Created by English novelist Nicolas Freeling (1927-2003), Simon "Piet" Van der Valk is a cynical and intuitive Amsterdam police commissioner. Married to Arlette, a French woman, the Commissaris appeared in 11 books from 1962 to 1989. Freeling spent most of his life in continental Europe and he was an admirer of Belgian author Georges Simenon. Van der Valk is often compared to Maigret.
On-screen, Piet Van der Valk was first portrayed by German actor Wolfgang Kieling in the British film Amsterdam Affair (1968). The best remembered version is the Thames Television series Van der Valk (1972-1973, 1977, 1991-1992), starring Barry Foster. Bryan Marshall played the character in Because of the Cats/Niet voor de poezen, a Dutch-Belgian movie released in 1973. Since 2020, Marc Warren (Hustle) plays the detective in Van der Valk for ITV. In 1971, German theatre and cinema director Peter Zadek (Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame) wanted to adapt Nicolas Freeling's Van der Valk novel Gun Before Butter (1963) as a feature film (1).
Peter Zadek spent some years in England, where he directed a short film (2) and worked for the BBC. He talked about his idea to Ernest Liesenhoff, head of the Munich production company Iduna Film and suggested him to make Gun Before Butter in English for a cinema release abroad. Lord Michael Birkett, a British producer, was hired on the project (3). Liesenhoff exec produced the movie and WDR co-financed it for a premiere on German Television. English actor Frank Finlay (Casanova, Cromwell) was cast as Van der Valk. German-born British screenwriter Robert Muller (Mystery and Imagination, Die Gentlemen bitten zur Kasse) wrote the scenario with Peter Zadek.
In the 1950s, Van der Valk investigates the murder of Meinard Stam, a rich fortysomething man stabbed in Amsterdam. He meets again with Lucienne Engelbert, a young woman who now works at a gas station in Belgium. Meinard Stam's money came from butter trafficking. Peter Zadek wanted Austrian actress Elisabeth Stepanek to play Lucienne but Michael Birkett and Robert Muller believed she wasn't suitable for the role, which went to English actress Cyd Hayman (4). Françoise Prévost was chosen for the key part of Arlette. Also with Franco-Belgian actor Pierre Vaneck (Aux frontières du possible) as Stam, the ex-French cinema icon Françoise Arnoul (Solange de Winter), Oscar Homolka (Samson), Günter Lamprecht, etc. Music by Peter Schirmann.
Cinematography by Walter Lassally (Zorba the Greek, Tom Jones). Editing by Max Benedict (Tarzan goes to India). Ambitious, Gun Before Butter was shot from February to March 1972 in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Venlo), Germany and Belgium (including Blankenberge). The excellent 93-minute movie, carried by Frank Finlay's performance, first aired on WDR as Van der Valk und das Mädchen on October 5, 1972. The release in theaters was cancelled when it occured that Nicolas Freeling's literary agent sold simultaneously the rights of the novel to Iduna Film and the rights of the Van der Valk character to Thames Television (for original stories), much to the discontent of the latter (5). Austrian television ORF showed Van der Valk und das Mädchen on November 27, 1974.
Following the success of Gun Before Butter, WDR and ORF greenlit Van der Valk und die Reichen. Frank Finlay and Françoise Prévost returned in this outstanding 95-minute TV movie adapted from the novel The King of the Rainy Country (1965) by Robert Muller (6) and helmed by a young German director named Wolfgang Petersen. Petersen directed seven Tatort, the crime drama collection of ARD, between 1971 and 1977. Das Boot (1981) and The Neverending Story (1984) led him to Hollywood for which he did In the Line of Fire (1993) or Air Force One (1997). Iduna Film produced Van der Valk und die Reichen with Austrian company Schönbrunn-Film. The shooting took place at the beginning of 1973 in Amsterdam, Cologne, Innsbruck, Kitzbühel and the federal state of Burgenland (Austria).
