at its peak? Even Ulrich Gregor, an avid supporter of the Oberhausen generation and the New German Cinema gave Das doppelte Lottchen a positive assessment, writing in 1980: "where one expects naive or old-fashioned, if not very petit-bourgeois, outdated rubbish, one experiences instead a refreshing, cheerful film, which even today radiates a special charm."2 Now that the so-called New German Cinema has become a thing of the past, now that film scholars have learned to take the polemics of the Oberhausen Genera­ tion with multiple grains of salt, they are gradually allowing themselves

1 Manfred Barthel, So war es wirklich: Der deutsche Nachkriegsjilm (Mu­ nich and Berlin: Herbig, I 986), 279. See also the collection of positive reviews from I 951 and later ones after the re-release of the film in Elisabeth Lutz­ Kopp, "Nur wer Kind bleibt ... "-Erich Kiistner-Verfilmungen (Frankfurt: Bundesverband Jugend und Film, 1993), 97-I05. 2 Ulrich Gregor, "Der deutsche Film seit 195 I im Spiegel des Deutschen Filmpreises," in Deutscher Filmpreis 1951-1980, 12, reprinted in Lutz-Kopp, 102. (Translations of German quotations are by the author.) 180 DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN FRANZ A. BIRGEL to admit that some of Opa's and Papa's films were not really that bad. 181 Obviously lacking the social and political orientation of the New Ger­ closer to his family. And the mother, obviously, gives up her career and man Cinema, Das doppelte Lottchen can, however, be read sympto­ moves to Vienna. Yet it is less a rekindled romance between father and matically as a film reflecting the traumas and concerns of post-war mother, which brings them together again, but rather, Lotte's devotion which leads the self-absorbed father to realize his paternal obligations. Germany. . · h The basic story line is familiar. The opemng. se~t~ence sho~s Enc Erich Kastner's clever but improbable premise for the Das dop­ Kastner narrating the beginning of the novel, mvitmg the VIewe~. to pelte Lottchen proved to be so appealing that it inspired five remakes enter the fictitious mountain village of Seebiihl on Lake Buhl. for the cinema and three television sequels. Even before filming began, Throughout the film, his voice is heard off-screen .commenti~g ~n the Das doppelte Lottchen received a lot of media attention in Germany. action. The next shot is of an idyllic Alpine lake with mountams m the Part of the pre-production publicity campaign was the nation-wide distance, a scene anticipating the beginning of almost ev~~ Heimatfilm sear~h for twins to play the roles of Lotte and Luise. Not only from made during the 1950s. Kastner tells the viewers that this IS n?t an or­ Mumch, but from all of Germany, mothers came with twin daughters in phanage, but rather a summer resort for girls. Ten-~ear old Lmse Palfy to~. As Curt Riess reports the events, every mother thought that her from Vienna is already at the camp when the bus bnngs a ne~ gro~p of twm daughters were the ideal girls for the film because they were the girls, one of whom looks exactly like Luise. The only physi~al ~Iffer­ prettiest, nicest, and possessed the most acting talent. Erich Kastner ence between Luise and the new girl, Lotte Korner from Mum~h, IS t~at later stated that he had the idea of two identical girls who could look so the former has long golden locks and the latter has tigh~ly ?rmded pig­ much alike that they could be mistaken for one another, but each of tails; however, emotionally, they are quite different: Lm~~ Is pampered ~hom had a different temperament and character, which they exchange and spoiled, whereas the timid Lotte is so serious and dihgent that her m the course of the film. Kastner believed such a pair could not be mother sent her to camp with the specific intention that she would learn found because they existed only in his imagination. The choice was to be a child again. Initial animosities between the two are soon over­ eventually narrowed to 120 pairs of twins, and finally Isa and Jutta come, and they discover that they are identical twins separated seven Gunther were chosen for the roles. Kastner discovered during the film­ ing that the two girls actually changed characters as he had conceived years ago. The two girls hatch a plan whereby each on~ would. get. to it, and he was pleased to see how his imagination and reality inter­ know the other parent and eventually reunite the family. Switchmg twined.3 places, Luise goes to her mother in Munich, and ~otte goes to her com­ poser-conductor-father in Vienna ..Nu~e~ous episodes ~re, pre~ented, Although made in 1950, Das doppelte Lottchen shows no images which threaten to reveal their true