| Yankee Doodle in Berlin | |
| Director: | F. Richard Jones |
| Producer: | Mack Sennett |
| Starring: | Bothwell Browne |
| Studio: | Mack Sennett Comedies |
| Cinematography: | Fred Jackman J.R. Lockwood |
| Distributor: | Sol Lesser on State's Rights basis |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | Silent (English intertitles) |
Yankee Doodle in Berlin is a 1919 American silent comedy and World War I film from producer Mack Sennett. A five-reel feature, it was Sennett's most expensive production up to that time. Hiram Abrams was the original State's Rights marketer before the film's release, but producer Sol Lesser bought the rights in March 1919.[1] [2]
Bothwell Browne was a famous cross-dresser from Northern Europe. At the time this movie was produced he was the European rival of famous American cross-dresser Julian Eltinge, who starred in very similar plotted World War I propaganda film The Isle of Love (original title Over the Rhine).
The film was later condensed for rerelease and titled The Kaiser's Last Squeal.
The film is preserved by the Library of Congress.[3] Copies also held by Museum of Modern Art, BFI Film and Television, Cinematheque Royale de Belgique, Academy Film Archive Bev. Hills.[4]
Captain Bob White, an American aviator behind enemy lines, disguises himself as a woman in order to fool and steal an important map from the members of the German High Command, including the Kaiser himself.[5]
Movie distributor Lesser released the picture in tandem with The Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties in Why Beaches Are Popular (1919), a promotional short or trailer presented during vaudeville road shows featuring Bothwell Browne and the Sennett Bathing Beauties. Why Beaches are Popular was “paired “ with Yankee Doodle in Berlin to introduce some of the characters in Yankee Doodle in Berlin and is composed of a number of unrelated comic skits.[6] Film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer notes that “the trailer was false advertising” as none of the Bathing Beauties appear in 5-reel feature Yankee Doodle in Berlin.[7]