Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Mr. and Mrs. Smith |
| Original title | Mr. & Mrs. Smith |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1941 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| script | Norman Krasna |
| production |
David O. Selznick Harry E. Edington for RKO Radio Pictures |
| music |
Edward Ward Roy Webb |
| camera | Harry Stradling Sr. |
| cut | William Hamilton |
| occupation | |
| |
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is an American screwball comedy directed by Alfred Hitchcock from 1941. The main roles are played by Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery .
action
The marriage of wealthy New York attorney David Smith to his wife Ann is based on a complex and at times bizarre web of rules and regulations. In the event of a marital dispute, neither of the two is allowed to leave the room until the dispute has been resolved, which may mean that Mr. Smith cannot go to his office for days - much to the annoyance of his law firm.
Another rule allows both of you to ask a question each month that the other must answer honestly. When Ann asks one day whether he would marry her again if he had to make another decision, David replies that he probably wouldn't because he misses his freedom too much. Ann takes this offended at first, but then seems to forgive him.
When David returns to his office after the marriage dispute, the registrar Mr. Deever shows up and explains to David that his wedding is legally invalid due to an incorporation. David doesn't tell Ann about it at first, but by chance Ann learns of the invalidity of their marriage. While she expects David to propose to her again, David delays this moment further and further in order to keep her under suspicion. Ann now thinks that he really does not want to marry her a second time, leaves him furious and hooks up with David's best friend Jeff, with whom she even forges marriage plans. David tries unsuccessfully to win back Ann, tries to sabotage her planned marriage with Jeff in front of his parents and finally follows the two on their vacation in a ski hut in Lake Placid . There he effectively plays a desperate, drunk husband in delirium and lets Ann and Jeff nurse him back to health. But Ann remains stubborn at first. When Ann discovers his deception, she gets angry. While they are arguing, Jeff walks in. He knows Ann and David are made for each other when Ann tries to get Jeff to fight David.
Ann decides to ski to the lodge even though she doesn't know how to ski. David offers to help her put on her skis, but puts her in a position that prevents her from getting up. While fighting and threatening him, she frees one foot, but then feigns helplessness by reattaching the ski. David realizes her pretext and silences her by kissing her.
background
In November 1939, RKO Pictures secured the rights to a script by Norman Krasna , who did not yet have a title for his screenplay. Thus, the project was temporarily under different working titles (including Who Was That Lady I Seen You With? , And So To Wed , Here We Go Again! , The Lady Said No! , That Was My Wife! , Temporarily Yours and Slightly Married) , until the studio finally for & Mr. Mrs. Smith decided.
Carole Lombard , who had recently switched to RKO, read the script a little later and persuaded Alfred Hitchcock to take over the direction. By his own admission, he was not very enthusiastic about the basic idea, the genre of the screwball comedies and the characters and therefore stuck strictly to the script: “Since I did not understand the kind of people who were shown in the film, I have the scenes photographed as they were written ”.
Lombard and Hitchcock first tried to win Cary Grant for the male lead of Mr. Smith . After a series of rejections from other film stars such as Fredric March and George Brent , Robert Montgomery was signed for the role a week before shooting began . His salary even exceeded Hitchcock's - at $ 110,000 a week, he was getting $ 40,000 more.
Filming ran from September 5 to November 2, 1940. The scene in which a conversation with Gene Raymond is made difficult by the noise of a toilet worried the studio. The Hays Code was very strict about the representation of toilets and their noises. In order to avoid possible censorship, Hitchcock distorted the dishwashing noise so much that it could also be mistaken for the sound of steam heating.
Lombard allowed himself a joke with Hitchcock (who often teased actors and other employees himself) on the first day of shooting: She had three cows come into the studio and hung signs with the names of the three main actors on them. With that she answered Hitchcock's famous quote that for him "all actors are cattle ".
The comedy, which is very atypical for Hitchcock, was enthusiastically received by the audience. On December 30, 1940, it was voted one of the best films of the year by a test audience in New Rochelle , New York . After the premiere on January 20, 1941 at New York's Radio City Music Hall , the performances were sold out for the first nine days.
The 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, has only one title in common with the 1941 screwball comedy.
Reviews
"The amazing thing about this film is that Hitchcock used the same strategy that usually characterizes his blood-freezing melodramas [...] Here they are again, his unmistakable trademarks - the same casual style, the same neck-over- Head finale, the same way of seeing that seems to come out of the corner of your eye, the same direction that seems like non-direction. The bottom line is that the effect is the same: another Hitchcock hit. "
"One of the few comedies by Alfred Hitchcock, brought to an entertaining turbulence in an easy style and with relaxed actors."
"The special Hitchcock touch is there."
"This marriage comedy from 1940 is only worth mentioning because it rounds off the picture of Hitchcock's entire oeuvre."
Cameo
After 41 minutes of film, Hitchcock crosses Montgomery's path in front of his house.
synchronization
The German version of the film was created in 1970 by Interopa Film GmbH in Berlin. The dialogue book was written by Klaus von Wahl , who also directed the dialogue.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Ann Smith | Carole Lombard | Marion Degler |
| David Smith | Robert Montgomery | Claus Biederstaedt |
| Jeff Custer | Gene Raymond | Ottokar Runze |
| Chuck Benson | Jack Carson | Wolfgang Völz |
| Mr. Custer | Philip Merivale | Kurt Mühlhardt |
| Mrs. Custer | Lucile Watson | Tina Eilers |
| Mr. Deever | Charles Halton | Hugo Schrader |
| Mrs. Krausheimer | Esther Dale | Ursula War |
literature
- Donald Spoto: Alfred Hitchcock , Piper: München 1999, ISBN 3-492-22798-8
- François Truffaut: Mr. Hitchcock, how did you do it? , Heyne 2003, ISBN 3-453-86141-8
Web links
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the German dubbing file
Individual evidence
- ^ Truffaut, 2003, p. 128
- ↑ cit. n. Spoto, 1999, p. 278
- ↑ Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association, Munich, Review No. 371/1970.
- ↑ Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the German dubbing index