Eddie Pensier writes:
Me and my Girl was a hit musical of 1937, a mistaken-identity dancehall comedy about a Cockney bloke named Bill Snibson who discovers he is the heir to a noble title. The show’s hit tune was “The Lambeth Walk”, whose strutting rhythm and “OI!” singalong became a national craze. It inspired an eponymous 1939 film, from which this clip is taken.
The song eventually spread to the US…and Germany, where a member of the Nazi party denounced it as “Jewish mischief and animalistic hopping”.
A wag at the British Ministry of Information named Charles Ridley took this as an opportunity to assemble a clip, edited from bits of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will,made to appear as if the Nazis were goose-stepping to “The Lambeth Walk”.
Goebbels was reportedly extremely displeased with the clip.
Me and my Girl was given a makeover in the 1980s (including a revised book by Stephen Fry), sufficiently altering it to earn Tony and Olivier awards for Best Musical. Check out Robert Lindsay and a young and endearingly gawky Emma Thompson in this 1984 video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O4Mdrj4nYQ
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Goebbels’ motto in life was, “But what I really want to do is direct!”
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Well, at least according to Tarantino…
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