Identities, such as Lmse s failed at­ of ruined cities, no soldiers returning from captivity, no men on crutches, no occupation troops, and no housing shortage, only a short­ tempt to cook for her mother in Munich, and Lo~e, in Vienna, having to eat piles of palatschinken, Luise's .favorite dish, "":hen she would age of w~ll-lighted studios for the artist next door. The viewer is pre­ prefer a veal schnitzel or goulash. As m numerous Hezmatfilr:ze of the sented With what appears to be the positive side of life in the early period, such as Griin ist die Heide (1951 ), young Lott~ fills m for the years of the economic miracle. A closer examination, however, reveals that something is wrong with this view. A film from 1950 without any missing mother by taking care of the father's domest~c needs. In her naivete, she attempts to use her girlish femininity to dnve a wedge be­ allusion to the war? No reference to a border between Germany and tween her father and his latest flame, Irene Gerlach. Lotte goes so far as Austria? No mention of alimony or child-support payments? The film's to visit Fraulein Gerlach in order to forbid her from marrying her fa­ historical and geographical indicators actually hint at a period between the Anschluj3 and the end of the Second World War. ther. Fearing that her daring effort has been unsuccessful, Lotte su~fers an emotional and physical collapse. Eventually, the mo:her and sist~r A brief look at Kastner's career during the Third Reich may an­ swer these questions. The Neukollner Tageblatt of May 12, 1933, re- come to Vienna; the parents are reunited, and the father IS cured of h~s self-indulgence. Following Lotte's suggestion, he ev~n exchanges his 3 combination music studio and bachelor pad on the Rmgstrasse for the Curt Riess, Das Gab's nur einmaf: Der deutsche Film nach 1945 (Vi­ enna and Munich: Molden, 1977), 5: 88-90. artist's room next door to the family's apartment so that he can work FRANZ A. BIRGEL 183 182 DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN 8 ports how, during the book burnings, nine voices called out the ~easons skammer on December 29, 1941. Reports vary as to who interceded on why works of specific authors had to be burned. The ~ec?n? vmce pro­ Ka~tner's behalf, all_owing him to work on Miinchhausen. According to claimed: "Against decadence and moral decay! For disciplme ~~d mo­ Lmselotte Enderle, It was Eberhard Schmidt, an Ufa production direc­ rality in the family and the state. I assign to the flame_s the wntmgs of tor.9 According to other reports, it was Fritz Hippler, director of the 4 infamous Der ewige Jude, and at that time, Reichsfilmintendant and Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeser and Erich Kastner." Six ~ays later, the 10 Miinchener Neueste Nachrichten reported on the blacklist of a~thors head of the film division in the propaganda ministry. who were to be removed from public libraries. With the exceptiOn of Goebbels wanted to spare no costs on Miinchhausen, which was 5 1 Emil und die Detektive, all of Kastner's writings were banned. Catego­ being planned to celebrate Ufa's 25 h anniversary, and because he 6 wanted the best possible authors to work on the screenplay, he was rized as "undesired and politically unreliable," he was at first only 11 permitted to have his works publish~d outside of Germany. In Dec~m­ will in~ to overlook their political standing. A requirement for writing ber 1934, Kastner was briefly taken mto custody for allegedly publish­ the scnpt was membership in the Reichsschrifttumskammer, and Goeb­ ing subversive works abroad and h~d _his bank acc_ount frozen f~r one bels granted Kastner a special approval, provided the author use a year. The Gestapo arrested him agam m 1937 and mterrogated him for pseudonym. When the filming was completed in December 1942, how­ three hours in order to intimidate him. 7 In every country conquered by ever, Hitler reportedly went into a rage when he discovered that Kast­ ner had written the script. In January 1943, Goebbels again had him German troops his books became banned. . . banned from working in the film industry and prohibited him from pub­ The official Nazi attitude toward his works was, at times,_ ambiV~- 12 lent and the censoring of his works not well orchestrated. Wh~le all his lishing at home and abroad. Miinchhausen had its premiere on March 5, 1943, but the original film credits list neither Kastner's name nor his literary works, including Emil und die Dete~tive, were f?rbidden b~ 13 spring 1936, the film version of Emil played I~ Ge~an cmemas un~Il pseudonym. (Kastner's nom de plume Berthold Burger evokes not 1937. Because the country needed hard