Alarm in Beijing

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Movie
Original title Alarm in Beijing
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1937
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK none
Rod
Director Herbert Selpin
script Walter Zerlett-Olfenius
Herbert Selpin
production Eduard Kubat for Minerva-Tonfilm GmbH
music Werner Bochmann
camera Friedl Behn-Grund
cut Lena Neumann
occupation

Alarm in Peking is a war and adventure film directed by Herbert Selpin in 1937 at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 with Gustav Fröhlich in the lead role. The film premiered on July 16, 1937 in Munich . The Berlin premiere followed on August 20, 1937 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo .

Today it is a reserved film from the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation . It is part of the foundation's portfolio, has not been released for distribution and may only be shown with the consent and under the conditions of the foundation.

action

“It is July 5, 1900. All over Asia the slogan is: 'China for the Chinese!' found a strong response. Bitter times have come for Europeans and Americans ... ”- so the story begins.

Two European telegraph operators are murdered by Chinese boxers that night in a small hut near a Chinese railway line. The German Oberleutnant Brock, leader of a cavalry patrol from the sea ​​battalion , and his comrade Sergeant Mück heard the shots, but came too late. Brock then stops the next express train on the open route, stows his unit with the horses and can be taken to Tientsin as quickly as possible . Shortly before, there had already been an incident that worried the European colonial rulers in China. Contrary to what was stated, there were no machine parts in the boxes carried in the luggage cart, but grenades. Tu-Hang, the Chinese managing director of a German-owned factory for agricultural machines for which the cargo is intended, had the baggage master, who had discovered this in a damaged box, stabbed by one of his people and removed it from the moving train let throw. None of the European fellow travelers suspects that something is brewing against the foreigners. Not even the sister of the factory owner, Maria, who was accompanying Tu-Hang on the train.

Mück almost had the explosive cargo thrown out of the wagon to make room for the horses to be stowed. Maria's appearance, however, causes Brock to stow the boxes elsewhere, so that the ammunition for the planned Chinese uprising finally reaches its destination. In Tientsin , the travelers learn that rail traffic has now been shut down. Maria, who actually wanted to meet a good friend, the British officer Captain Cunningham, must learn that he has been assigned to Beijing. There he and another 416 soldiers from a total of eight nations are supposed to protect the entire legation quarter against any threat from outside. Maria originally wanted to travel to Shanghai in order to start her journey home to Europe. Tu-Hang, who enjoys her trust, is able to persuade her to go to Beijing and appeal to the German Consul General to have the latter uncontrollably release the boxes with the secret, deadly cargo.

In fact, the boxes are released, the good name of Maria's brother vouches for the correctness of the description of the contents. In the meantime Brock and his men have also arrived in Beijing. Cunningham quickly realizes that in Brock, whom he has known for a long time, he has got a rival for Maria's favor. During a party at the British legation, the ballroom is suddenly fired from outside and the soldiers immediately run to the outer line of defense around the neighborhood. Now Tu-Hang shows his true colors. He attacks with his people in order to break the resistance of the "white devils" as quickly as possible. The first thing to do is to go up in flames at the Belgian embassy outside of the diplomatic area. The Austrian corvette captain von Radain assumes command as the highest-ranking officer, Cunningham becomes his deputy. Tu-Hang misjudged: the foreigners cannot be defeated militarily that quickly. There is a siege. Soon Tu-Hang also learns that European troops are on the way to relieve the trapped. Meanwhile, the besieged are running out of food.

The Italian ensign Torelli and the German private Lüdecke disguise themselves as Chinese and, disguised as such, sneak into the Chinese districts of Beijing with the help of the Chinese Yung-Li, who serves the Europeans as a prostitute, in order to bring food from there to the besieged fortress. When they both want to buy a box of canned food, Lüdecke slips his cap off his head and he is exposed. Shots are fired and Lüdecke is badly wounded. However, both manage to escape together with the box, while Yung-Li is held by the rushing boxers. When the crate they had brought with them was opened in the embassies 'quarter, when it turned out that the alleged canned box was one of Tu-Hang's ammunition boxes on the train, some in the embassies' quarter began to suspect that Maria might be involved in the ammunition smuggling affair . After all, it was she who had urged the consul general to release the cargo destined for her brother without checking. Brock, who believes in her innocence, and Cunningham, who is also in love with Maria, then clash. In another skirmish with the boxers, Commander Radain is fatally injured, so that Cunningham now takes command as the next senior officer.

