At World's End (1947)

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Movie
Original title At the end of the world
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1947
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Gustav Ucicky
script Gerhard Menzel
production Vienna film
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Günther Anders
cut Henny Brünsch
occupation

At the End of the World is a German melodrama from the years 1943/44 by Gustav Ucicky with Brigitte Horney and Attila Hörbiger in the leading roles.

action

At the end of the world, as the film title suggests, in the middle of the forest - there is the sawmill of Bell, who has died 20 years ago, which his manager, the gnarled, earthy Michael March, conscientiously and in the spirit of the former owner runs. The company heiress, Roberta Bell, has not been seen here since then, so March is all the more astonished when one day he finds her lying on his bed in his room. The singer wants to open her own cabaret in the big city, and for that she needs a fair amount of money. Roberta demands that March should divert a total of 50,000 marks from the company for her unsound project. But he makes it clear to her that he could not possibly withdraw so much money from the already burdened company without ruining it for good. However, Roberta insists on the payment and suggests that March fell the trees on the Lorenzberg in order to raise the money he needs. This suggestion makes Michael blush with anger, because firstly, March sees himself as an ecologist who does not simply cut down trees, and secondly, the trees are more than 40 years old and are therefore protected.

Roberta takes March into town and appoints him as sawmill director. In doing so, she follows the whisperings of her financial advisor, the sly Jewish bank director Grabowski. This man persuades March to pledge the already financially burdened trees of the Bell Forest so that Roberta can get her money. But this is a criminal offense and leads to the unsuspecting, good-natured Thomas going straight to prison. Roberta is shocked that Grabowski has betrayed her and thus put March, who is something she is starting to worry about, behind bars. Now she sings in her cabaret evening after evening in order to collect the sum for which March was convicted. After all, the sawmill owner can even obtain March's freedom in an appeal procedure. The nature-loving, naive forest boy is meanwhile deeply disappointed by the wickedness of the people and is emotionally marked. He walks past Roberta without a word as she waits for him in front of the prison and returns to his familiar surroundings, the forest in the end of the world. Roberta does not give up, but from now on he punishes his boss with an iron silence and disregard. Only when Roberta breaks down crying because of it does Michael March realize what this woman means to him. He runs back to her and takes Roberta tightly in his arms. Now both can begin a future together.

Production notes

Filming of At the End of the World began on February 28, 1943 and dragged on until mid-June of that year. The film was shot in Bergreichenstein (sawmill recordings), Unterreichenstein, Hochreuth and Hammern-Eisenstraß (train station recordings), Malmeritz near Brno, on the Spielberg, in Vienna (regional court recordings) and in Mayerling.

Towards the end of 1943, the Reich German film censors issued a provisional performance ban, which was confirmed several times in the following year, 1944, despite a number of post-shoots that changed the course of action to prevent a ban, and was declared final on August 10, 1944. The reasons for this are not entirely clear; the Ministry of Propaganda may find some passages of the material too gloomy or the basic tendency of the story too pessimistic. The premiere of the film was delayed until the post-war period, when the film was shown for the first time on July 4, 1947 in Vienna. The heiress of the forests has now been introduced as a secondary title . The German premiere took place in Heidelberg on March 9, 1951, in Berlin you could see Am Ende der Welt for the first time on April 24, 1951.

Heinz-Joachim Ewert took over the production management, Werner Schlichting and Fritz Jüptner-Jonstorff designed the film structures. Hill Reihs-Gromes was responsible for the costumes. Herbert Janeczka set the tone.

The fact that this film was originally conceived by the film state as an important large-scale production is shown by the high fees (by the standards of the time) that were paid even to those who did not act in front of the camera. As a result, screenwriter Gerhard Menzel received 40,000 RM and composer Willy Schmidt-Gentner 17,500 RM. Both were thus further above the average fee. The Polish actor Gottlieb Sambor , who had been forced to collaborate with National Socialist film since 1941 , and who had to take on a negative role again in the portrayal of a Jewish banker, still received a daily fee of RM 500.

Three songs were played:

  • “At the end of the world” ( Mimi Thoma sang for Brigitte Horney).
  • “A woman like me” ( Trude Hesterberg sang ).
  • “I know a song from the old days” (Mimi Thoma sang for Brigitte Horney).

Reception and reviews

In film.at it says: “The film was banned. The protagonists were too problematic: Michael is a stubborn individualist who makes mistakes and draws the consequences. Roberta fights for her dream, with unfair means, but she always remains sympathetic. The banker is mean, but renounces with dignity. Lots of characters who are insecure and insecure themselves, mirrors of a time when the "total war" was already raging, a time when the subject of urban exodus had acquired a new dimension and was no longer to be interpreted as a reactionary criticism of civilization. After the end of the war, the anti-Semitic abuses were erased and the film was released. "

In the lexicon of the international film it says: "Colportage vehicle for the presentation of the Diseuse Trude Hesterberg."

Another criticism summed up: “Read the photography, confuse the plot. This film, shot in 1943, was banned, changed and probably made worse. The place and time of the action are not named, Horney and Hörbiger hardly have suitable roles for them and the event is implausible. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Follow-up photographs were taken between January 20 and February 1, 1944 and on May 5, 1944 in Mayerling
  2. ^ Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films 13th year 1944/45. P. 21 (003.44), Berlin 2002
  3. ^ Boguslaw Drewniak: The German Film 1938-1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 164
  4. ↑ ibid., P. 483
  5. ↑ ibid.
  6. ↑ Short review on film.at
  7. ↑ At the end of the world. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Brief review on filmdatenbank-knorr.de

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