“Mein liebling mein rose…you’re right. It is a rather brutal language…”
The greatest villain in an episode of “The Avengers” was Max Prendergast, he of the hard lumpy face and insinuating leer. He was played by Peter Jeffrey, a remarkably versatile actor who, in a previous episode, played the exact opposite of Max…an ineffectual mild-mannered Brit.
The episode, “The Joker,” is a masterpiece, easily as good as any Hammer horror film of that era, and in fact, most any suspense film. In another age, it would’ve been a B-movie playing on the double bill with another hour-long effort. Great care went into this one, to the point of actually recording a creepy German-language tune to be played “over and over…over and over…”
The song was so compelling, people began asking for it in record stores (you remember them…where people bought music). “What do you MEAN you don’t have it? Can’t you import it? What do you MEAN there’s no such record label? Next thing you’ll be telling me is that there’s no Carl Schmidt!
No. "Deutsche Phon" is not the same as "Deutsche Grammophon" and there actually is no Carl Schmidt.
Demand for the song was so great that a single was released (in July of 1967 on the Columbia label in the UK. The flip side was "Blue Danube.")
Carl Schmidt was Mike Sammes, who fronted a fleet of singers (similar to the American groups such as the Anita Kerr Singers and Ray Conniff Singers). They made many albums and backed many recording artists. The music was by Laurie Johnson (who wrote “The Avengers” theme song). The lyric was by scriptwriter-genius Brian Clemens, and it was translated into German by Leo Birnbaum. Those who are fluent in German sadly insist that the song title should be “Mein Liebling Meine Rose,” but that’s a minor morose.
Mein Liebling Mein Rose - the melody has not lost its sweetness
Thanks for the history. That episode was one of the most suspenseful, and even though I actually hated the song, it was appropriately creepy.
ReplyDeleteThe first version with Honor Blackman was good as well.
Thanks for the download.
Thanks for this , a lost gem.
ReplyDeleteI guess that Mein in place of Meine is done on purpose. Same as the name of the singer and the record company are twisted, adding to the suspense.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information. As student of German I noticed the grammatical error since Rose is feminine the mein should be meine. Do you have the German lyrics to the song written anywhere and is the song on an audio CD?
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