{"id":49039,"date":"2025-08-01T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=49039"},"modified":"2025-07-31T18:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:40:51","slug":"the-bootleg-files-casanova-wider-willen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/01\/the-bootleg-files-casanova-wider-willen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Casanova wider Willen"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 915: <\/strong>\u201cCasanova wider Willen\u201d (1931 German-language version of \u201cParlor, Bedroom and Bath\u201d starring Buster Keaton). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.
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\nREASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> It fell through the proverbial cracks.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>It was released as a Region 2 DVD in Europe.<\/p>\n

When the silent cinema disappeared in favor of the talkies, film producers found themselves with a tricky situation regarding the international distribution of their work. In the silent cinema, new intertitles in different languages could easily be edited into the prints sent around the world. But once there was a dialogue soundtrack, it appeared that films would be stuck in nations where the actors\u2019 language was spoken.
\n<\/p>\n

Since dubbing was still imperfect in the early days of the talkies and subtitles seemed like a poor idea, some ambitious producers opted to do multiple versions of their films in different languages. It helped if the star talent was bilingual, such as the case of Greta Garbo doing \u201cAnna Christie\u201d for German audiences or Ramon Navarro creating second versions of his films for release in Spain and Latin America. But not every film star spoke a second language, and often they were forced to do phonetic foreign-language versions of their work for export to other countries.<\/p>\n

That was the case involving Buster Keaton with his 1931 MGM feature \u201cParlor, Bedroom and Bath.\u201d MGM had Keaton appear in two foreign-language versions of this farce \u2013 \u201cBuster se Marie\u201d for release in Francophonic markets and \u201cCasanova wider Willen\u201d for distribution in German-speaking nations. In both cases, Keaton learned his lines phonetically while French and German actors were imported to fill out the casts in their respective versions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuster se Marie\u201d is not currently available for American viewing, but \u201cCasanova wider Willen\u201d can be found on in an unauthorized YouTube posting, albeit without English subtitles. I don\u2019t speak German, but I have seen \u201cParlor, Bedroom and Bath\u201d and was able to follow the plot.<\/p>\n

Based on the 1917 play by Charles W. Bell and Mark Swan, with obvious inspiration from Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cThe Taming of the Shrew,\u201d the story takes place among the ultra-rich who knew nothing of the Depression era. The playboy Jonny wants to marry the young heiress Evelyn, but she won\u2019t marry until her impossible older sister Anna gets hitched first. The Petruchio of this tale is Keaton\u2019s Reggie Irving, a meek sign tacker who gets hit by Jonny\u2019s car. Jonny conspires to pass Reggie off as a wealthy adventurer with a leonine appetite for women. But, of course, things don\u2019t go according to plan.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the popular notion that Keaton lost control of his creative output when he joined MGM, \u201cParlor, Bedroom and Bath\u201d was presented by the studio as \u201cA Buster Keaton Production\u201d \u2013 and some of the exterior scenes were shot on location at Keaton\u2019s extravagant Beverly Hills mansion. The film includes numerous sequences that are clearly tailored for Keaton\u2019s brand of knockabout, including a prolonged piece with Keaton unsuccessfully maneuvering the slippery surface of a wet hotel lobby with a bag of golf clubs, a reworking of a classic railroad sight gag from Keaton\u2019s 1920 short \u201cOne Week,\u201d plus numerous pratfalls with Keaton tumbling and collapsing all over the place,<\/p>\n

While contemporary film scholars mostly denigrate his MGM talkies, Keaton\u2019s output of that era was commercially successful. And, truth be told, these films are nowhere near as rotten as many scholars insist.<\/p>\n

As for Keaton\u2019s German-language lines, it is amusing to hear his Midwestern-flat voice spitting out the German dialogue. Mercifully, he is not given paragraphs of text to recite, but mostly single brief sentences while the German-speaking cast handles the bulk of the script. Keaton\u2019s physical performance is, of course, wonderful, though it sometimes feels out of place amid the excessive verbiage of the production \u2013 which was also a problem in the English-language original.<\/p>\n

The direction of \u201cCasanova wider Willen\u201d is credited to Edward Brophy, a comic character and an occasional production manager who worked with Keaton on \u201cThe Cameraman\u201d and \u201cDoughboys.\u201d Brophy is also credited with directing the French version of this material, \u201cBuster se Marie.\u201d Those are his only directing credits \u2013 and since Brophy was most likely not fluent in German or French, one must assume there were additional talents behind the camera to steer these endeavors.<\/p>\n

If there is a historic reason to appreciate \u201cCasanova wider Willen,\u201d it would be Paul Morgan\u2019s performance as Jonny. Morgan was a Vienna-born comic actor who was popular in German films and cabaret in the late 1920s and early 1930s. MGM brought him over to star in German-language films, most notably \u201cMenschen hinter Gittern\u201d (the German version of \u201cThe Big House\u201d and the promotional film \u201cWir schalten um auf Hollywood\u201d that sold the studio\u2019s stars (including Keaton) to German-speaking audiences. Morgan is also credited with providing the German dialogue for this film.<\/p>\n

After nine months at MGM, Morgan returned to Vienna, but the rise of Nazism spelled the end of his career. Although Morgan and his parents were practicing Catholics, his grandparents were Jewish \u2013 and to the Nazis, he was considered Jewish. After Hitler\u2019s annexation of Austria, he was arrested and was sent to the Dachau concentration camp before being transferred to Buchenwald. On December 10, 1938, contraband food was found hidden in the block where Morgan was incarcerated. The camp commanders punished their captives by forcing them to do strenuous exercises in the bitter cold while wearing clothing that was inadequate for the climate. Morgan collapsed during the punishment exercises and died from pneumonia at the age of 52. <\/p>\n