currencies, Kastner was permit­ only Gottfried August Burger, who had written many of the Miinch­ ted to sell his film rights abroad, in a sense, making him an ambassador hausen stories, but also Bertold Brecht, whose works were banned and of German culture. In 1938 MGM adapted Drei Manner im Schnee as who was living in exile.) Paradise for Three starring Frank Morgan, Robert Young and Mary Most scholars agree that Kastner had already written the film Astor. In late 1941: Kastner was permitted to write the screenplay for treatment for Das doppelte Lottchen in 1942, when he suggested mak­ Ufa's mammoth production of Miinchhausen, ?irected by J~sef ~-on ing _the film to von Baky, but since the author was blacklisted again, the Baky, and in early 1942 he co-authored the scnpt for the H~mz Ruh­ proJect was abandoned. The exact completion date of the screenplay is mann film Jch vertraue dir meine Frau an. In a letter to his mothe~~ unknown, since the theme of twin sisters preoccupied him for several Kastner writes on November 29, 1941, "G[oebbels] approved the film_ Miinchhausen. Whether Goebbels had at that time agree~ to permit 8 Gortz and Sarkowicz, 228. Kastner to work as screenwriter of the film is doubtful, smce h.e re­ 9 Erich Kastner: Leben und Werk 12· Gortz and Sarkowicz 227 10 . . ' ' ' • jected the author's application for membership in the Reichsschrifttum- Rtess, 3: 171; Fehx Moeller, Der Filmminister: Goebbels und der Film in Dritten Reich (Berlin: Henschel, 1998), 128; Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterl!fe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1996), 376- 77; Gortz and Sarkowicz, 227-28. Hippler later claimed that one of the reasons 4 Joseph Wulf, Literatur und Dichtung im Dritten Reich (Reinbek bei why he was relieved of his position and sent to the front was because he had Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1966), 49. allowed Kastner to work on Miinchhausen. The real cause for Hippler's dis­ 5 Wulf, 65. . missal was apparently incompetence. Moeller, 128. 6 Erich Kastner: Leben und Werk. Texts by Erich Kastner and Lomselotte 11 Riess, 3:171-72. Enderle, 2nd ed. (Munich: Goethe Institut, 1966), 11. . . 12 Gortz and Sarkowicz, 234-35. 7 Franz Josef Gortz and Hans Sarkowicz, Erich Kastner. Eine Bwgraphze 13 Rentschler, 377. (Munich: Piper, 1998), 188 and 214. 184 DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN FRANZ A. BIRGEL 185

1 years. In 1937 he offered 20 h Century Fox a treatment for a film with bach has pointed out in her exhaustive study of Die Siinderin and its Shirley Temple in a double role. 14 It is plausible that a reworked ver­ reception, not only Adenauer's CDU and the Catholic Church, but also sion of the story, entitled Das grof3e Geheimnis, was the completed the SPD and the FDP linked the success of reconstruction to the re­ script for Das doppelte Lotte hen .15 If the screenplay wa~ alrea~y. fin­ newal of the family structure. The family became the basic building ished before 1945, and Kastner, without making any maJor revisiOns, block of the new democratic political order. 18 In the words of Fehren­ used it for the film in 1950, this would explain the film's lack of spe­ bach, Das doppelte Lottchen "leads us on a fantastic journey from an cific reference's to post-war life. Others think that after the wa~, he re­ untouched, scenic Heimat to the reconstructed security of Heim." 19 worked the story of Das doppelte Lottchen into a novel, which was In an interview regarding his film Heimat, Edgar Reitz commented 16 published in 1949 and became the basis for the filmscript. on how films about families always arouse the interests of viewers: "I In the late 1940s and early 50s, however, the story gained new am amazed at how effective the family is as a narrative element. As meaning, tapped into the collective consciousness of the ti~ne, and ~e­ soon as the family is the connecting element, there is great attentive­ came more than a film about the effects of divorce on children. Fntz ness on the part of the viewer, even in a world like ours in which the Gottler argues that "the children's films of these years most strongly family as an institution is endangered."20 Das doppelte Lottchen not express the trauma of the period." 