Willy Mullens

Propaganda film about the Dutch Military. Willy Mullens made this film in 1917, when other West-European armies had become numbed by three long years in the trenches. The footage depicts a relatively high-spirited mood, considering how the Dutch military had mobilized but not actually participated in the war. Precisely who it was that needed to be convinced of the solid foundation of Dutch neutrality is shown clearly in a folder that accompanied the screening of this film at the Residentie cinema in The Hague: ‘The purpose of the film is to impress upon the Dutch people (…) that our military forces, with the resources at their disposal, can readily be compared to those of the foreign military forces.’ The term ‘impress upon’ can be taken literally: people needed to be put at ease.

"Where There's a Will, There's a Way!" is a Dutch fiction film from 1931, directed by Willy Mullens and Herman Bouber, and produced by Haghe Film. It is an educational film about the fight against tuberculosis, centering on the Verhulst family as they make the move to a modern, airy home.

Shots of Heerlen, Netherlands, and its surroundings: we see several coal mines in rural South Limburg.

Footage of the public declaration of support to Queen Wilhelmina that took place a week after SDAP leader Troelstra had declared the revolution in the Netherlands in the wake of the First World War.

This documentary shows the most important squares, streets, and buildings of Zaltbommel, Netherlands, with shots of the river Waal. We see the market, the water tower, old fortifications, the railway bridge, the St Maartens tower, the carillon tower, and the cable ferry. The film also has footage of a shipyard where ocean ships are built.

Impressions of Bandung, Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), with shots of the pasar (market), the Departments of War and Government Corporations, churches, parks, the residential office, a hospital, staff and service houses of the PTT, the Concordia society, the Chinese neighbourhood, the library and the observatory in Lembang.

A small rural town in the Netherlands, with shots of its most important buildings, streets, squares, and waterways. A central focus of the film is Sneek's Waterpoort, the city's best-known and most prominent building.

'Zandvoort in an uproar! On Saturday morning at roughly 10 o’clock, with beautiful weather and calm seas, a Frenchman sat in a beach chair to gaze upon the magnificent view that the sea always affords, until he slowly began to fall asleep’ So begins a report in the ‘Zandvoortsche Courant’ of July 25, 1905. The article explains how the man was faced with the oncoming tide, and – to the amazement of the audience – took off his trousers to prevent them from being ruined by the saltwater. While trying to escape from the policeman who had rushed to the scene, he jumps into a passing car, and hides out in a small changing cabin. Eventually he's nabbed by the police. Accompanied by a band and a large crowd, he is escorted to the police station. The article ends by saying that ‘Messrs. Alberts Frères’ had staged the whole incident for a film in which two of the most popular genres of that period - the locally-shot film and the chase film – would be combined.

The most important buildings, waterways, monuments, streets, and squares of Weesp, near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

A historical tour of Hoorn in North Holland.

Some history and views of the Dutch city.

Shot in the Philips factory that produced glass housings for lightbulbs, Eindhoven, Netherlands. In the factory, dozens of glass blowers can be seen making these glass housings. Two of them even manage to blow and stretch a piece of glass to a length of twenty meters.

Four short films about the south-western region of The Netherlands.

A boat in the Zuiderzee approaches the port of Staveren. This once-famous Hanseatic city is now known as the pleasure boater’s gateway to the Frisian lakes.

Dutch Koninklijke Begeer corporate film showing their processing of precious metals and stones.

A reportage about the tea company of the NILS (the Netherlands Indies Agricultural Syndicate) called Permanangan, on the east coast of Sumatra.

The people of Urk, Netherlands, mainly women, men, and children in traditional costume, posing for the camera. The film was probably shot on a public holiday. We see several women doing their daily work: hanging the laundry, and fetching water from the pump. A postman comes along with the letters.