Plans for films never realised
This also seemed to be a lucrative way to make Dutch films. There were plans to make a German version of the film De Jantjes. The director Jaap Speyer had already directed a multi-language film earlier (Moritz macht sein Glück/Meyer & Co: 1930) and was also responsible for the German version of De Jantjes: Die drei Matrosen. This was never released, however.
Other attempts foundered as well. There were supposed to be German versions made of both Dood water by Gerard Rutten and Suikerfreule, by Haro van Peski (who was formerly employed in Germany), but in both cases, these plans never materialised.
In the first half of the 1930s there was only one multi-language version made, Wasch gemakkelijk… wasch voordeelig by the German director Johannes Guter. This was one of the many versions of the advertisement film Wäsche – Waschen – Wohlergehen for Persil, a brand of laundry detergent. There were no Dutch producers or financers involved in this nearly two-hour-long feature film, only a number of Dutch actors and actresses. The film was shown mainly in the morning for a specific target audience: Dutch housewives.
