All for money

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title All for money
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1923
Rod
Director Reinhold Schünzel
script Hanns Kräly
Rudolf Stratz
production Emil Jannings for Emil Jannings-Film GmbH, Berlin,
Paul Davidson (overall management)
camera Alfred Hansen
Ludwig Lippert
occupation

Anything for money is a German silent film -Zeitdrama from the year 1923. Directed by Reinhold Schünzel played Emil Jannings the lead role.

action

The First World War has been over for a few years. From him the once small butcher master Rupp emerged as the winner, because he knew how to use the time of upheaval for himself and worked his way up to a large industrialist. Rupp is a rough, shirt-sleeved power guy, but he hasn't forgotten the plight of others. For example, he uses his donations to finance a soup kitchen for the needy. He himself lives a life in abundance, has a number of submissive spirits at home and pampers his son by financing his hobby, motor racing. The world of upstarts and system profiteers in the form of Rupps are now facing impoverished aristocrats who had enjoyed all social advantages until 1918. One of them is the handsome and well-mannered Henry von Platen, who financially keeps his inventions afloat. He is engaged to young Asta, who also has a lot of worries at home: her old mother is sick, and the younger siblings also need to be looked after. Henry earns extra income every evening as an electrician in a vaudeville theater where old, uncouth Rupp often goes. When Rupp, who believes that you can have anything for money, once again behaves like a classic parvenu and harasses a young dancer with his bad behavior, Henry intervenes immediately. Rupp is a popular guest, as he leaves a lot of money back with every visit. So it happens as it has to: Henry has to pay for his courageous intervention by losing his job, because the vaudeville manager dismisses him.

Now Henry and Asta are in dire financial straits. Asta then wants to sell the family jewelry on behalf of her mother, but the jeweler she consulted is not willing to pay a reasonable price. Rupp, who gets wind of it, sees an opportunity to settle his "outstanding bill" with the noble Henry in this way, in order to relax him Asta in the long term. And so the climber pretends to be interested in the jewelry and invites Asta to his home. There he ensnares the young lady and also buys the jewelery from her. This seems to secure the supply of Asta's family for the foreseeable future; only Henry is outraged when he learns who is responsible for the "new wealth" and breaks off the engagement. One day the money received is used up and, to make matters worse, Asta's mother's illness worsens. Asta, rewarded by Rupp with a letter of love, decides to go back to the uncouth millionaire. In order to ensure her family's long-term survival, she finally even agrees to become engaged to Rupp. Meanwhile, her ex-boyfriend Henry is initially downhill. The hoped-for sale of an invention to the Goliath automobile works has failed. But then he can sell his patent to the competing Phoenix car plants.

Soon there is another encounter between Rupps and Henry of the unpleasant kind. Henry is currently taking a test drive to test his invention on an automobile. He crosses Rupp's path. There is a massive battle of words. The honor is to be satisfied with a pistol duel the following morning. During the night, old Rupp is haunted by nightmares. The valet Pitt advises his master to avoid this duel and to break away beforehand. But Henry and his second have suspected that Rupp is rich but completely without honor and conscience and positioned themselves in front of Rupp's front door early on. Now Rupp can no longer avoid the duel. The exchange of fire is to take place in a forest clearing. Rupp wants to leave at the last moment, while his son, instead of his father, wants to fight a duel with Henry. Rupp senior returns and prevents this. He doesn't want to lose his son under any circumstances. The duel does not take place ...

Back home, Fred Rupp tells Asta, his future stepmother, about the prevented duel with Henry. He notices that Asta apparently still has deep feelings for her former fiancé. He therefore asks Asta not to marry his father, since under these circumstances there could be no blessing about this marriage. Father Rupp suddenly enters and misunderstands this situation, since he now believes that his own son wants to relax the bride for him. Thereupon the old Rupp throws the junior out of his house. For the first time, Fred has to earn his living by doing his own work. He finds a job at the Goliath automobile works, while his father appropriates the Phoenix works. Fred's skill as a racing driver suits the Goliath factories very well, and their vehicles are favorites for an upcoming race. Old Rupp doesn't want to be defeated by his own flesh and blood and smears a crook named Jack to manipulate the race. Rupp learns too late that Fred will be driving the Goliath car. He tries in vain to stop the race. Fred's racing car crashes in a corner and the junior is killed. A world is collapsing for old Rupp. He is charged with murder. During the trial, valet Pitt testifies that he recognizes the man in the courtroom with whom Rupp spoke to during the race: it is Jack. He has manipulated the vehicle so that old Rupp is acquitted of the murder charge. Finally there is even a reconciliation with Henry and Asta, who have both found each other again.

Production notes

Alles für Geld was made in the early summer of 1923 as the only production by Janning's own film company, which made this film under the patronage of the experienced film producer Paul Davidson in the studios of his European Film Alliance GmbH (EFA). The six-act act with a length of 2821 meters passed the film censorship on August 21, 1923 and was premiered on November 5, 1923 in the UT Kurfürstendamm.

The film structures come from the hand of Kurt Richter .

For Ernst Lubitsch's former Berlin author Hanns Kräly , Alles für Geld meant the last German script contribution. He followed his director to the USA on July 20, 1923, before the premiere of this film. Both continued their successful collaboration in Hollywood until the end of the silent film era.

Reviews

The criticism was full of praise for the work and primarily dealt with the acting performance of Emil Jannings. It was said to him:

He was " brutal, cunning, ostentatious, childlike, voluptuous, son-loving, tragic, furious, in love, collapsing, petty-bourgeois, megalomaniac, but with a dash of benevolence; in short: the over-Raffke ."

"This shark, portrayed with the crudest naturalism, does not only become sympathetic when we last see how it suffers and regrets, but we feel these human possibilities in it from the start, even in the scenes where it cuts off its victims 'necks. At Jannings' it is the eternally childlike thing that secures our sympathy over all horrors. "

The film courier recommended succinctly: " Go there and see: this is the film of our time ."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 53.
  2. ↑ Kurt Pinthus in Das Tage-Buch , 1923
  3. ↑ Béla Balázs in: The day of November 14, 1923
  4. ↑ The Film Courier of November 6, 1923

Web links