Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919) Starring: Bothwell Browne, Ford Sterling, Malcolm St. Clair, Bert Roach Directed by F. Richard Jones. Written by Mack Sennett. Produced by Mack Sennett. USA Run time: 65 minutes. Black and White. Silent. Comedy. WWI.
Propaganda films about evil Huns were quite common from
Hollywood during World War I. Titles like The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin
(1917) and To Hell With the Kaiser (1918), gave little to the
imagination about whose side the US was on during the war. While Eric Von
Stroheim is best remembered as a director, during this time period he was pretty
busy playing sadistic Prussian officers in films like The Unbeliever
(1918), The Hun Within (1918), The Heart of Humanity (1918), and
D. W. Griffith's Hearts of the World (1918).
Late to the game was Mack Sennett’s send-up, Yankee
Doodle in Berlin. And by late, I mean after the war had ended. The armistice which ended World War I happened on November 11, 1918 but this film
wasn’t released until March 2, 1919.
