Blood Revenge (1941)

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Movie
German title Blood revenge
Original title The Corsican Brothers
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 111 minutes
Rod
Director Gregory Ratoff
script George Bruce
Howard Estabrook (adaptation)
production Edward Small
for United Artists
music Dimitri Tiomkin
camera Harry Stradling Sr.
cut William F. Claxton
Grant Whytock
occupation

Blood revenge (Original title: The Corsican Brothers ) is an American adventure film from 1941 by director Gregory Ratoff , in which Douglas Fairbanks junior plays the double role of the Corsican twins Mario and Lucien Franchi. The other leading roles are with Ruth Warrick as Countess Isabelle Gravini, with whom both brothers fall in love, and Akim Tamiroff as the power-hungry, brutal Baron Colonna.

The screenplay is based on a free adaptation of the novel Les frères Corses ( Ger . The Corsican Brothers ) by the French writer Alexandre Dumas the Elder . Ä. , first published in Brussels in 1841.

action

Count Victor Franchi is the head of the most prestigious family in Corsica . He is particularly happy that day because his wife is in labor and he is looking forward to the long-awaited family owner. On this occasion, almost all family members are gathered on his property. How could he suspect that his bitter adversary, the power-hungry, brutal Baron Colonna has gathered his clan around him and sees a good opportunity to exterminate all franchis in one fell swoop. With the help of Dr. Enrico Paoli, one of the franchis' circle of friends, gives birth to the Countess Siamese twins . Just as the doctor is discussing the risks of separating the twins with Victor Franchi, as urgently requested by the father, Colonna and his accomplices attack the castle and its occupants and slaughter the entire family, who, completely unsuspecting, are barely able to resist . At the end of this unfortunate act, the castle is burned down.

Only Dr. Paoli manages to escape with the twins, with Lorenzo, a servant of the Franchi family, helping him. Dr. Paoli first hides the children with old friends of the franchis, the French couple Dupré, who are currently on the island. Paoli decides to operate on the twins, and the separation actually succeeds. In order not to expose the children to renewed danger, it is decided to let them grow up separately so that Colonna believes that they too have fallen victim to the conflagration. Mario is adopted by the wealthy Duprés and taken to Paris, while his twin brother Lucien stays with Lorenzo, who raises him completely free in the wilderness of the Corsican mountains.

Although the twins don't know about each other, the older Lucien gets, the more he has to deal with strange emotions and inexplicable pain. When he is twenty it looks like he is going to be the leader of a gang of bandits, while Mario, who grew up completely contrary, has grown into an educated young man from the best of families. One evening during a visit to the opera, he met the young Countess Isabelle Gravini and fell in love with her, whose home is Corsica. A little later, when he protects her from the unwanted advances of a marquis and is involved in a painful duel, Lucien feels the pain inflicted on his brother, who he knows nothing about, as if it had been inflicted on him.

On her 21st birthday, Dr. Paoli to reunite the twins and to enlighten them about the tragic story behind their separation. At the ruins of the former headquarters of the franchis, he tells them about the cruel fate of their parents and other relatives. The brothers swear at their grave that they will not rest until they have repaid Colonna for what he did to their family.

Colonna is now the absolute ruler of Corsica. When in the following time members of his clan fell victim to a mysterious young leader of a bandit gang, he reacts increasingly worried, especially since this young leader is seen in different places at the same time. However, these problems cannot stop him from holding the hand of Isabelle Gravini, who has since returned to her homeland from Paris. However, Isabelle's father doesn't want Colonna to marry his daughter and pays for it with his life. Colonna thinks that she will reach his goal faster if Isabelle is left without male protection. As soon as Mario found out what happened, he is there and takes Isabelle with him into the mountains and to safety. However, Lucien also falls in love with the beautiful young woman, which has an impact on the fraternal relationship. Lucien complains to Dr. Paoli, and that he felt like he was just a reflection of his brother. Shortly afterwards, the doctor is gripped by Colonna and his cousin Tomasso, who want their suspicion confirmed that the Franchi twins are still alive.

When Lucien confesses his love to Isabelle the next day and presses her, she decides to leave both brothers. When she escapes, however, she falls into Colonna's hands again. When Mario wanted to free her a second time - informed by a carrier pigeon from Colonna - he was caught by Colonna's henchmen and in the presence of Dr. Paolis tortured by Colonna and Tomasso. One wants to elicit the whereabouts of his twin brother from him. The doctor manages to put Mario into a death-like state by means of a poison during a faint, in order to protect him from being tortured to death. Lucien, who has felt his brother's pain, goes to Colonna with his allies. But before he can kill him, he is critically injured by a devious shot in the back. Colonna is already certain to have eliminated the last descendants of the franchis when Mario appears out of nowhere and kills the cruel enforcer of his family in a duel. He then quickly turns to his dying brother and the two make up before Lucien closes his eyes forever. A hopefully happier future with Isabelle lies ahead of Mario.

Production and Background

The film industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter reported that potential filming locations in Santa Catalina and near San Diego were scouted but were no longer available after military operations in San Clemente . The film was shot from late July to early September 1941.

