Then (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Back then |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1943 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rolf Hansen |
| script |
Peter Groll , Rolf Hansen |
| production | Ufa-Filmkunst GmbH |
| music |
Lothar Brühne , Ralph Benatzky |
| camera | Franz Weihmayr |
| cut | Anna Höllering |
| occupation | |
| |
Back then is a German drama and a crime film by director Rolf Hansen . The main role in the black and white film shot in 1942 was played by Zarah Leander , who was last involved in a Ufa production here. The premiere took place on March 3, 1943 in the Capitol am Zoo and in the Ufa-Theater in Turmstrasse in Berlin .
content
A woman hastily leaves a room in the Delfino hotel in a South American city and disappears into the darkness of the night. The next morning the hotel staff found the body of a certain Franc Douglas in this room. A short time later the police arrested the doctor Dr. Gloria O'Connor as a suspect. The Mendoza public prosecutor found that a woman with this name died in a quarantine station three years ago. But the suspect refuses to give any statement to him or to the defense attorney Alvarez. When the press published a photo of the woman, the case caused a worldwide stir.
In Lübeck the lawyer Jan Meiners is confronted with the past when he sees the picture in the newspaper. The stranger is his divorced wife Vera. Meiners is determined to travel to South America to bring their daughter Eva to live with him. But medical councilor Petersen, a former friend of Meiners', first reminds him of the events at that time as they actually happened: The successful lawyer Jan Meiners was happily married to the former medical student Vera. However, Jan did not know anything about her former lover Franc Douglas, with whom Vera met for a final discussion in Hamburg . In order not to arouse suspicion, Vera had told her husband to go to her mother in Copenhagen . Since the train from Copenhagen derailed, Vera's dizziness was discovered and Jan divorced his wife.
Prosecutor Mendoza now knows through a letter from Sanitary Councilor Petersen that the suspect is Vera Meiners and that she was connected to the murdered man. Nevertheless, Vera remains silent. Meanwhile, the surgeon Dr. Lugeon the photo of Vera, with whom he worked in Lausanne after their divorce . There, despite the professor's express prohibition, the prospective doctor initiated the operation on a sick girl. Although the child was saved by the operation, Vera was dismissed without notice and the diploma revoked.
Meanwhile, Vera confides some details of her past to defense attorney Alvarez. And the racing cyclist Pablo, who is confronted with her photo, remembers his experiences with the suspect: To finance her existence and her child's boarding school, after her release, penniless Vera worked as a singer in a Spanish nightclub. A tender romance had developed between her and Pablo, who was there as a clown. Then, completely unexpectedly, Vera's former lover, Franc Douglas, showed up to find her a promising position as a nurse on an expedition. Vera, who considered her daughter's future to be more important than her own happiness with Pablo, finally set off with her child for South America.
Vera continues to hide important details from her defense lawyer and the public prosecutor. Meanwhile, the hairdresser Corbeau is also reading the newspaper article with Vera's photo. Both once traveled to South America on the same ship and then spent several weeks in the quarantine station of the immigration authorities. There did Vera acquaintance with the on typhoid ill and eventually died physician Dr. Gloria O'Connor, whose identity Vera eventually assumed. In the following six years Vera built a practice under this name and thus a new existence.
Vera denies having had any contact with the murdered Franc Douglas since entering the country. Vera's divorced husband, Jan, appears in jail after the prosecutor files charges of murder. Vera reproaches him seriously and does not reveal where their daughter Eva is. Defender Alvarez cannot tell Jan where the child is currently either. When Jan Meiners reads the investigation files, he becomes aware of the difficult fate that his former wife had to endure since the separation. For the first time he realizes that he had left the selfless Vera out of blind jealousy.
With the help of his colleague Alvarez, Jan Meiners can track down the whereabouts of his now grown daughter. Only when he goes to see her there is Eva informed that her mother is in prison. At first, however, she does not find out that the lawyer is her father. She reports that she was in town with her mother on the day of the murder. There they were invited to the theater by Franc Douglas, with whom Vera was still in sporadic contact. Vera was called to a patient during the performance. Eva and Douglas then waited for Vera in the hotel bar. Eva says that Douglas was suddenly very excited when the band performed there. Then both went to Douglas' hotel room, where she heard the fatal shots at Douglas from an adjoining room. Eva had hurried out of the hotel in a panic. Her mother, to whom she then told about the murder, went to the hotel that night to fetch her daughter's handbag that had been forgotten there.
