Cinetone studios, 1930s to 1948

Dutch Hollywood

The dreams about a Dutch film industry were expressed by Fien de la Mar in a song which she sang in honour of the foundation of the film studio, about 'our Dutch Hollywood'. With the advent of sound film, Cinetone was promising. Although this dream factory would be the epicenter of Dutch film history for fifty-five years, Cinetone always remained 'a domestic phoney world undermined by a permanent crisis', as stated in an article. Yet this studio, founded by Jewish entrepreneurs and taken over by the Germans during the war, proved to be extremely resilient and able to lift itself after any crisis.

The thirties

In 1933, the brothers and gramophone record dealers Isaac and Jules Biedermann opened a sound film studio as part of their sound film company Cinetone, which was founded in 1930. In a former chemical factory on the Duivendrechtsekade, in addition to a studio shed, they also set up a film laboratory, a gramophone record factory, a studio for dubbing and recording gramophone records, hairdressing salons, changing rooms, a projection room, offices and a canteen, and there was a small building for the assembly.

After a false start with the never-released Belgian production Meisjes in vrijheid, a heyday began with the film De Jantjes in 1934, which would turn out to be a huge blockbuster, so that the brothers soon built a second studio hall next to it. This was followed by successful films such as Bleeke Bet, Op hoop van zegen and Rubber.

Cinetone's prosperity did not last long, however; after only five years the company went bankrupt. It was the movie Komedie om geld that did it. The owners did not earn back the money they had personally invested in this and even the salaries could not be paid. The staff, who went on strike, therefore called the film 'Tragedie om geld' ('Tragedy for money'). This could also be a subtitle for the entire history of Cinetone: the studios could not continue to operate on feature film production alone, The Netherlands would actually prove to be too small for that.

Despite the success of the next feature film Pygmalion, Cinetone went bankrupt and was bought in 1938 by film producer Marcel Wolf from The Hague. The day after the reopening, shooting for Vadertje Langbeen started, with the hope of emulating the success of Pygmalion, the last film made before the bankruptcy. Various lenders had assisted in the investments needed for this; in those years the government did not yet subsidize film production, although Cinetone already provided work for more than a hundred people. The last film made in Cinetone before the war was Ergens in Nederland, a film about the mobilization. However, this film was soon banned after the German invasion on May 10, 1940.

Under German occupation

After the Dutch capitulation followed, as Cinetone employee Rolf ten Kate in his photo album of the time wrote, 'One of the most curious periods of Holland's film industry'. In August the Jewish owner, Marcel Wolf, sold the studios to his German acquaintance Alois Miedl, owner of the Buitenlandsche Bankvereeniging in Amsterdam, with the tacit agreement that he would sell it back to him after the war. Wolf later stated that Miedl was only serving as a stooge - he foresaw that the Germans would otherwise take away his company because he was Jewish.

In turn, Miedl feared he would be accused of 'Judenbegünstigung', and wanted to quickly get rid of his 'purchase'. For the time being, however, he appointed the Dutch-German filmmaker Theo Güsten as director. Güsten put together a new staff of twenty-five from the old team of employees and, together with a group of filmmakers, founded the Community of Dutch Cinematographers, which had to be disbanded after only nine months due to increasing pressure from the occupying forces.

Cinetone becomes Ufa-Filmstadt Amsterdam

Immediately afterwards, Güsten entered into negotiations with the German Nazi propaganda director Hans Steinhoff and production company Terrafilm about a film about Rembrandt to be included in Cinetone.

Several directors and producers who were now members of the N.S.B. (National Socialist Movement), such as Jan Teunissen and Egbert van Putten, got wind of this and tried to secure a leadership position in this film, much to Güsten's dismay. At the same time, Terra had indicated that it wanted to buy the Amsterdam studios. In September 1941 she started shooting for Rembrandt (Hans Steinhoff, 1942), in which the old master was 'reinterpreted' as a Germanic hero, whom Jewish swindlers fall was brought.

In the end it was not Terra that took over Cinetone, but the German state film company UFA. On April 1, 1942, Filmmaatschappij Cinetone and Loet C. Barnstijn's Filmstad Wassenaar were incorporated and renamed Ufa Filmstadt Amsterdam and Ufa Filmstadt Den Haag respectively. The UFA had paid no less than 725,000 guilders for Cinetone. From then on, German films would be made by the production companies Berlin-Film and Terra and with German actors.

Dolle Dinsdag ('Mad Tuesday') ended the UFA period. On September 4 and 5, 1944, the management and the German production staff fled to Germany. Later that month, the director came back to “secure” the company. Subsequently, under the supervision of the Grüne Polizei, the studios were stripped, including sinks and doorknobs, and everything was transported to Germany.

The studio problem and the reopening

After the occupation, there was a long period of wrangling and litigation over the ownership of the studios, which now looked sad. Marcel Wolf reclaimed his pre-war property. However, Cinetone was managed by a committee appointed by the board of the Dutch Cinema Association (NBB). This committee did not want to return Cinetone to Wolf, as according to them the complex had been renovated by the subsequent owners 'for a multiple of its original value'. The reality was different; Cinetone was completely looted and eventually the members of the NBB raised one million guilders in 1946 to regain possession of the studio and to pay for the renovation and refurbishment. All this time, to the dismay of many directors, the studios could not be used. In 1947 the "studio problem" was solved. The NBB would take over the studio operation, on the condition that Cinetone would then remain the sole film studio.

This enabled Cinetone to reopen in 1948. In good spirits a new start was made with the shooting of the film Niet tevergeefs, which was simultaneously screened in English as But Not In Vain. With pre-war Cinetone veterans at the helm, Hollandsch Hollywood was revived again.

German feature films shot (in whole or in part) during World War II in the UFA studios in Amsterdam and The Hague

1942:
Stimme des Herzens / Een hart vergist zich (Johannes Meyer)
Rembrandt (Hans Steinhoff)
Fronttheater (Arthur Maria Rabenalt)

1943:
Gefärtin meines Sommers / De dorpsdokter (Fritz Peter Buch)
Fahrt ins Abenteuer (Jürgen von Alten)
Ein Mann für meine Frau (Hubert Marischka)
Wildvogel (Johannes Meyer)
Die goldene Spinne (Erich Engels)

1944:
Der Meisterdetektiv (Ernst Marischka)
Die heimlichen Bräute (Johannes Meyer)
Heidesommer (Eugen York, niet voltooid)
Die schwarze Robe (Fritz Peter Buch)
Das war mein Leben (Paul Martin)
Tierartzt Dr. Vlimmen (Boleslav Barlog, alleen buitenopnamen, niet voltooid)

1945:
Eines Tages (Fritz Kirchhoff)
Das fremde Leben (Johannes Meyer)
Das alte Lied (Fritz Peter Buch)
Rätsel der Nacht (Johannes Meyer)