I suppose I spent an hour hunting for the right clip from the 1980 Canadian made film set in Amsterdam called the The Lucky Star, and I have failed. It was performed by the late actor Lou Jacobi in a Jewish? Amsterdam cabaret club during WWII. It was a terrific movie and received some awards but has slipped into oblivion now. The best I can do is this very poor quality clip of the young male star of the movie repeat singing the song after hearing it. Still I had to download the clip and then cut out the appropriate part. So little reward for so much effort and you will have to use your imaginations as to how it would sound if sung for laughs by sending up Hitler in a cabaret. The lyrics are below.
Life could we wonderful, in Amsterdam
Life could be beautiful, in Amsterdam.
When Moses led the Israelites, across the desert sands
He told them there was job for Jews, in the Netherlands
The job was diamond polishing, but what he didn't tell
Only twice a year they're out of work, but in two six monthly spells.
Life could be wonderful, in Amsterdam
Life could be beautiful, in Amsterdam.
If Missus Schicklegruber, Mr Schicklegruber's missus
Had one night said 'Nein, mein heir', to Schicklegruber's kisses
He might have fallen fast asleep, and Adolph, the crazy nut
Would have stayed where he belonged
In his father's you know what.
Then life would be wonderful, in Amsterdam
Life would be beautiful, in Amsterdam.
Thank you for the work and for the lyrics.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that song could be sung today (with appropriate name changes).
Very clever EC.
DeleteI never heard of this! I did find a 14 minute clip on YouTube which you probably found too.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the National Film Board of Canada and couldn't find it either. I even tried our library film site Kanopy.
Jackie, yes same clip. It is on IMDB.
DeleteI never heard of this Andrew. An obscure film now. What was that other one? Springtime for Hitler? I haven't looked it up. Time constraints right now.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Springtime for Hitler is the name of the piece de resistance in a wonderfully silly parody movie called "The Producers". With a young Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock. Definitely a silly movie, perfect for these times.
DeleteWWW, Whimsy correctly answered your question, and I think the song was sung around a large dinner table.
DeleteNever heard of song.
ReplyDeleteStay Safe and Coffee is on
No one else has either, Dora.
DeleteThe only places where people could openly be anti-Hitler were in those seedy basement clubs in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, etc. A lot of those singers and comedians paid the price.
ReplyDeleteCro, they sadly did. Carted off by Gestapo.
Deletethat makes me wonder just how the world would be now, if Adolf had never been born. Probably I would be a fat German Haus Frau with ten babies, cooking pork and cabbage with dumplings. Or something similar. Without the war my parents might never have left Germany, maybe even never met, so I wouldn't be me, I'd be someone else.
ReplyDeleteRiver, I suppose you would still be you, and unless you were Catholic, perhaps from Bavaria, you wouldn't have had so many children. Just as well you are not a fat Frau. I reckon you would have been able to whip up a mean sauerkraut served with sausages. I can't even imagine what the world would be like had Hitler not been born.
DeleteThoughtful of you to put the lyrics there, took sometime do do that.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
Thanks Margaret.
DeleteEven though you say it’s a rough cut it certainly has the ‘feel’ and sound that film makers try to recreate when making a film about that time.
ReplyDeleteI realise this isn’t the film you’re talking about but I’ve never actually seen ‘Cabaret’ - was it set before or during the war do you know
Cathy.......never seen Cabaret! You simply must. Sit down, volume loud and concentrate. I believe both were set during WWII.
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