Dutch film stars of the 30s: the national Elisa

“We might not have a film but, in any case, we have a film actress.” Says the critic L.J. Jordaan in the journal Haagse Post. The actress was Lily Bouwmeester who played the Amsterdam flower seller Eliza Doeluttel in Pygmalion. A film that, in the mid-thirties, was an unexpected success in a period of cinema crisis. But with this instant hit, the trio composed by Rudi Meyer (producer), Ludwig Berger (director) and Lily Bouwmeester restored the industry’s confidence. Pygmalion – an adaptation of the eponymus play by G.B. Shaw – was a great success with press and public. The movie made Lily Bouwmeester the face of Dutch cinema in the years before World War II. After Pygmalion she starred in three more Meyer’s productions: Vadertje Langbeen, Morgen gaat ‘t beter!, and Ergens in Nederland.

The choice of Lily Bouwmeester for the role of Elisa Doeluttel only at first sight seems like an obvious one. Lily’s film career had begun when she was a teenager. She made her debut in Majoor Frans, and then she had parts in Het geheim van Delft, Pro domo, Helleveeg en Zaken zijn zaken. These were all full-length silent films, directed by her uncle Theo Frenkel and Maurits H. Binger. But Lily’s biggest successes had mainly been on the theatre stage.
Lily was a member of the famous Bouwmeester family: a line of great actors and actresses. Choosing another profession had been almost inconceivable for her. And, as during the early thirties she starred in many popular comedies, a movie seemed the obvious next step. But her first attempt was a failure: she was rejected for the role in De Kribbebijter that was then given to Dolly Mollinger. This seemed to be the end of her movie-stardom ambitions until Rudi Meyer – who also produced De Kribbebijter –  remembered her while looking for a female protagonist for Pygmalion.

The success of Pygmalion wasn’t just restricted to cinemas: it continued on stage. Cor van der Lugt Melsert – Lily’s second husband – staged the play at Het Nederlandsch Toonel from April 1939. Starring Lily as Eliza Doolittle and Frits van Dijk as Professor Higgins, the show was a huge success. But there was some criticism surrounding her: she was convincing in the comic scenes, but not so much in the dramatic ones in the fourth act. The Second World War brought a break but in the first post-war years, Lily resumed her role at the Residentie Tooneel and the Rotterdams Toneel. She played the part of Eliza more than eight-hundred times.  And even after the part was later played by many other Dutch actresses, her performance is the most fondly remembered. She is Holland’s ‘national Eliza Doolittle’ as another actress of Dutch descent, Audrey Hepburn, can claim the role of ‘international Eliza Doolittle’ after George Cukor’s My Fair Lady.

Ergens in Nederland – a somber drama about the mobilization time in Holland – is Lily’s last movie. All plans for new films fell apart after the Germans occupied the Netherlands. And Lily refused offers form abroad: she sent back a offer from Paramount, and she replied “never” to the German UFA when the producers invited her to Berlin after the outbreak of the war. She focused on theatre and – more and more – on her life as a housewife. The few times she stood in front of the camera in her later years was only if someone wanted a picture for a women’s magazine or for the occasional television play. She gradually disappeared from the screens but she was never forgotten: most of her pre-war films were still screened after the war ended. Pygmalion sold almost half a million tickets at its re-release in 1961.

In September 1991 the Nederlands Filmmuseum celebrated the renovation of the Vondelpark pavilion and one of the main events was the presentation of the Pre-Gouden Kalveren. Modeled after the Gouden Kalveren, which the Dutch Film Festival awards to contemporary films, the prizes were for the best pre-war film, documentary, actor and actress. At the gala on 28 September – on her ninetieth birthday – Lily Bouwmeester was honoured as best actress. She was preferred to Rini Otte and Annie Bos. The jury praised her role in Pygmalion, without forgetting her other contributions: “Whether it’s the flair of a Elisa Doeluttel, or the playfully charming heroine of Morgen gaat t’beter, or a woman torn between a soldier and an actor in Ergens in Nederland, Lily Bouwmeester’s characters are always plausible, accurate, and moving. After deliberating the sensuality of Rini Otte, the touching honesty of Annie Bos and the richness of range of Lily Bouwmeester, the jury of the Pre-Gouden Kalveren decides that the award for best actress should go to Lily Bouwmeester.”