The Perjurer (1956)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The perjurer
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1956
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (1956), 12 (today)
Rod
Director Rudolf Jugert
script Erna Fentsch
production Edgar G. Ulmer
music Friedrich Meyer
camera Roger Hubert
cut Lilian Seng
occupation

Der Meineidbauer is a German homeland film drama by Rudolf Jugert from 1956 with Carl Wery in the title role and Heidemarie Hatheyer in the female lead. Other leading roles include the very young Christiane Hörbiger and her 60-year-old father Attila Hörbiger in front of the camera. The story was based on the play of the same name (1871) by Ludwig Anzengruber

action

The story is a modernization of the material often filmed in German-language cinema. Paula Roth has a difficult time in her Bavarian home village of Ottenschlag. She lived unmarried with the farmer Jakob, who was admitted to hospital seriously injured at the beginning of the story and died soon afterwards. Now there is open poisoning against her, she is called a "gypsy". Paula wants everything to stay that way on the farm, which, she says, Jacob wanted to bequeath to her, and Jacob's half-brother Mathias Ferner to remain the foreman. He is disappointed because he had secretly hoped to inherit the farm himself. So that Paula does not come into possession of Jacob's letter, in which Jacob stated that Paula should inherit the farm, Mathias searches for it and discovers the document in a secret compartment of the secretary. He and his son Franz therefore get nothing. Mathias takes the document and perjury in court, in which he swears that only he should inherit the farm and that he knows nothing of a document that says the opposite. But Paula insists on her right. She says that this document exists and that is why she also refuses a financial agreement because she did not come here as a supplicant. They only demand their rights.

In view of the missing document, the court agrees with the perjurer. The assessor Demuth from the probate court could have influenced the judgment, but he is silent. Mathias had recently visited Demuth looking for a letter he had sent to his dead stepbrother. In this letter Mathias writes that he is dismayed that he is bequeathing the farm to Paula and her children. Thus the probate judge knows that Mathias Ferner is lying and perjured. Before Demuth found and read the letter, Mathias had already left the office. To make sure that nothing changes in the ownership situation in the future, Mathias Paula proposes marriage, but she laughingly rejects it. Bitter Paula leaves the area with her and Jacob's daughter Marei and their son Jakob junior and returns to her family. Shortly afterwards Mathias receives a visit from Mr Demuth, who now wants to capitalize on his knowledge of Mathias' perjury and also presents a photocopy of the letter. Humility quite uncomfortably demands a monthly annuity. Furthermore, despite the blackmailer, he believes he can achieve his dream goal and promises his son Franz a golden future on the farm.

Ten years have passed. Marei and Franz have grown up in the meantime, and when they meet again after such a long time, they don't recognize each other. The young people quickly begin to feel for one another. Paula has built a small existence with a mountain restaurant. Her son Jakob causes her a lot of trouble because he works as a smuggler in the border area. Two border guards are already on the trail of him and his friend. Mother Paula hides her fleeing son in her pub. The fact that Jakob is not caught is only thanks to the district manager Pichler, who holds his protective hand over Paula and her family and asks the mother of two to marry him. Soon afterwards, Franz Marei confesses that he is the son of the perjury farmer, which causes the young girl to fear that her budding love is doomed to failure.

Then events roll over. Humility lies dying and is persuaded by the pastor to forward Jacob's letter, which he has withheld, to Paula after his death. She is mourning her son because he was shot in a firefight with the border officials. When she received the letter of Demuth from the pastor, she now had something in hand for the first time with which she could take the farm that he had embezzled from the perjurer. Paula immediately confronts Mathias with the news, which almost assaults Paula. With great effort, the farmer son Franz who is present prevents his father from doing it. Franz realizes why Paula has expelled him from their property and raises massive objections to Marei's relationship with him. Franz told his father that he had committed perjury. This leads to a serious rift between father and son. After the funeral of her son Jakob, Paula wants to fight for her and Marei to get back the court she is entitled to. Franz rushes to Paula and tries to make it clear to her that he knew nothing of his father's machinations. Paula doesn't believe a word he says, and so there is a falling out between him and Paula. Disappointed, he leaves, accompanied by Marei, who is desperate at her mother's stubbornness.

The two of them have barely left when the perjurer shows up, supposedly to seek a discussion. The situation escalates quickly and she threatens to murder Paula if she does not hand out the letter and stop taking action against him. Franz, on his way home with Marei, hurries back and tears Mathias away from Paula, whom he has started to strangle. The old farther pushes his son away, while Franz falls unhappy. The old man, who thinks his son is dead, sneaks out of the house in a daze. In his inattention, Mathias Ferner slips in the dark and falls into the depths of a slope. The perjurer is killed in the process. Thanks to the care of Marei and Paula, Franz is soon better again. Paula promises her daughter that from now on she will have no more objections to a relationship between Mareis and Franz. Your own luck with district manager Pichler now also seems possible.

Production notes

The perjury maker was created from June 12, 1956 (until July 1956) in the Upper Bavarian Alpine foothills and in the Geiselgasteig studios of Bavaria and was premiered on October 19, 1956 in several German cities.

Franz Seitz junior took over the production management. Max Mellin and Wolf Englert designed the film structures. Robert Gilbert wrote the lyrics. Edmond Richard served his compatriot Roger Hubert as color advisor, Rainer Erler director Jugert as his assistant. Fred Louis Lerch and Hans Seitz were unit managers.

Hollywood veteran Edgar G. Ulmer returned home to Germany after being away for more than a quarter of a century for this film he had produced. It remained his only German post-war film.

Carl Wery and screenwriter Erna Fentsch were married to each other.

The 13-year-old Margitta Scherr made her film debut here with the role of the young Marei Roth.

Reviews

"For the film historian Werner Sudendorf, Jugert's 1956 film is one of the" Heimatfilms that captured reality. In 'The Perjury Farmer' ... there are really bad people. Carl Wery, who usually played the old gurnards, really has something here That means the Heimatfilm can also be a foil for crime. Unfortunately, this has only been exploited all too seldom in German films "(quoted from Eckhart Schmidt:" Heimat - your films ")."

In the lexicon of international films it says: "Despite some good approaches, the film remains stuck in the Heimatfilm cliché with the usual peasant and smuggler characters and, despite renowned actors, offers nothing more than reasonably entertaining melodrama."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The perjurer on wunschliste.de
  2. ↑ The Perjurer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 1, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

Web links