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Private Schulz
The revised, expanded version of Martin Noble's black comic novel, adapted from Jack Pulman's much-loved and highly acclaimed Royal Television Society award-winning television series. A few weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War, recently released convict Gerhardt Schulz is transferred from an underpants factory to the SS. Private Schulz is determined to sit out the war but, under the fiendish Major Neuheim, he is soon involved in kidnapping British spies on the Durch border and bugging rooms in Berlin's notorious Salon Kitty brothel.
It is here that he falls in love with Fraulein Bertha Freyer, the high-class prostitute with a psychological block that prevents her from doing it with anyone below the rank of Major. When the British begin dropping clothing coupons on Germany, Schulz comes up with a retaliatory scheme for swamping Britain with forged five pound notes. When against all odds Adolf Hitler himself approves the scheme, Private Schulz finds himself being parachuted into England to bury a canister of fivers in the Kent countryside. Schulz just needs a personal plan to get out of the war alive - with a few leftover notes.
It is here that he falls in love with Fraulein Bertha Freyer, the high-class prostitute with a psychological block that prevents her from doing it with anyone below the rank of Major. When the British begin dropping clothing coupons on Germany, Schulz comes up with a retaliatory scheme for swamping Britain with forged five pound notes. When against all odds Adolf Hitler himself approves the scheme, Private Schulz finds himself being parachuted into England to bury a canister of fivers in the Kent countryside. Schulz just needs a personal plan to get out of the war alive - with a few leftover notes.
512 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1981
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November 9, 2011
Jack Pulman's Private Schulz, a 6-part series televised in 1981, has now been released on DVD. I'm not sure if fans of the series are aware of the novel, as it has been out of print so long, but, needless to say, if you liked the series, you'll probably love the book. Jack Pulman never lived to see his creation on screen, and the script was novelised expertly by Martin Noble.
Set in the Second World War, the events cover the clever but hapless Schulz's attempts to get hold of some of the money his SS bosses have literally been making from a wartime opportunity: the forged English five pound notes of Operation Bernhardt, designed to disrupt the British economy just when it needs to work. The novel goes beyond the limits of the series, and fills in all the characters further, and introduces new ones, who all stand in Schulz's way at various times, or help him in any way they can. Schulz's story is a tale of the powerlessness of the individual in the face both of totalitarian regimes and incredible bad luck.
Pulman's take on Operation Bernhardt has been criticised for its humour when dealing with a subject as grave as the Second World War - it's hardly Valkyrie, but nor is it quite Allo Allo, but somewhere in between. I think you have to take a view on this and decide whether it's for you or not. Operation Bernhardt has been treated with the seriousness it deserves in many different media, such as Counterfeiter, by Moritz Nachtstern and Ragnar Arntzen, Krueger's Men, by Lawrence Malkin, and Adolf Berger's memoir, which was eventually made into the film The Counterfeiters.
Berger, a Bernhardt survivor, was not happy with the filmed version of his book; he felt that it was altered to anodise his brutal experience. I doubt if he would laugh at Private Schulz, but then, he was there. I don't feel that Jack Pulman's version takes anything away from the horrors of the original incidents that it offers up for our thoughts and views. Schulz, his frightful boss Major Neuheim and his opportunistic collaborator Bertha all find out in their own ways that the ill-gotten gains that come to them have been created out of evil, and that no good will come of them, which turns it into a modern Midas Touch, in some respects, and an examination of the unforgiving ways of greed, and its dubious rewards.
The novel is out of print, so I recommend snapping up a copy when you see one. I haven't referred much to its author, Martin Noble, here - it's Jack Pulman's creation, and Martin Noble (I believe) runs a professional 'novelising' service. But I hope that doesn't sound negative: he's a true professional, and I think he's done an excellent job and, even more importantly, has done real justice to Jack Pulman's creation.
Set in the Second World War, the events cover the clever but hapless Schulz's attempts to get hold of some of the money his SS bosses have literally been making from a wartime opportunity: the forged English five pound notes of Operation Bernhardt, designed to disrupt the British economy just when it needs to work. The novel goes beyond the limits of the series, and fills in all the characters further, and introduces new ones, who all stand in Schulz's way at various times, or help him in any way they can. Schulz's story is a tale of the powerlessness of the individual in the face both of totalitarian regimes and incredible bad luck.
Pulman's take on Operation Bernhardt has been criticised for its humour when dealing with a subject as grave as the Second World War - it's hardly Valkyrie, but nor is it quite Allo Allo, but somewhere in between. I think you have to take a view on this and decide whether it's for you or not. Operation Bernhardt has been treated with the seriousness it deserves in many different media, such as Counterfeiter, by Moritz Nachtstern and Ragnar Arntzen, Krueger's Men, by Lawrence Malkin, and Adolf Berger's memoir, which was eventually made into the film The Counterfeiters.
Berger, a Bernhardt survivor, was not happy with the filmed version of his book; he felt that it was altered to anodise his brutal experience. I doubt if he would laugh at Private Schulz, but then, he was there. I don't feel that Jack Pulman's version takes anything away from the horrors of the original incidents that it offers up for our thoughts and views. Schulz, his frightful boss Major Neuheim and his opportunistic collaborator Bertha all find out in their own ways that the ill-gotten gains that come to them have been created out of evil, and that no good will come of them, which turns it into a modern Midas Touch, in some respects, and an examination of the unforgiving ways of greed, and its dubious rewards.
The novel is out of print, so I recommend snapping up a copy when you see one. I haven't referred much to its author, Martin Noble, here - it's Jack Pulman's creation, and Martin Noble (I believe) runs a professional 'novelising' service. But I hope that doesn't sound negative: he's a true professional, and I think he's done an excellent job and, even more importantly, has done real justice to Jack Pulman's creation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review