Yung-Li was taken to Tu-Hang. He lets her live because he still needs her. He demands that she bring Maria to him. Yung-Li and Maria reach Tu-Hang on secret trails. Maria wants to find out personally from Tu-Hang whether her brother actually had something to do with the arms smuggling. The leader of the Chinese denies this. She reproaches Tu-Hang for the serious breach of trust, but he replies, very patriot: "What I did, I did for China". But then, in view of the clear military superiority of his boxers, he suggests that she shouldn't return to the embassy district. When Maria makes it clear to him that she stands by her people just as he is by his, he lets her go without hesitation. Meanwhile, Brock, who has suspected how well armed the Chinese are since the grenade box accidentally got into the legation quarter, is trying to force the military decision through a daring one-man command. At night he leaves the diplomatic quarter and goes to the Chinese city. Finally he scrambles up a wall in breakneck fashion.

Once at the top, he hurls a load of burning gasoline at the boxer's ammunition depot, which then explodes. Brock flees headlong to escape the Chinese pursuing him. Maria, who has meanwhile returned to the embassy district, informs Cunningham of what has happened to her Tu-Hang and is able to persuade the British to finally help his old buddy Brock. “He keeps his promise, but he dies a soldier's death. Tu-Hang also falls. It's tough - the liberators are finally here. They shouldn't have come a day later. The whites are saved. The hymn of comradeship drowns out the lament for the victims of the struggle. "

Production notes

Filming began on March 12, 1937 and ended in the middle of the following month. 25 years later, at 55 days in Beijing , another (elaborate) film project was created that thematized the boxer rebellion in adventure film style. Beijing alarm has been released to the youth.

In the same year 1937 the film was shown in Portugal , the Netherlands and Finland . In 1938, Alarm in Beijing was also shown in Japanese cinemas.

Completely unusual for his screen career, the German stage star Bernhard Minetti embodies a Chinese here.

The actress Rosa Jung (role of Yung-Li), who was just 29 years old at the end of the shooting, actually came from Beijing and was the only ethnic Chinese woman in the film. At that time she lived in Berlin-Friedenau . In addition to Chinese, Rosa Jung also spoke German, English and French. Also in 1937 she played in Richard Eichberg's legendary India two-part play The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb . Then she disappeared from the public eye.

The Chinese-born German actor Georg H. Schnell , who has taken on the small role of an envoy, is the only filmmaker involved in Alarm in Beijing who actually took part in the suppression of the Boxer uprising.

The film sets (Chinese pagodas, European embassy salons, military defenses) were designed by the film architects Willi A. Herrmann and Alfred Bütow . Captain a. D. Erich von Gomlicki.

criticism

The film's large lexicon of people called Alarm in Beijing an “adventure film” in which Fröhlich embodied “a straightforward, dashing fellow”.

Hans Schmid pointed out the following in 2010: “Despite some show values ​​and a varied plot, Alarm in Beijing is not really a good film. Selpin's staging has turned out to be awkward for a long time, and "Chinese" music of the kind to which the television ballet dances today in the "Great Spring Festival of Folk Music" is played at regular intervals. "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Original quote from the program for Alarm in Beijing , Illustrierter Film-Kurier, No. 2666
  2. ↑ according to the Maria program, but occasionally "Mary" or "Mary Valena" is also given
  3. ↑ Original quote from the program for Alarm in Beijing
  4. ↑ according to the film archive Kay Less
  5. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 150 (based on Schnells Reichsfilmkammerakte, Bundesarchiv Berlin).
  6. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 126.
  7. ↑ "The Russians are coming! But where?" in Telepolis