17 Between the Second 'Yorld ~ar only stood at the beginning of a wave of family films, but also set the and 1956 when the last German POWs returned from Russian captiv­ standard for a series of films about children either being reunited with ity, num~rous disrupted families longed to be reunited. Unlike other their parents or finding a home within a newly constituted family: in films, which explicitly depict the crisis of masculinity during the pos~­ Toxi (1952), the black GI father returns years later to take his German­ war period, here the absent or morally and physically broke~ male IS born daughter to America; in Rosen-Resli (1954), an orphaned Chris­ treated obliquely. The husband-father is a self-absorbed, sel~-mdulgent tine Kaufmann brings two people together who adopt her, and in Laj3 composer and conductor who split the twins because the crymg of two die Sonne wieder scheinen (1955), Cornelia Froboess, then known as infants disn1pted his creative energies. Das doppelte Lottc~en not o~ly "die kleine Cornelia," unites the man who had illegally adopted her reflects personal longing for intact families, but it is also m tune "':Ith with her biological mother who had lost her ten years ago in the chaos official government policy during the period of post-war reconstructiOn of the war. 21 Aware of this tendency, this longing for intact families, and national regeneration. During the late 1940s, little over one half of Carl Froelich renamed his unsuccessful Drei Madchen spinnen into the West German population lived in intact families. As Heide Fehren- Mutti muj3 heiraten-one wonders whether the verb muj3 at that time had an ambiguous meaning. Ilse Kubaschewski, head of Gloria­ Verleih, renamed R.A. Stemmle's unsuccessful1954 Austrian filmDas 14 In September 1942, Ufa planned a film with Jenny Jugo in a doub~e Licht der Liebe: for release in Germany, it bore the title Wenn du noch role for which Kastner was to write the screenplay. In an attempt to avoid eine Mutter hast. As Barthel has pointed out, mama and papa became working on this project, Kastner argued that he needed to see Two-Faced dueling titles: as a pendant to Mutti muj3 heiraten came Vater braucht Woman with Greta Garbo in order to avoid any possible later accusations of eine Frau (1952); in response to Grete Weiser's Meine Kinder und ich plagiarism because of similarities with that film. To his surprise, he, Jenny Jugo, and an Ufa representative were flown to Switzerland for a private screen­ ing of the film in MGM's Zurich offfice. Gortz and Sarkowicz, 233, and Ingo 18 Heide Fehrenbach, Cinema in Democratizing Germany. Reconstructing Tornow Erich Kastner und der Film (Munich: Miinchener Stadtbibliothek Am National Identity after Hitler (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1995), 92- GasteiglVerlagsbuchhandlung Filmland Presse, 1987), 9. 117. 19 15 Gortz and Sarkowicz, 233. Fehrenbach, 159. 2 16 Tornow, 43. ° Franz A. Birgel, "You Can Go Home Again: An Interview with Edgar 17 Fritz Gottler, "Westdeutscher Nachkriegsfilm. Land der Vater,'' in Reitz" (Regarding the film Heimat), Film Quarterly 39. 4 (Summer 1986): I 0. Geschichte des deutschen Films, ed. Wolfgang Jacobsen, Anton Kaes, and 21 Gerhard Bliersbach, So griin war die Heide ... (Weinheim and Basle: Hans Helmut Prinzler (Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler, 1993), 190. Beltz, 1989), 156. 186 DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN FRANZ A. BIRGEL 187 (1955) came Heinz Riihmann in Wenn der Vater mit dem Solme (1955), Nikki und Mary-die 5-Minuten Ehe, and in 1989 came both The Par­ and the 1957 film Vater, w1ser bestes Stuck was answered one year ent Trap Ill and The Parent Trap Hawaiian Honeymoon, also known as later with Jst Mama nichtfabelhaft?22 By 1956, however, the genre had The Parent Trap IV. In 1998, the Disney studios remade The Parent pretty much run its course in Gennany. Partly due to the influence of Trap for cinematic release. In the early 1990s, there was an animated American pop culture, in particular, the rebellious James Dean, Marlon Japanese television series based on Das doppelte Lottchen, and, in Brando's Wild One, as well as rock'n'roll music, the ideal German 1993, Joseph Vilsmaier updated Das doppelte Lottchen in Germany families became dysfunctional; the angelic young children had gotten under the title Charlie und Louise. older and turned into the Halbstarken. In the two adaptations of the film for American theater audiences, Within a year of its German publication in 1949, ap English trans­ numerous changes were made, whereby the striking differences be­ lation of the novel Das doppelte Lottchen appeared, but in the journey tween the original German and the two Disney versions reflect both the across the Atlantic, the names were reversed. 