Dutchy - Bandstand

Content

Dutchy goes to a performance of a village concert after working as a dairy salesman. Here he plays tuba. A jealous neighbour tries to throw a spanner in the works. Milk offers solution.

Trivia

In the 1950s, the figure DUTCHY grew into an international symbol for the Netherlands. The client, Dutch Dairy Agency (the Nederlands Zuivel Bureau), had invested heavily on the medium of puppet films in the mid-1950s. This resulted in a series of charming little films, produced in relatively short succession.

Dutchy is an archetypal Dutch farmer, complete with blue smock, cap and wooden shoes. Even his head is a cheesy one. This character is an adaptation of the logo Agency. Originally, the logo was intended only for printed publications. Joop Geesink's team transformed the logo into a 3D figure.
The Dutch Dairy Agency had one purpose with these films: to promote Dutch dairy products: milk, butter and cheese. In particular, the sale of (bottles) with milk received a relatively large amount of attention. It even got its own themed campaign. "Drink Milk, Be More of a Man."
Joop Geesink devised numerous stories in which this little farmer appears. Some of these were inspired by the Popeye theme. Popeye gets strength by eating spinach. Dutchy gets super strength by drinking milk. This theme recurs in a number of videos. So does this one.

Humour

The makers of these films were given relatively much freedom. Of course, they had to stick to the story concept that was sold. Within that concept, the makers could come up with visual jokes. In this film, you see the chemist leaving his shop. Hanging on the facade is a ‘gaper’.  A 'Gaper' or 'Yawner' served as a sign for pharmacies and drugstores. This is an exact copy of the chemist, right down to the clothes this gaper wears. Only this gaper has a traditional turban as headgear. Other recognisable joke is the vegetable vendor swapping his instrument with a stalk of leeks.

With love

In several puppet films, and this one too, there is an added visual effect. Unmistakably, this is visible with the female's glowing heart. This was achieved by painting the heart on a blank glass plate, which stood between the puppet and the camera. The halo was applied with air brush. The creation of the heart was a double shot in the camera, first filming the set without the glass plate and then using a ‘dissolver’ in the camera to show the glass plate.
Despite the fact that glass is a very thin material, it was advised to also use a blank glass plate in the remaining length of the shot; without it, colour discrepancies could occur. This working method was effective but time-consuming because glass has the property of reflecting everything. Later in this film, when the cloth is blown out of the tuba by Dutchy, it uses a series of interchangeable glass plates on which the cloth is painted. So in effect, this is a 2D cartoon effect within a 3D puppet film set.

Local promotion

The Dairy Agency was very active on multiple displays. Also with local promotion. A travelling exhibition visited several cities. It cannot be ruled out that linked to this exhibition, film screenings were also programmed with Dutchy. At the time, these films also played as supporting programmes in regular cinema screenings.