Piet Van der Valk is on temporary secondment for a special assignment which requires absolute discretion. He's asked to find Jean-Claude Marschal, the heir of a big corporation, who vanished suddenly. Van der Valk interrogates Anne-Marie, Marschal's wife. The case is linked to the disappearance of a young girl during the Cologne carnival. With Judy Winter (Anne-Marie), Helmut Käutner (Canisius), Hans Helmut Dickow (Stössl), Rudolf Strobl (Tappeiner), Marte Harell (Miss Kramer) Erich Padalewski (Serak), Otto Ambros... Exec produced by Robert Siepen and Nils Nilson. Music by Nils Sustrate. Cinematography by Jörg Michael Baldenius. Editing by Liselotte Klimitscheck. WDR aired Van der Valk und die Reichen on December 26, 1973.
Frank Finlay was very busy during the 1970s with movies or series such as Shaft in Africa (1973), The Three Musketeers (1973) and its sequel The Four Musketeers (1974), Bouquet of Barbed Wire (1976) or Murder by Decree (1978). However, the actor starred in a third Van der Valk. Françoise Prévost came back too as Arlette. Produced by ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) with Iduna-Film for the Deuxième chaîne and WDR, Van der Valk und die Toten was announced in January 1974. Adapted from the book Double-Barrel (1964) by Robert Muller, the 95-minute TV movie was filmed in the Netherlands in Spring 1974 by a French crew under the direction of Marcel Cravenne (L'éducation sentimentale, Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret).
Van der Valk is sent to Zwinderen, where the residents are terrorized by anonymous letters and Arlette is obliged to follow him. Only the mayor and his secretary know the motive of their presence. The detective is intrigued by Berenson, a recluse Holocaust survivor. Jacques Monod, often cast as a "bigwig", is the mayor. With Odile Versois (Miss Lindberg), Hans Christian Blech (Berenson), Danielle Girard (The mayor's wife), Vernon Dobtcheff (Reinders), Dominique MacAvoy (Betty's sister), Alan Adair (Prosecutor), René Arrieu (Dairy manager), Jacques Alric (Policeman), André Jaud (Police sergeant), Andrée Champeaux (Mrs Barkhuis) and Eva Simonet (Betty Reinders). Produced by Nicole Flipo, Jean Baudot and Raymond Houlette. Editing by André Chaudagne and Claudine Thoreau.
Cinematography by Albert Schimel. Betty Willemetz is the sound illustrator for ORTF. The end title music is Camptown Races (Version 2) by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. The brilliant Van der Valk und die Toten premiered in Germany on SWF and SDR on June 7, 1975. Three more films were planned but that was the last one. ORTF was dismantled in December 1974 and the Frank Finlay version of Van der Valk, distributed by Beta Film, arrived in France in 1975-1976 on Antenne 2 as Pas de frontière pour l'inspecteur (7). The ex-Deuxième chaîne began with Le bouc émissaire (Van der Valk und die Toten) on September 13, 1975. Discrétion absolue (Van der Valk und die Reichen) followed on November the 1st, 1975 and Le milieu n'est pas tendre (Van der Valk und das Mädchen) was shown on January the 1st, 1976.
Frank Finlay was dubbed in French by Guy Tréjan and Françoise Prévost by Michèle Bardollet. Pierre Cholodenko wrote the French dialogues of Le milieu n'est pas tendre and Discrétion absolue. Robert Scipion penned those of Le bouc émissaire. Pas de frontière pour l'inspecteur was actually preceded in France by the Thames Television Van der Valk, aired by TF1 from July 5, 1975. Frank Finlay pursued a long and eclectic career.
http://frankfinlay.net/index.html
https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2025/03/van-der-valk-season-1-1972.html
See also:
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2020/04/van-der-valk-series-1-episode-1-love-in_30.html
1 comment:
Fascinating! I had no idea at all that Frank Finlay had ever played Van Der Valk!
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