In the opening credits to the film, Corsica is referred to as the country over which lies the gloomy shadow of the vendetta that has haunted the country and which contains the terrible law, life for life and never-ending vengeance between warring families. According to the Hollywood Reporter , the producer Edward Small is said to have originally negotiated with 20th Century Fox that Fritz Lang would be loaned to him for the film, it was also reported that Louis Hayward was booked as a star, and Albert Dekker was also said to be involved who was under contract with Paramount Pictures .

Richard Harland Smith noted that since Cain and Abel , the rivalry between two brothers had been a popular storytelling theme and the standard in literature: Romulus and Remus ; The prince and the beggar boy ; Biff and Happy Lohman , the Krays . Even in the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, the two souls slumbering in a person's breast are dealt with. Dumas' work is less valid than his long-lived works The Count of Monte Christo and The Three Musketeers , but it has already been adapted ten times for the screen, with the version by Gregory Ratoff with Douglas Fairbanks junior being the one to be followed remember most.

For his fencing scenes, Fairbanks had a trainer who also made sure that the actor acted differently in his dual role. A lot of work was done with double exposure and rear projection. Ruth Warrick, Fairbank's partner in the film on loan from RKO Pictures , and Fairbanks got along well outside of the filming scene. Fairbanks said after the film was over that working with Warrick had been great fun, even though he had high fever several times during the filming.

Cinema release and other films

The film had its world premiere in Washington, DC on December 18, 1941 , then opened ten days later, on November 28, 1941, in general cinemas in the United States, and was re-opened on January 15, 1942 in Los Angeles . On June 21, 1947, it was shown again in US cinemas. In the Federal Republic of Germany it came to the cinema on June 1, 1948 under the title Blood Revenge; when the film was later released on video, it was titled: The Corsican Brothers . In Austria it ran both under the title The Corsican Brothers and under the title Vendetta . It was published there on September 10, 1948.

  • Mexico: February 20, 1942 under the title Los hermanos corsos
  • Australia: May 28, 1942 under the English OT The Corsican Brothers
  • Uruguay: June 17, 1942 under the title Los hermanos Corsos
  • Sweden: October 5, 1942 and revived March 9, 1959 under the title De korsikanska bröderna
  • Portugal: January 12, 1943 under the title O Fatasma da Córsega
  • France: October 9, 1946 under the title Vendetta
  • Japan: October 12, 1947
  • Denmark: November 29, 1948 under the title De korsikanske brødre
  • Italy: March 3, 1949 under the title I vendicatori
  • Hong Kong: June 9, 1949
  • Finland: April 7, 1950 under the title Corsican veljekset
  • Brazil under the title Os Irmãos Corsos
  • Spain under the title Justicia corsa
  • Greece under the titles Adelfoi Korsikanoi and Korzikai testvérek

Further film adaptations based on the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas the Elder. Ä. are based:

criticism

Theodore Strauss of the New York Times criticized the fact that the script produced dialogues that could have arisen from the Rococo , so thickly and so are the performances. This led to the conclusion: "Although the film has the comfortable old-fashioned look of a 1910 sofa, most of its coil suspension is broken."

Variety was referring to the foreword in the film, warning the audience that this was an incredible story, which the film proves. George Bruce's script, based on a free adaptation by Howard Estabrook, is well suited to underpin the action scenes, but the dialogues and the story are rather unmotivated.

Dennis Schwartz also found in a review written much later that the film was good in terms of the action scenes, but the dialog-heavy part was rather bad. Even the minimal budget that was available for the film leaves its mark and is detrimental to the film.

Kino.de found: “A coat-and-sword adventure at its best with excellent special effects based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas. Colored black and white film. "

For the lexicon of international film, it was a "strikingly staged costume adventure". Cinefact's conclusion was: "Great coat-and-epee film with hot fencing duels."

Award

Dimitri Tiomkin was nominated with the film at the Academy Awards in 1943 for an Oscar in the category “Best Film Music” , but Max Steiner and the literary adaptation Reise aus der Past had to admit defeat.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d The Corsican Brothers Notes at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  2. ↑ The Corsican Brothers script info at TCM (English)
  3. ↑ a b The Corsican Brothers Original Print Infos at TCM (English)
  4. ↑ a b The Corsican Brothers Articles at TCM (English)
  5. ↑ TS: The Corsican Brothers (1941) The Corsican Brothers, 'With Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Playing Double Title Role, From the Novel by Dumas at Capitol' In: The New York Times . January 16, 1942 (English). Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  6. ↑ Review: 'The Corsican Brothers' In: Variety, Dec. 1940/1941. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  7. ↑ Dennis Schwartz: The Corsican Brothers - Good on the action part and bad on the dialogue part. at Ozus World Movie Reviews (English), homepages.sover.net
  8. ^ Blood feud at kino.de, accessed on January 26, 2016.
  9. ↑ Blood revenge. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  10. ↑ Blood feud at cinefacts.de, accessed on January 26, 2016.