Heintje (1969)
Plot: young boy’s longing for adventure gets him in trouble. Hilarity ensues!
Werner Jacobs is one of the great forces in German comedy along with Ernst Hofbauer, Hubert Frank, Franz Josef Gottlieb and to a lesser degree Alois Brumer and Walter Boos. On the production end Erwin C. Dietrich, Karl Spiehs, and Wolf C. Hartwig all made invaluable contributions to the various permutations of the genre. Jacobs started out making documentary shorts, including one about composer Johann Strauß, but from the mid-fifties onward specialized himself in comedies - kitsch, musical and otherwise - and Tiroler musicals. He helmed Heidi (1965), the second major German adaptation of the Johanna Spyri novel, and the only real anomaly in Jacob’s filmography is the Jerry Cotton krimi Murderers Club Of Brooklyn (1967) (with George Nader, Dagmar Lassander, and Paul Müller.) From 1968 onward Jacobs fostered a few popular comedy franchises. These were the Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank (1968-1971) series, the two Willi (1970-1971) movies with Heinz Erhardt and Ralf Wolter as intrepid tax collectors Willi Winzig and Felix Klein, respectively and, finally, the Heintje Simons musical comedies tryptich. The Heintje movies are a good example of what is/was known as the so-called Heimatfilme.
The Heimatfilme or “homeland fllm” genre usually took place in the Alps, the Black Forest, or the Lüneburg Heath and put great focus rural life and the outdoors. In (and present-day) Germany “heimat” referred, and still refers, to home, heart, and region while the formal and a considerably more stern “vaterland” was a somewhat archaic remnant from the post-World War II era that called upon nostalgic sentiments and the national identity in perpetuation of imperial patriotism and nation building. Heimatfilme often told sentimental stories of binary morality and focused a great deal on love, life, and the importance of friends and family in the countryside. Recurring themes were the generation grap, tradition vs progress, and the encroachment of urban life on the more quiet and peaceful hinterland. Good always prevailed over evil and there usually were more than enough pretty girls to be seen. The genre remained profitable in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. In the seventies some Heimatfilme were vehicles for popular crooners of the day and for a few years was a slew of goodnatured schlager comedies for exactly that purpose. Heintje - Ein Herz geht auf Reisen (or Heintje – A Heart Goes On A Journey, für diejenigen, die kein Deutsch sprechen) is as much an endearingly sweet Heimatfilme as a schlager comedy. As such it’s a pretty straightforward family movie with more than enough instances for Heintje to sing all your favorite schlager evergreens. Think of them as the Teutonic equivalent to the super sweet and oh so cute romantic comedies and musicarellos that Romina Power made with Al Bano in Italy around the same time.
Heinz Gruber, who everybody simply calls Heintje (Heintje Simons), is a 14-year-old orphan living with his aunt Monika Klausen (Dagmar Altrichter). In between her professional – and romantic life aunt Monika really doesn’t have the time to raise a young boy. Heintje loves two things: singing schlagers and adventure. Whether Heintje had any older brothers by the name of Hans and Simon Peter is, sadly, never disclosed. Monika’s new beau Günter Schelle (Sieghardt Rupp) finds the boy a nuisance at best. The two want nothing more than to put the minor into fostercare. One day Heintje makes his acquaintance with herr Alfred Teichmann (Heinz Reincke), a stable owner who once was a jockey, and who lets him sing to his patrons. Not much later Heintje loses his key and an bitter argument breaks out between Teichmann and Schelle, the latter who convinces Monika to send Heintje to a home. Following the case at the local child and family services office is frau Hanna Schwarz (Gerlinde Locker) - once engaged to Teichmann - who is sympathetic to the boy’s plight but has no other choice but to put him into fostercare. That night Heintje asks Alfred if he can stay with him instead. Alfred isn’t able to take the boy in as he’s about to embark on a vacation with his blonde bombshell of a girlfriend Gerdi Weber (Solvi Stubing, as Solvi Stübing).
