Hulla di Bulla

   by Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach.

   Premiered 1929. The last of the enormously popular comedies by "the firm of Arnold and Bach," this play satirized aristocrats, ridiculed republican politicians, and mocked the German film industry. The comedy opens with a film extra named Papendieck working at Berlin's ornate City Palace, where shooting for a revolutionary epic has just begun. Word comes that the film company must vacate the premises for the arrival of the King of Hamudistan, Abdulla di Bulla. The republican government, eager to loan the king money and secure oil leases in his country, has arranged to give the king a German-style royal treatment in the kaiser's former apartments. Word of the film company's abrupt departure does not reach Papendieck in time, however, and he assumes that King Abdulla and his retinue are leading actors in the film for which he has been hired for one day's shooting. Several comic scenes swiftly unfold, including one in which Abdulla's lieutenants plot his overthrow in favor of his cousin, the eponymous Hulla di Bulla. Convinced that the actor playing King Abdulla needs to play his part more convincingly, Papendieck reveals the plot to him. The perpetrators are arrested, and Papendieck is awarded the title Duke of Hamudistan. The next day comes word from the kingdom of Hamudistan that Hulla di Bulla has indeed effected a coup d'état and that Abdulla is in fact an ex-king. That means Papendieck is an ex-duke as well, but all ends happily as Abdulla di Bulla departs for London (where he has secretly deposited millions in gold bullion). Republican politicians are mollified, and Papendieck departs for his next assignment as a film extra.