23 In the United States, the cultural differences between the two countries as well as the social novel was given the title Lisa and Lottie, and in England, it was Lottie changes which have taken place in the United States between 1961 and and Lisa. (Perhaps Lisa's name came first because Lottie is a less 1998. Lotte's psychosomatic collapse in the original Gennan film common American name.) Between 1949 and 1965, the novel Das stresses the effect of her father's planned remarriage on her. The 1950 doppelte Lottchen was translated into twenty-two languages. film often runs the risk of becoming overly sentimental, something It did not take long for foreign film adaptations of to be made. The which is mitigated in the novel through Kastner's humor and irony. first of these was Hibari no komori-uta (literally translated as "The Instead of sentimentalism, the first Parent Trap resorts to slapstick hu­ Lullaby of the Lark"), a Japanese musical production from 1952, di­ mor, including a cake fight. It minimizes the problem of divorce-in rected by Koji Shima, and starring a child singing star in the double fact, the word "divorce" is never used; instead, the parents are "sepa­ role. The British version, Twice Upon a Time ( 1954 ), followed, di­ rated." Another major difference is that the twins in the German ver­ rected by Emeric Pressburger, with whom Kastner had co-authored sion are innocent, ten-year old girls who celebrate their eleventh birth­ several scripts in the early 1930s before Pressburger was forced to emi­ day toward the end of the film, while in the two Disney versions they grate. This adaptation received mostly negative reviews, and like the are more animated, exuberant, precocious pre-teens; to be precise, the Japanese version was not shown in Germany. Hayley Mills' characters Sharon and Susan are already thirteen years In 1961 came Walt Disney's The Parent Trap (1961) with Hayley old. Mills and Hayley Mills, which was released in Germany as Die Ver­ Whereas the initial antagonism between the two girls in the Ger­ mii.hlung ihrer Eltern geben bekannt .. .. Although Disney provided man film reaches its violent highpoint when Luise kicks Lotte under the family entertainment for the baby boomers' childhood years, his first table, the Disney versions rejoice in showing the competitiveness of the Parent Trap was really one of many low-budget, commercially suc­ girls and the nasty pranks they play on one another and on the father's cessful, live-action films from the early 1960s which supported the fiancee, pranks which get nastier in the latest film. If in 1961, the sight production of the more expensive and commercially less successful of a lizard scares the fiancee, in 1998, the episode is intensified by hav­ animated films. 24 During the 1980s, Disney made three TV sequels ing the lizard crawl into her mouth. She also becomes greedier and with an adult Hayley Mills playing twin mothers: in 1986 The Parent more vicious; in the final version, the girls refer to her as Cruela de Trap II, which was released in Germany only as a video with the title Ville, one of several intertextual references to other Disney films. The dichotomy of poor, working mother and rich father is missing. In the 21 Barthel, 280-81. two Disney feature films, both the mother and father are very wealthy, 23 The girls' names Luise and Lotte were apparently derived from the and between 1961 and 1998, they have become more prosperous and name of his companion Luiselotte Enderle. glamorous. The geographical distances between the parents increased: 24 Kathy Merlock Jackson, Walt Disney: A Rio-Bibliography (Westport Munich and Vienna first become Boston and Monterey, and then Lon­ and London: Greenwood, 1993 ), 84. don and Napa Valley. A photo of Ricky Nelson on the walls of the cabin is replaced by one of Leonardo di Caprio. A listing and discus- 188 DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN FRANZ A. BIRGEL 189 sion of all the differences are too numerous to be considered in this printed text stated that the majority of women considered a symphony paper, so it will focus on three aspects: the working mother, the father's conductor to be the ideal mate. Apparently, for American audiences, profession, and the opera Hansel und Gretel. opera is too high brow, and a conductor-composer just doesn't cut it as In von Baky's version, the mother (Antje Weisgerber) has a low­ a romantic ideal. In the 1961 version, the father (Brian Keith) is a rich paying career as an editor of the "Miinchner Illustrierten." Her job is a rancher, and the film taps into the mystique of the western genre, which necessity, in order for her to provide a modest life for herself and her was still popular in 1961. When he goes horseback riding with Sharon daughter. In this sense, the film reflects the historical and financial and when the family goes on the camping trip, one hears cowboy-film situation of many women. Although the mother may be seen as an