Old Heidelberg (1954)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Old Heidelberg |
| Original title | The Student Prince |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Thorpe |
| script |
Sonya Levien , William Ludwig |
| production |
Joe Pasternak for MGM |
| music | Sigmund Romberg |
| camera | Paul C. Vogel |
| cut | Gene Ruggiero |
| occupation | |
| |
Alt Heidelberg is an American musical film from 1954 directed by Richard Thorpe . It is a film adaptation of the operetta The Student Prince by Sigmund Romberg , the plot of which is based on the German play Alt-Heidelberg (1901) by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster .
action
Germany around 1900: Prince Karl, who comes from a small kingdom in Germany, goes to Heidelberg to study with his teacher, the old Professor Jüttner . Due to the hard upbringing in his youth, Karl seems a bit stiff, which his fiancée - Princess Johanna - also complains about. After a while in Heidelberg, Karl was able to make many friends among the students; he also falls in love with Kathie, the beautiful and musically gifted barmaid in his inn. The beautiful time in Heidelberg ends bitterly when Karl's grandfather, the King of Karlsberg, dies unexpectedly. Now he has to take over the reign and marry his fiancée. Karl returns to Heidelberg one last time to say goodbye to Kathie.
background
The production of the film was extremely turbulent. Mario Lanza , one of the most famous singers in the world at the time, was originally supposed to take on the role of Karl. He recorded his songs even before production began. During the shooting, however, he fell out with the originally engaged director Curtis Bernhardt . Lanza had become overweight and never showed up on time for filming. Annoyed, he was fired by MGM after a few weeks, whereupon the shooting of the film paused for several months. Finally, in the summer of 1953, the relatively unknown actor Edmund Purdom from Great Britain was cast for the role of Karl. Curtis Bernhardt was replaced as director by Richard Thorpe . After some negotiations, MGM was able to prevail to use Lanza's existing vocal recordings in the film. In the finished film, Purdom sings with Lanza's voice.
The Hungarian character actor Szöke Szakall , known in the United States as SZ Sakall during his film career , played his last film role as innkeeper Rüder. MGM originally wanted to win the retired Deanna Durbin , a great musical film star of the 1940s, for a comeback in the role of Kathie. But Durbin refused, so that the role was eventually given to Ann Blyth.
The production design was designed by Randall Duell and Cedric Gibbons ; Arthur Krams and Edwin B. Willis worked on the set decorations ; the men's costumes came from Walter Plunkett , the women's from Helen Rose ; Warren Newcombe did the special effects; Douglas Shearer was responsible for the sound .
synchronization
The German dubbed version was created on the occasion of the German cinema premiere on May 27, 1955.
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Kathie | Ann Blyth | Renate Danz |
| Prince Karl | Edmund Purdom | Sebastian Fischer |
| King of Karlsberg | Louis Calhern | Siegfried Schürenberg |
| Joseph Rüder, Will | SZ Sakall | Alfred Balthoff |
| Valet Lutz | John Williams | Friedrich Joloff |
| Queen Mathilde | Evelyn Varden | Agnes Windeck |
reception
After its American premiere on July 15, 1954, Alt Heidelberg became a box office success and made a profit of 451,000 US dollars. To this day it has received mostly cautiously positive reviews. Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times that the film was "a happy and thoroughly unrestrained outpouring of synthetic German Schmaltz, as bubbly as a boiling maple syrup and as melodic as a packed Yorkville parlor". The Variety saw Old Heidelberg as "fresh, seductive musical".
Allmovie gave the film three and a half stars out of five, judging the film to be one of the "better contributions to the genre". Romberg's music and attractive film sets would convince, and most of the actors, for example Ann Blyth as Kathie and Edmund Gwenn as Professor Jüttner, would do their job well. Only Edmund Purdom's performance in the male lead is a bit too "bland and predictable". Unfortunately, the script does not go too deeply into characters and plot, but is overall "suitable".
The lexicon of international films wrote that Alt Heidelberg was a "soulful operetta" that adorns itself with the singing of Mario Lanza.
Web links
- Alt Heidelberg in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Alt Heidelberg Fig. Movie poster
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release Dates at Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Old Heidelberg. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on April 4, 2017 .
- ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ↑ The Student Prince at Turner Classic Movies ( cheerful and thoroughly uninhibited outpouring of synthetic German schmaltz, as bubbly as boiling maple syrup and as tuneful as a crowded Yorkville stube )
- ^ The Student Prince at Turner Classic Movies
- ↑ The Student Prince in the All Movie Guide (English)
- ↑ Old Heidelberg. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 4, 2017 .