Directly translated from Danish this film is titled: LITTLE LISE LIGHT ON TOES. The comic team of Madsen and Schenstrøm brought laughter to millions of fans all over the world during the silent era. They were Scandinavias answer to Laurel and Hardy. In this film they team up to help the ballerina Lise (Greta Nissen) who is to make her debut on the professional stage. But Lise has no money for a fancy costume so our comic team sets out to rescue the situation. There is ofcourse a happy ending but before we reach a conclusion the comic team tries everything from selling their skeleton to science, trying to collect an reward when rescuing an old lady from robbery, working as life savers at a seaside resort...and many simular situation. Not a great lover of silent comedies I must admit I was taken by this wonderful comedy. Mostly as Madsen and Schenstrøm never takes their comic situations too far. They both have an hilarious body language and are both dressed in costumes too small for their size. LILLE LISE LET PAA TAA is fast moving and full of comic relief and original situations. Film moves from one scene to another in new sets that are enriched by the theater, parks, seaside, apartments, ballet, ships etc. It actually comes across as a very expensive film for its time era. Its also interesting to watch Greta Nissen as a ballerina before she went to The US and became a star at Paramount Pictures. The film was restored in the early 1970's and voices was added to create dialogue...actually a smart idea that worked for this film and made me laugh many times. So why not bring back the old silent classics of Valentino, Theda Bara and many more so a new audience could pay attention to the personalities of the silent era. It might be worth a try !
Review of Lille Lise let-paa-taa
