The Don Cossack Song (1930)

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Movie
Original title The Don Cossack Song
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1930
Age rating FSK youth ban at the time
Rod
Director Georg Asagaroff
script Georg Asagaroff
production Victor Janowski
Eugen Kürschner for Memento-Film GmbH
music Artur Guttmann
camera Alexander by Lagorio
Curt Oertel
occupation

The Donkosakenlied (subtitle Lost Homeland ) is a German feature film based on the Russian folk song The Twelve Robbers . It was premiered as a silent film on January 14, 1930 in the Mozart Hall in Berlin, and had its premiere as a version with music added later on February 15, 1930. It was directed by Georg Asagaroff , Hans Adalbert Schlettow and Lien Deyers play the leading roles.

action

Viktor, the son of Prince Gagarin, becomes engaged to young Natascha, which Governor Malyutov, whose ward he is, does not like at all. So he does everything in his power to bring both of them apart. This ultimately leads to Viktor and Natascha fleeing and secretly marrying each other. Malyutov doesn't just want to accept that and follows the couple. After he has tracked down the young people, there are violent allegations that end in insults against the young prince, who answers this affront with a shot from his pistol, which leads to the death of Malyutov.

Gagarin's sentence is a lifelong banishment to Siberia. On the transport there, the prince managed to escape with the help of his loyal servant Mitjucha. So it happens that he joins a band of robbers, to whose captain he soon rises. He ignores the advances made by Lyuba, the mistress of the previous robber captain. His attempt to teach the gang members discipline and order, however, arouses increasing dissatisfaction among men.

Natascha, who worries about her husband, falls into the hands of the gang when she tries to find him. She is taken to their camp. There she suddenly stands across from Viktor. When the robbers start a rebellion against their leader, the knife that was intended for the prince hits Natascha, who throws herself protectively in front of him.

The death of his beloved wife is such a severe blow for the prince that he loses all courage to face life and retreats to the seclusion of a monastery.

Production notes

Jacek Rotmil was responsible for the buildings and Leopold Verch for the costumes. The shooting took place in the Jofa studios and in Plau in Mecklenburg . The shooting time was in the months of August and September 1929. The film was initially called “2. German-Russian joint film with Emma Zessarskaja in a leading role ”was announced by Derussa.

Image and sound recordings of the Don Cossack Choir were added to the silent film. Lignose-Breusing , Nadelton, was responsible for the sound recordings , while Mois Safra was responsible for the music, singing and noises, i.e. the technical sound management. The song sounds in the film: Do you still think of me, my dear little girl ...

The film was also shot with a second ending, which does not end with Natascha's death, but with Natascha and Viktor Gagarin going to another country in order to be happy there.

reception

Censorship review and publication

The film was subjected to a review on October 30, 1929 and approved in a censorship test on January 8, 1930, after it had been partially banned on December 17, 1929 under B. 18390. Individual scenes were forbidden, such as the one where a knife is visible in the opponent's fist of someone lying on the ground. Only the close-up of the hands wrestling for possession of the knife was allowed to be shown. The scene showing Lyubka sticking the knife in the back of the robber captain kneeling on his opponent was also deleted. In the 7th act of the silent film, the sentence: "Put an end to him" had to be deleted. The scene in which the knife handle stuck in Natascha's chest is visible was also not allowed. It is only allowed to show how Basmanoff throws the knife.

The film was released in Estonia on February 1, 1930, in Finland on February 21, 1930 and in Hungary on May 6, 1930. The film was first seen in Sweden on June 22, 1931. It was also published in Greece and Austria, where it was published under the title The twelve robbers resp. Twelve robbers ran.

criticism

The Berliner Tageblatt was irritated and criticized: “The film begins with such an introduction: five minutes of the Don Cossack Choir in the same setting. Strangely soft tones penetrate from a great distance. […] This is not film, this is an illustrated gramophone record. ”In the end it was said:“ Let's stick to what is to be praised: some good moments from Schlettow, Hertha von Walthers and Fritz Kampers, the excellent Kowal- Samborski, who lovingly plays himself in the foreground in an accompanying role and finally to the versatile photography of A. von Lagorio and C. Oertel. They then led to considerable applause for the premiere. "

Alfréd Keményi tanned the film in the communist party newspaper Die Rote Fahne . He wrote: “A romantically mendacious 'song' from the good prince. The prince loves a girl, becomes a murderer for her sake, is put in prison for her sake, becomes a robber and chief of a band of robbers until the beloved girl dies and the film ends with a very quiet tragedy. " to awaken the princes. The tastiest film opera between Faribari and 'Troubador'. The director Georg Asagarof tries to use the formal means of Soviet Russian film to steal cheap effects. But he lacks the idea. The film belongs on the dung heap like princes. "

Frank Maraun (actually Erwin Goelz) found for the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung that the Don Cossack Choir gave this sound film “the formal framework and the success”. It was also said that the film differs "from the previous, silent provincial tears at most in the fact that the subsequently synchronized accompanying music is interrupted by a few superfluous background noises". Acoustically, the film is “quite contestable”, but worse is “the question of the overall artistic level of this Gypsy story”. Asagaroff is described as one of the “most overrated directors' appearances in German film”, the film as a mediocre attempt to emulate Russian films, which again proves “its lack of originality”. Only the scene of the gypsy dance in the forest was praised.

In the magazine Der Film, Kurt London mainly commented on the sound film version, which still had far too many shortcomings and warned: "It can't be done that way, it mustn't be continued unless every reasonable person is supposed to make fun of the sound film."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Gero Gandert: The film of the Weimar Republic 1929 A manual of contemporary criticism. Published by Gero Gandert, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1993, Film 39, pp. 120–123, ISBN 3-11-011183-7 on behalf of the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation
  2. ↑ a b Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1929 and 1930, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, 1st edition 1988, 2nd revised edition 1990, p. 26, film N6 / 1930, ISBN 3-926945-10- 9
  3. ↑ The Donkosakenlied (Mozart Hall). In: Berliner Tageblatt, No. 28, January 17, 1930, Berliner Stadtblatt
  4. ↑ Weißgardistischer Dreck / Donkosakenlied , Mozart Hall. In: Die Rote Fahne, Berlin, No. 14, January 17, 1930.
  5. ↑ Sound film jumble / The Donkosakenlied . In: Monday Morning, Berlin, No. 3, January 20, 1930 (collective review)
  6. ↑ Das Donkosakenlied In: Der Film, Berlin, No. 3, January 18, 1930.