The Katzenjammer Kids image

Spirits

March 10, 1918 Theatrical Series The Katzenjammer Kids

Studio
International Film Service
Distributor
Pathé Film Exchange

Characters

The Captain, Kids

Credits

Directing

Director
Gregory La Cava

Producing

Producer
Gregory La Cava

Writing

Writer
Rudolph Dirk (Original Strip)

Production notes

Silent cartoon.

Rudolph Dirks's comic about the immigrant German Katzenjammer family (first published 1897) had been made into live-action films in 1912. This animated version is labeled "Original" because its producer, W.R. Hearst's International Film Service, had won a suit against Dirks (a former Hearst newspaper cartoonist), forcing him to rename his strip after the mischievous Katzenjammer children, "Hans und Fritz." Future Hollywood director Gregory La Cava (My Man Godfrey, Stage Door) supervised this film and the earlier Hearst shorts in this presentation. Anti-German sentiment brought The Katzenjammer Kids film series to a halt later in 1918.