music in the background. In the 1998 adaptation, the father (Dennis emancipated career woman, she does not earn very much as is evident Quaid) is a wealthy winegrower. Judging from articles in Food and from the furnishings of her apartment and Luise's question, whether Wine as well as other gourmet magazines, now that California wines they can actually afford to take an overnight trip into the mountains. have received worldwide recognition in the last decade, vintners are no The mother's job takes its toll: she takes work home with her at the end longer perceived as fanners, but have been elevated to a glamorous of the day, and instead of playing after school, her young latch-key social class. Considering the self-promoting tactics of the Disney Stu­ daughter Lotte/Luise must clean, shop for groceries, and cook dinner dios and product tie-ins, it's surprising that a special Parker Knoll every day after school-responsibilities which make her grow up too Vineyards Select Parent Trap 1998 Vintage was not marketed in con­ fast. In this sense, the film presents Kastner's interest in social envi­ junction with the film's release. Imagine Parent Trap wine in a special ronment and its effect on childhood development. At the end of the plastic collector's cup available with a Big Meal at McDonalds-not in film, the mother gives up her job in order to return to her husband in America. Not even in France, where the allegedly wholesome, family­ Vienna, letting him assume the role of provider for the family. Her ac­ oriented company initially resisted serving wine at Euro-Disney. tion is in tune with the policies of socially conservative politicians who In his hyperbolic polemic against the films of the 1950s, Gottler wanted women back in the kitchen so that men could regain their refers to Das doppelte Lottchen as "a black story of depression and places in the workforce, where they earned more than women. In the loneliness, as hopeless as nightmares. "25 Although this description does first Parent Trap, the mother, as played by Maureen O'Hara, is an Irish not apply to the entire film, it does characterize the dark dream se­ Boston Brahmin, a class synonymous with wealth, power, and elegance quence, which is taken directly from the novel. At a performance of when the film was made-at that time another Bostonian of Irish de­ Humperdinck' s opera Hansel und Gretel that her father conducts, Lotte scent, John F. Kennedy, was president of the United States. She is a meets his ladyfriend, Fraulein Gerlach. Lotte begins to identify with society matron who does not need to work and devotes herself to char­ Gretel who was sent into the forest and abandoned by her parents. That ity functions, perpetuating the ideal of all 1950s' television shows that night she has a nightmare in which she sees Fraulein Gerlach as the mothers should not be employed outside the home. With her Irish tem­ witch of the opera, and her father saws the bed in half, separating the per, Maureen O'Hara appears to give a slight reprise of her role in The twins. Later Lotte calls her a witch, like on the stage, only prettier. This Quiet Man, and there is the implication that this temper was a major scene best exemplifies the depression, loneliness and hopelessness of cause of the divorce. In the 1998 remake, the mother (Natasha Richard­ the little heroine. American audiences are undoubtedly familiar with son) also comes from a wealthy family, resides in an elegant London the fairy tale, but very few children here know the opera. During the townhouse with her father and butler, and although she does not need 1950s and 1960s many parents were not yet consciously aware of the the money, she runs her own business, designing glamorous wedding psychologically beneficial "uses of enchantment," that is, the benefits gowns. of reading fairy tales the way they were written, as advocated by Bruno In Das doppelte Lottchen, the father (Peter Mosbacher) is a com- Bettelheim. Only in the 1970s did more accurate English translations poser and conductor at the Vienna Opera House. Through Lotte, he replace the sanitized versions of Grimm's fairy tales. Lotte's identifica- becomes inspired to write a children's opera. In the early 1970s, Der Stern presented the results of a survey regarding women's views on 25 G6ttler, 190. men in various professions. Under a picture of Herbert von Karajan, the FRANZ A. BIRGEL 191 190 DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN 26 tion with Gretel, however, appears to support Bettelheim's critics, tune with the call for faithfulness to the nature and essence of the origi­ nal text as advocated, for example, by Andre Bazin and Francois