Jan Meiners is now determined to find the real killer of Franc Douglas. He asks the head of the band in the hotel bar about each individual musician. When he learns that the bassist's daughter once took her own life after she was abandoned by an unscrupulous lover, he thinks of Douglas. Mine and defense attorney Alvarez succeeds in persuading the public prosecutor Mendoza to come into the hotel bar. They discuss the possibility that the bassist recognized in Franc Douglas the person who once cheated on his daughter and murdered him when he saw him again with a young lady. When Mendoza takes a closer look at the bass player, he feels convicted. He shoots himself on the open stage.
The day before Vera's release from prison, Jan Meiners tells his daughter who he really is. Although he promises to make everything right, she turns away from him. It wasn't until they were both waiting for Vera in front of the prison the next day that Eva fell into her father's arms.
History of origin
Pre-production
Swedish actress Zarah Leander was at the height of her film career in 1942. The film The Great Love , which premiered on June 12, 1942, developed into one of the most successful films during the National Socialist era . In the same year, for the third time in a row under the direction of Rolf Hansen , the shooting of her next film should begin. Peter Groll and the director wrote the script based on an idea from Bert Roth. It offered an exciting and varied plot as well as numerous scenes in which Leander was able to develop her famous pathos of suffering .
production
Shooting began in the studio on August 17, 1942, and was continued with outdoor shots from mid-October. The shoot was completed in November, again with studio recordings. The interior shots took place in the Froelich studio in Berlin-Tempelhof and in the Ufastadt Babelsberg . The outdoor shots were filmed in Rome , including at Campo de 'Fiori .
In addition to Leander, numerous well-known actors took part in the film, including their already proven film partners Hans Stüwe and Karl Martell . The Italian actor Rossano Brazzi played here for the first time in an international production. Paul Klinger gave him the German dubbing voice .
The film was produced by the production group Walter Bolz of Ufa-Filmkunst GmbH . The buildings were designed by the film architect Walter Haag . Gerhard Huttula was responsible for the special effects , including a collision of two steam locomotive models .
While filming was still going on, Zarah Leander decided to temporarily end her film career due to the consequences of the Second World War . After her last day of shooting on November 10, 1942, she returned to her Lönö manor in Sweden . She traveled to Berlin for the last time before the end of the war for the world premiere of Back then on March 3, 1943 . After the end of the celebrations, a wing of her bungalow in Berlin-Grunewald burned after it was hit by an incendiary bomb. Zarah Leander, who believed she could stay out of politics, was confronted with the real war reality for the first time.
music
The soundtrack comes from the pen of Lothar Brühne , who also composed the songs performed by Zarah Leander in the film One like you I could love and Every night a new happiness (Text: Bruno Balz ). The actress took up both titles on April 14, 1943 with an orchestra under the direction of Einar Groth in Stockholm for the record release ( Odeon O-4645). It was Zarah Leander's penultimate German-language record before the end of the Second World War.
Ralph Benatzky contributed the music and text of the Zarah Leander chanson, Please to the Night , which can also be heard in the film . However, this title did not appear on record.
reception
Like most Zarah Leander films also reached that time an audience of millions. Aside from the box office success the film had during its premiere in 1943 and re- screenings in the 1950s, the film received very high ratings when it was broadcast on television . During the ZDF broadcast in January 1979, around 14.72 million viewers (41% market share) saw it.
Reviews
"If you ignore the clichés (hard-hearted professor, extremely brave doctor and mother), the film is still capable of captivating a good 30 years after its premiere."
"Pathetic Ufa melodrama in which the otherwise unreliable Zarah Leander has the opportunity to let her unmistakable charisma affect the audience with a few chansons."
See also
Web links
- At that time in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Back then at filmportal.de
- At that time ( memento from December 29, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) at deutscher-tonfilm.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ 94 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 90 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2578 meters
- ↑ Paul Seiler: Biography of Zarah Leander in the CD box Can love be a sin , Bear Family Records BCD 16 016, 1997
- ↑ Jürgen Brückner, Rainer E. Lotz , Manfred Weihermüller, Richard Weize : Discography Zarah Leander in the CD box Can love be a sin , Bear Family Records BCD 16 016, 1997
- ^ A b filmography by Zarah Leander at zarahleander.de
- ↑ Back then. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .