Oranje Hein (1936)

Summary

Comedy about a young woman whose happiness is threatened by her alcoholic father.

Although Oranje Hein is similar to other Jordaan films in many ways - with such staple ingredients as love lost and won, marital problems, poverty, booze, and the inevitable knees up accompanied by song - the rather more grim theme of alcoholism among the men in this poor working class Amsterdam neighbourhood sets the film aside. The film's main character, Mientje, comes from an ordinary Jordaan family. Her father's alcoholism threatens to put an end to her engagement to Herman, her well to do finacé. When Mientje's mother divorces her husband, Mientje comes into conflict with her future mother-in-law.

In the end Mientje's father takes the pledge. His wife takes him back and Mientje and Herman are safely married. After De Jantjes and Bleeke Bet, Oranje Hein was the third Jordaan play by the popular theatre writer Herman Bouber to be adapted for the screen. It couldn't be anything else but a hit since all three plays had enjoyed endless theatre runs and had been made into silent films during the 1920s. A silent version of De Jantjes was made in 1922 by Maurits H. Binger and B.E. Doxatt-Pratt while Alex Benno directed Bleeke Bet and Oranje Hein in 1923 and 1925 respectively.