After producing two critically acclaimed but under-performing pictures directed by Fons Rademakers, Joop Landré decided his next feature should appeal to as wide an audience as possible. So, he decided to make a fast moving crime movie full of familiar faces, fancy camera-work and a couple of laughs in the style of the popular French Rififi (slang for 'trouble in the underworld') films. The result is as much fun as a Roger Corman film from the same period, perhaps even a bit classier.
Maxim Hamel stars as Bert Oliemans, fresh out of jail and looking for a way to dig up the loot he hid four years earlier from under the noses of the cops as well as his rivals in the underworld. Funnymen Rijk de Gooijer & Jan Blaaser play it straight as his partners in crime: De Bijenkorf (The Beehive) & Lauwe Freak. Every crook in the entire picture has his own silly nickname. Their main concern are Blauwbaard (Bluebeard, who is actually clean shaved) and his cronies The Yank and The Mug (Mosquito). Even Oliehoek's mother (Rien Berghegge) has a nickname of sorts, earning her living as fortune teller 'Madame Zoltan'. The cops actually go to surprisingly great lengths to help Oliemans steer clear of Blauwbaard & crew in order to catch some bigger fish. At one point they even supply his mother with a dummy to place in front of the window while her son sneaks out.
In a case of stunt-casting, boxing champion Anton Geesink was cast in a small part as 'Detective Geesink' and singer Willy Alberi appeared as a singing bartender named Willy. Another comedic actor, Ton van Duynhoven, makes a late entrance as Manke (Limp) Karel from Chicago. It's a good thing most of the cast is recognizable, because there certainly are a whole lot o characters to keep track off. The picture runs just over a 100 minutes, but with all that's going on it sometimes feels like attempting to be a gangster epic of Godfatherian proportions.
Director John (Giovanni) Korporaal, who had been schooled in Rome and was making documentaries in Mexico before Landré contacted him, uses some inventive camera angels and tricks. Although his extended 'drunk's point of view' unsteady cam shot wasn't the best of choices, the overhead tracking shot of a swinging sixties party more than makes up for it. He even finds time to put in a couple of songs, one sung by love interest Blonde Nellie (Els Hillenius), another by Willy the bartender. There are the usual references to the war. The loot, you see, consists of jewelery the Nazi's took from the Jews and Oliemans, not being such a bad crook after all asks his mom to track down a Jewish girl they used to know to return a locket. For Joop Landré the gamble paid off: the film wasn't a huge success, but it did make it's money back. Finally released on DVD by Het Filmmuseum, it's a shame the film isn't show on late night television once in a while. It might just gather a cult following.
8 out of 10
