Hoch der Lambeth Valk

1941 MusicComedy 3 minutes Directed by Charles Ridley

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About Hoch der Lambeth Valk

Charles A. Ridley recut shots from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will so that Hitler, goose-stepping troops, and party leaders appear to dance the Lambeth Walk. Marches run forward and then backward. Hitler's salute is repeated and reversed to the beat. The Ministry of Information short was handed, without a credit, to newsreel companies, who added their own narration. One Universal Newsreel line called it the cleverest anti-Nazi propaganda yet and invited audiences to watch the armies skip to the Lambeth Walk.

Cast & crew

More about Hoch der Lambeth Valk

Ridley made it for the British Ministry of Information from existing Riefenstahl footage. No new photography. English Wikipedia titles it Schichlegruber Doing the Lambeth Walk and dates it 1942. The print title Hoch der Lambeth Valk and several catalogs use 1941. The running time is about 3 minutes. It was not issued as a credited MOI film.

Themes

  • a rally marched backward
  • a banned dance put under the march
  • newsreel as a weapon
  • Lambeth Walk
  • Triumph of the Will
  • Hitler
  • Ministry of Information
  • newsreel

Background

Britain's Ministry of Information was feeding short items to newsreels during the war. This one answers a German attack on a Cockney dance by setting Nuremberg footage to that dance.

Making

Ridley did not shoot Hitler. He stepped frames from Triumph of the Will so a forward march becomes a hop and a reverse march becomes the dance's swagger.

Look

No new camera work. The images are Riefenstahl's rally shots, recut and reversed.

Music

The picture is cut to "The Lambeth Walk." Newsreel companies laid their own commentary on the copies they issued.

Preservation

Newsreel copies survive, including a Universal Newsreel version.

Notes

  • The Lambeth Walk came from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl.
  • In 1939 a Nazi speaker had called the dance, then popular in Berlin, "Jewish mischief and animalistic hopping.
  • The Universal Newsreel version supplies its own joking narration over Ridley's cut.

Scenes

  • Troops goose-step toward the camera and then, in reverse, hop back.
  • Hitler's salute is matched to the beat and run backward.

Influenced by

  • Triumph of the Will (1935)
  • Me and My Girl (1937)