Truf- since the fairy-tale opera does not symbolically resolve unconscious Jo . , anxieties but rather intensifies conscious ones. As frightening as this faut. It would then also fall mto Geoffrey Wagner's "transposition" nightmar~ may be for Lotte, it was apparently omitted. i~ the Disney mode of adaptation "in which a novel is directly given on the screen, 31 versions not because of its horror, but because the rewntmg of the fa­ with a minimum of apparent interference." If however, one accepts ther's role would have made this scene incongruous with the rest of the the theory that the script was written first, then one would not be deal­ ing with a film adaptation, but rather with a novelization of the script. storyline. . These three films finally lead into the quagmire of adaptatiOn theo- The 1961 Parent Trap comes closer to a re-interpretation of the ries, a problematic area since e:ery a~aptation is both a trans:7.renc.e original as defended by Bela Balazs and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, from one medium into another, mvolvmg what Bluestone calls mevi­ although it lacks what the latter considers necessary: the adapter­ 32 table mutations,"27 and an interpretation of an interpretation. Over the director's subjective, recognizably personal relationship to the text. years critics have been divided as to whether the integrity of the origi­ The first Disney version falls somewhere between Wagner's "commen­ nal source must be preserved, or whether the work must necessarily be tary" mode, "where an original is taken and either purposely or inad­ 28 freely adapted to create a new and different work of art. Using this vertently altered in some respect," and the "analogy" mode, which dichotomy, Das doppelte Lottchen would be considered a faithful a~ap­ "must represent a considerable departure for the sake of making an­ 33 tation of Kastner's novel, if one assumes that the novel was wntten other work of art." In many ways, the relationship of the first Disney first. A treatment was ready in 1942, but whether the actual script was film to the novel is like Akira Kurosawa's Throne ofBlood to Shake­ already finished by then is not known. Von Baky had a reputation for speare's Macbeth, although, obviously, not approaching this Japanese remaining loyal to scripts, and as stated previously, had already col­ masterpiece aesthetically. Neither film is totally faithful to the facts: the laborated with Kastner on the extravagant Munchhausen. If the final details of the story, the setting, the characters, the time period, and the script was completed after the novel, one would then speak ~f fidelity dialogue are changed; even the change of titles establishes a distance to the source with regard to Das doppelte Lottchen because 1t closely between the films and their sources. But one may still speak of "'fidel­ follows the novel, Kastner wrote the screenplay and spoke the voice­ ity': in relation to the quality of its implicit interpretation of the 34 over commentary (as he also did, for example, in 1954 for Das source." In regard to adaptations, the two above approaches are jliegende Klassenzimmer). The recurring commentary throughout the equally valid. film initially draws the viewer into the story and later· comments hu­ The latest version of The Parent Trap constitutes a remake of the morously on the plot, incorporating the author's reflections from the 1961 film, rather than of a cinematic adaptation of Kastner's novel. The book into the film. It does not function as a conscious form of alien­ first Parent Trap lists Erich Kastner in the opening credits as the author ation as in the films of Alexander Kluge and approaches what Siegfried on whose novel the film is based; in 1998 his name appears only in the Kracauer calls an "obtrusive presence ... raising the issue of uncine­ closing credits. David Swift, who wrote the script and directed the first matic adaptations."29 Von Baky and Kastner's version would then be in Disney version, updated his original screenplay together with the re-

