Red orchids

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Movie
Original title Red orchids
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1938
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Nunzio Malasomma
Walter Janssen
(dialogue director)
script Philipp Lothar Mayring
Harald G. Petersson
Kurt Heuser
production Hans von Wolzüge
a production of the FDF film
music Franz Grothe
camera Franz Koch
cut Alexandra Anatra
occupation

Rote Orchideen is a German feature film from 1938 directed by Nunzio Malasomma . Olga Chekhova , Albrecht Schoenhals , Camilla Horn and Herbert Hübner play the main roles in this spy story.

action

A fantasy state somewhere in Northern Europe : an important drawing has been copied at the FNG armaments plant and passed on to the enemy. The suspicion falls on chief engineer Alexander Nica and his assistant Laurenz. Both are brought to justice, charged by night watchman Bruns and sentenced to death for factory espionage . Nica manages to escape before the verdict is announced. He is now trying to find evidence to convince the court of his and Laurenz's innocence. The key to this seems to be a mysterious, coded letter that Baroness Ogolenska left behind when she visited Nica's apartment. Nica knows that he can only shed light on the matter if he can find the decryption code he suspects in the house of the unworldly Professor Castro on the Riviera . When he finds the code there, he realizes that the Castro house is the headquarters of a widely ramified organization. Baroness Ogolenska also works willingly with her. With the code found, Nica could prove his and Laurenz's innocence. When he wanted to get back to Laurenz as soon as possible, he found the opera singer Maria Dorando injured on the roadside. He helps her, even though he knows that he really shouldn't lose any time because Castro's people are after him. When Castro's people want to catch him, Nica is arrested by the police as an alleged car thief. Castro has instructed his people to grab Nica as soon as he is released. However, the engineer manages to shake off his pursuers and drive to the opera, where Maria Dorando is currently performing. He hides the code in a red orchid that he throws to Maria. To get him back, he spends the evening with the opera diva, both of whom discover that they have more than just sympathy for one another.

Professor Castro shows up at Maria's and claims that Nica is actually an agent who is collecting evidence against her brother Antonio in order to use it in court against him. Antonio fell for the seedy Baroness Ogolenska and therefore works for Castro as a secretary. Maria believes the professor and now doesn't want anything more to do with Nica. Some time later, when Nica wants to hand over the code to the monitoring commissioner of the FNG-Werke Moras, he discovers in despair that the orchid is empty. He believes that his and his friend's fate is now sealed and follows Moras back to his homeland .

Maria had taken the code in the orchid to protect her brother. However, she destroys the code when Castro demands it from her. Only later does she find out that Castro lied to her and that she put Nica's life at risk with her action. Desperate, she asks her brother for help, who now wants to expose Castro's machinations. Castro, kept informed by his people, has Antonio murdered. It is surveillance superintendent Moras who saves Nica and Laurenz: he finds out about the night watchman Bruns, who was the only witness in this process. It turns out that Bruns is a supporter of Castro and, as his puppet, will say whatever he wants. Castro and his people are arrested and Nica and Laurenz acquitted. Maria and Nica also talk and find each other again.

Production notes and background

Shooting began in mid-May 1938, and the film's premiere in Germany took place on September 8, 1938 in the Berlin atrium.

The film was produced by FDF Fabrication German Films GmbH (Berlin). The production line was Hans von Wolzogen . Walter Janssen acted as a dialogue director. Karl Weber and Erich Zander were responsible for the buildings, Eugen Hrich for the sound. Eugen Klagemann was the still photographer.

The distribution of the film, which originally ran under the title Black Orchids , took place through the UFA .

Like the thunderstorm flight to Claudia , red orchids belong to a genre that was often chosen as a film theme at the time without an exact name being found. Perhaps the term “action film” comes closest to these films, which were popular in their time, as they are permeated with elements of crime as well as adventurous and melodramatic sequences. The plot never rests, something happens all the time and new characters are introduced, unexpected entanglements are conjured out of the hat. From bribery and spying to murder, everything is in the film. You need a main character who you can stick to and who is embodied in this film by Olga Chekhova. Your affection for the main character is clearly crystallized and endures. 1938 was a successful year for Olga Chekhova, in which she played the leading role in four films and at the end of which she was appointed state actress.

Song in the movie

criticism

“Action-packed agent and adventure film with the romance between an engineer sentenced to death for factory espionage and a singer. The Italian Malasomma had already made around 40 silent films in Germany before he was successful in Italy and returned to Berlin in 1938, where he directed entertainment films with manual skill and routine .. "

- Lexicon of international film

See also

Web links

literature

  • Red orchids. In: Manfred Hobsch: Film in the Third Reich . All German feature films from 1933 to 1945. Volume 4, MR. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2010, pp. 546–449.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cit. from Friedemann Beyer: THE UFA STARS IN THE THIRD REICH Women for Germany , Heyne Film and TV Library No. 32/131, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1991, p. 81.
  2. ↑ Red orchids. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used