I couldn't help but laugh, but did the German really pronounce Kaiser Wilhelm as Kaiser William? Now I'm not exactly a history buff (I didn't even do it at GCSE level!), but did I just mishear? I enjoyed the movie quite a lot, but that did make me laugh.
shareI guess it could be argued that the Captain said William instead of Wilhelm as a courtesy to his two English "guests" before killing them, but it is more likely that Peter Bull flubbed his German accent as he did with his Russian accent 12 years later in Dr. Strangelove.
shareHe says it so quickly, you can distinguish William from Wilhelm? Sounds like it could go either way.
shareIt sounded to me like he said William, but I couldn't be completely sure.
shareI thought he said "Wilhelm" but as if it were English. More like "will-helm" rather than "VIL-helm" like it would be in German. It made me cringe.
It would make sense to say William because he was speaking English, but in that case he surely would have said "King William" or "Emporer William" rather than "Kaiser." So, yeah. I agree it was likely the actor flubbing his fake accent.