During a schooltrip Heintje decides to disembark from the group and follow Alfred to his holiday destination instead. En route Heintje is kidnapped by gangster Hugo Neubert (Mogens von Gadow), his girlfriend fräulein Else (Karin Field), and associate Harry (Ralf Wolter). The trio plan to use the boy’s gullibility and naiveté for their own sinister purposes. They put radioactive cobalt in his backpack and instruct him to cross the German-Swiss border where somebody will meet him. When nobody turns up at the rendez-vous Heintje decides to continue his voyage to meet Alfred. Alfred is overjoyed to see the rascal again and enthusiastically calls up Hanna to share the news. Schwarz and her superiors at child and family services scold Teichmann for what they consider reckless endangerment of a minor. Angered Teichmann throws the phone on the hook, keeping Heintje under his wing. Discovering the cobalt in his backpack Teichmann and Heintje go to the police station to clear up the situation. There they learn Alfred is now a wanted man and both flee the station. Harry, Hugo and Else catch up with Alfred and Heintje and the two parties agree to an exchange. Meanwhile Hanna has traveled to Switzerland and arranged a set-up that will have the criminal trio walking straight into the arms of law enforcement officials. Now that the gangsters are arrested and Heintje is safe and sound everything is good again. Alfred and Hanna rekindle their love, decide to make the most of the situation and marry adopting Heintje while they’re at it.
The titular Heintje is Heintje Simons, a Dutch folk crooner that was popular in the Netherlands and Germany during the sixties and seventies. Born in 1955 in Bleijerheide in the village of Kerkrade where he sang to the jukebox at the family restaurant De Hanni-Bar at the Dr. Ackensplein. Word reached crooner Willy Alberti who dispatched Addy Kleijngeld to let the boy wonder audition. Under mentorship of Kleijngeld (who acted as his composer, lyricist, producer, and manager) Simons signed with CNR Records, recorded his debut in 1967 and sold tens of millions of records between 1967 en 1972. He even had a female competitor in the form of Wilma Landkroon. At the heigth of his popularity Heintje performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in America and for Indonesian president Suharto. Over the years Simons has sung in his native Dutch, German, English, and even Afrikaans. He found his audiences in his home of the Netherlands, the nearby Belgium, as well as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. What better place for a boy crooner to consolidate his success in Germany than a wholesole Heimatfilme?
From 1968 to 1971 Heintje appeared in 6 movies. In 1972 Heintje scored his last major hit in the Netherlands and after a brief spell of renewed popularity in 1978 he would remain popular primarily in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. In 1980 he was briefly popular with Chinese audiences as he was invited by Beijing Television for a performance on BTV's Chinese New Year Gala. Simons was able to declare financial independence at the tender age of 14 and these days he lives a reclusive life in the German-speaking community of Neu-Moresnet in Liège, Belgium where he battles age-related maladies. At least Heintje fans got their money’s worth as the boy crooner gets ample opportunity to showcase his golden pipes with a 8-song set of his große Erfolge (‘Liebe Sonne , lach doch wieder’, ‘Ich Sing Ein Lied Für Dich’, ‘Oma So Lieb’, ‘Scheiden Tut So Weh’, 'Der Mond ist aufgegangen', ‘Heidschi Bumbeidschi’, ‘Mamatschi , schenk mir ein Pferdchen’, and ‘Das Schwalbenlied’). Heintje was so popular in Germany that two more feelgood sequels inevitably followed the next year in the form of Heintje - Einmal wird die Sonne wieder scheinen (1970) (Heintje - The sun will shine again someday) and Heintje - Mein bester Freund (1970) (Heintje – My Best Friend).
It’s nigh on unfathomable to believe that Heintje was released the same year as taboo-busting features as diverse as Top Sensation (1969), Zeta One (1969), The Sweet Pussycats (1969), Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults (1969), the Italian and Spanish Venus In Furs (1969) (with Laura Antonelli and Maria Rohm, respectively), School For Sex (1969), Eva (1969) (with Solveig Andersson), and The Mad Doctor Of Blood Island (1969). Which is a really roundabout way of saying that Heintje – A Heart Goes On A Journey feels a whole decade older than it actually was. It comes across as positively antiquated. The same problem pervaded the many über wholesome musicarellos (historical and otherwise) that Romina Power made with her husband Al Bano in the early 1970s. The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) (or second wave feminism) was ascendant, the Sexual Revolution was imminent, women were about to emancipate themselves further from patriarchal subjugation and once-strict censorship laws were to be loosened (if not outright abolished).
Amidst this rapidly changing zeitgeist future Lederhosen smut specialist Werner Jacobs released this ode to innocence. What a difference a few months make. Compare this to Herzblatt oder Wie sag' ich's meiner Tochter? (1969) and the difference couldn’t be more startling and obvious. The most obvious being that future cult queens Solvi Stubing and Karin Field staunchly remain in their clothes and that Heintje tugs on the heartstrings relentlessly. Something like this is all about the importance of family, the stability of home, humility, and modesty. German comedy was about to undergo a staggering transformation but it wouldn’t be the only one as Great Britain and Italy were about to experience the same. Art reflects the society and culture wherein it’s made and sweeping societal changes were afoot.