30 26 For example, Maria Tatar, Off With Their Heads! Fail)' Tales and the Beja, 83. 31 Culture a,[ Childhood (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992), 78. Joy Gould Boyum, Double Exposure: Fiction into Film (New York: 27 George Bluestone, Novels into Film (Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of Mentor, 1989), 82. 32 Rainer Werner Fassbinder, "Vorbemerkungen zu Querelle," in Rainer California P, 1957), 5. 28 Morris Beja, Film and Literature: An Introduction (New York and Lon- Werner Fassbinder, Filme befreien den Kopf, ed. Michael Toteberg (Frank­ furt/M: Fischer, 1984), 116. don: Longman, 1979), 82. 33 29 Siegfried Kracauer, Theory ofFilm: The Redemption ofPhysical Reality Boyum, 82. 34 (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1997), 242. Boyum, 83. 192 DAS DOPPELTE LOrTCHE.\ FRA'>:Z A. BIRGEL 193 make's director ~ancv Meyers and the producer Charles Shyer. Erich Kiismer: Leben und TVerk. Texts by Erich Kastner and Louiselone En­ (Meyers and Shyer had-previously collaborated on Baby Bo?m st~ng derle. 2nd ed. Munich: Goethe Instirut, 1966. Diane Keaton and on the remake of The Father of the Bnde stamng Fassbinder. Rainer Werner. "Vorbemerkungen zu Querelle.'' In Rainer Werner Steve Manin and Diane Keaton.) Fassbinder, Filme befreien den Kopf Ed. Michael Toteberg. Frankfurt/M: The success of the three films is obviously due to the narrative's Fischer. 198--l. 116. continual appeal to audiences of all ages, fulfilling childh?od fant~~ies Fehrenbach. Heide. Cinema in Democrati=ing Germany. Reconstrrtcting Na­ tional Jdentitya{ler liirler. Chapel Hill: u of]\;orth Carolina P, 1995. about finding a lost sibling and adult longings for _harmomo~ts fa_mthes. Gonz. Franz Josef. and Hans Sarkowicz. Erich Kiismer. Eine Biographie. For all three films, the German term Familienfilm IS appropnate m both Munich: Piper, I 998. senses of the word: a film for the entire family and a film about a fam­ Gottler. Fritz. '"Westdeutscher 1'\achkriegsfilm. Land der Vater,"': In Gesclriclue ily. An unknown irony is that the classic German children's films of the des deutsclren Films. Ed. Wolfgang Jacobsen. Anton Kaes. and Hans 1950s such as Das doppelce Lortchen were originally intended for 35 Helmut Prinzler. Srungart and Weimar: Merzler, 1993. 171-210. adults to teach them about the problems children face. In Lotte's and Jackson. Kathy Merlock. Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport and Lon­ Luise's journey from Munich and Vienna to B~sto~- Mo~terey,_London don: Greenwood. 1993. and 1apa Valley, however, Kastner's pedagogtcal mtennons. hts gen~le Kastner, Erich. Das doppelre Louchen. Hamburg: Dressler: Zurich: Arrium, humor. his delightfully charming use of language. as well as the soctal 1949. and economic ;auma experienced by German audiences in 1950 were Kracauer, Siegfried. Theory of Film: The Redemption ol Physical Reality. thrown overboard-but that's entertainment. Hollywood style. Princeton: Princeton UP. 1997. Lutz-Kopp, Elisabeth. ",\"ur wer Kind bleibt... ··-Erich Kiistner­ Verfilmungen. Frankfurt: Bundesverband Jugend und Film, 1993. LIST OF WORKS CITED: Moeller, Felix. Der Filmminister: Goebbels wrd der Film in Drillen Reich. Berlin: Henschel, 1998. Barthel, Manfred. So war es wirklich: Der dewsche Naclrkriegsfilm. Munich Rentschler. Eric. Tire .\finistry oflllusion: Na::i Cinema and Its Afterlife. Cam­ and Berlin: Herbig. 1986. bridge, MA: Harvard, 1996. Beja. Morris. Film and Literawre: An lmroduction. :New York and London: Riess, Curt. Das Gab's nur einmal: Der deursclre Film naclr 1945. Vol. 3 and Longman, 1979. 5. Vienna and Munich: Molden, 1977. Bettelheim. Bruno. Tire Uses of Erzclwmment: The Meaning and lmportauce of Tatar. Maria. OjJWitlr nreir Heads! Fairy Tales and the Cu/wre ofChildhood. Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 1977. _ _ .• Princeton: Princeton UP. 1992. Birgel, Franz A. 'You Can Go Home Again: An Interview wtth Edgar Reitz. The Parem Trap. Dir. and Screenplay by David Swift. Based on Das doppelre (Reearding the film Heimat.) Film Quarterly 39,4 (Summer 1986): 2-10. Louchen by Erich Kastner. Perf. Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith and Bliersba~h. Gerhard. So griirz war die Heide . ... Weinheim and Basle: Beltz, Hayley Mills. Walt Disney. 1961. Videocassene. \llalt Disney Home Vi­ 1989. deo 'Buena Vista, n.d. Bluestone. George. fl'ovels imo Film. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of Califor- Tire Parent Trap. Dir. ancy Meyers. Screenplay by David Swift. Nancy nia P, 1957. Meyers. and Charles Shyer. Perf. Dennis Quaid. Natasha Richardson. and Boyum, Joy Gould. Double E:cposure: Fictiun into Film. New York: Mentor. Lrndsay Lohan. Walt Disney, 1998. VIdeocassette. Walt Disney Home 1989. Video/Buena Vista. 1998. Das doppelte Louchen. Dir. Josef von Baky. Screenplay by Eri~h Ka~mer. Tornow, logo. Erich Kiismer und der Film. Munich: Miinchener based on his children ·s book. Perf. Juna and Isa Giinther. AntJe Wetsger­ Stadtbibliothek Am GasteigNerlagsbuchhandlung Filmland Presse. 1987. ber, and Peter Mosbacher. Carlton Film, 1950 . Videocassene. BMG Wulf, Joseph. Ltterarur und Diclmmg im Drillen Reich. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Video' Alias Pictures, 1998. Rowohlt, 1966.

35 Tornow. 86.