The village under the sky

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Movie
Original title The village under the sky
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1953
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Richard Häussler
script Gerhard Biller
Siegfried Breuer
production Interlux-Film GmbH, Munich
music Bernhard Eichhorn
camera Ernst W. Kalinke
cut Max Michel
occupation

The village under the sky , reference title Never again leave me alone , is a German Heimatfilm from 1953 directed by Richard Häussler . The script is based on the novella Der Jauck by Rolf Olsen . Robert Freytag plays a judge who, while on vacation in a mountain village, falls in love with a young woman played by Inge Egger , whose husband was violently killed. The clarification of the case, however, reveals a different result than he suspected.

action

The judge Dr. Michael Ellert is on vacation in a small town in the high mountains. He stays in the village inn and asks the landlord Vincenz what the gravestone of Mathias Firner is all about, on which he read the inscription “died by the hand of a murderer”. Vincenz tells him that Mathias was a scoundrel, a poacher , and that his death was never finally resolved. The dark-haired woman he saw at the grave was Maria, his widow.

Vincenz is married to the much younger, fun-loving Anja, who, however, betrays him and has fun with other men behind his back. However, your attempt to seduce Michael also fails. When the lawyer is out in town, he helps a small dog, which then joins him and is called by him "Struppl". Michael happens to witness a conversation between three men who are obviously poachers and so he wonders. During a walk on the other day he meets Maria Firner in front of her house and begins to be interested in her case. However, Maria does not want him to reopen the case and tells him that it is better to leave everything as it is, that there is no point in re-agitating the matter.

Anja grudges Maria Michael's interest. Despite cheating on Vincenz with the smuggler Lois, she still hopes that she can get the judge to take her with him when he leaves. However, the lawyer only has eyes for Maria and the two are growing closer. When Michael confesses his love to the young woman, she reacts cautiously out of fear. She only hesitantly tries to believe that joy and happiness could come to her too.

Michael has now met Beppo, who is decried as a village jester, who wants him to leave Maria alone. The lawyer then speaks to the local pastor Randlmann, whom Maria had already confided in, so that he knows about the love between the two. The pastor tells Michael that Maria is still suffering from what happened back then and that she lives very withdrawn because she was treated badly and totally intimidated by her husband. Randlmann is delighted to note Michael's news that he wants to marry Maria. If anyone in the village knows a little more about the Firner case than the others, it is the old herbalist Luccia, he replies to Michael's corresponding question. In a conversation, Luccia asserts that she killed Mathias with her curses. He had her daughter and her child on his conscience. She killed herself and the child because of him. And then he made Maria unhappy and one day he was dead. Whoever did it did it for her. Even a renewed pleading by Mary to let the case rest does not stop Michael from pursuing his plan, as he is convinced that the unsolved question of guilt stands in the way of a marriage to Mary.

Shortly afterwards, Michael and Toni climbs into the snow-covered mountains as a mountain guide, where he wants to take a look around the “Scharfen Horn”, the smugglers' hideout. At the same time Anja seeks Maria and lets her know that Lois could get very uncomfortable if the doctor kept sticking his nose into the case and something could happen to him quickly. She promises Maria to withdraw from Michael if in return she ensures that Lois won't harm him. When Toni, who also belongs to Lois 'smugglers' gang, notices which destination Michael is heading for, he chooses a path on which Michael slips and falls a few meters while trying to overcome a crevasse . There he leaves him to his fate without realizing that Beppo has followed them. He now runs the fastest way to Maria and together they go to the scene of the accident. At the same time Toni tells the village that the doctor must have crashed because he suddenly disappeared. Shortly afterwards he discusses with his cronies and agrees with them that you couldn't have waited to find out about them. When the men of the village put together a search party, they naturally choose Toni as their guide. However, this leads them to a completely different place, so that they have to give up without having achieved anything. Maria, however, with Beppo's help, manages to rescue Michael with great effort and to bring him into her house. A little stronger again, Michael says that Lois wanted Toni to put him aside so that he wouldn't find out that he had Firner on his conscience too. Ignoring Maria's objections, he then leaves the house.

In the meantime, the three poachers have snatched the Beppo and are torturing him to get something out of him. Michael hears his screams and wants to rush to his aid, whereupon the men hit him and lock them both up in the dungeon. Beppo tells Michael in his own way that he saw what it was like back then. May Mary be good. Firner, however, always hit him. In response to Michael’s direct question as to who killed Mathias, Beppo utters: “Maria”. Michael is stunned. Meanwhile, Maria confesses to Pastor Randlmann her guilt. The pastor also reacts dismayed and shaken. Maria says quietly that she did it out of fear. He should spare her from describing her marriage. Now Michael almost had to die for her too, so she came to him today. The pastor assures Maria that Michael loves her and will stick to her, just like he does.

Thanks to Struppl, Michael and Beppo are released from their dungeon because the little dog has made a police officer aware of the hiding place. Michael tells the policeman about the smugglers and their escape plans. The officer assures that he will notify the border police immediately. When Michael meets Maria shortly afterwards, he walks past her without a word after a moment's hesitation. Beppo asks Michael again for Maria and, in his childlike manner, can make it clear to the judge what everything Maria had to endure. "Why Maria, why?" Michael asks shortly afterwards from the woman he loves. Maria tells him about her fear, which she had had all her life, that she was always beaten and then the luck of having found him and the fear, if she talked, of losing him again. At the time she did not speak because she was expecting a child and wanted to spare him the shame of an imprisoned mother. However, it was born dead and she did not have the courage afterwards. She knew that her husband was bad, but that he was a common criminal, she only gradually learned. One night he came home with blood stains and she was supposed to cover him and say he had been home all night. She was so terrified of him and then the worst day of her life had come. He threw a word at her head, the worst thing you could say to a woman. When he went outside, she ran after him. Then he aimed at her with his rifle. She tried to snatch it from him and then suddenly a shot was fired and Mathias collapsed. Michael takes Maria in his arms and tells her that he will never leave her alone again. A process will clarify that Mary was acting out of self-defense. Both say goodbye to the pastor and leave the village arm in arm under the sky.

Production notes

The film was also called Dorf unterm Himmel . The film was produced in the Bavaria Film studio in Geiselgasteig . The outdoor shots were taken in the Ötztal , Oberinntal , in “Bad Lades” ( Ladis ?) And at Landeck Castle . The production company was Interlux Filmproduktions GmbH in Munich, distributed by Union Film. The buildings were designed by the film architects Peter Scharff and Robert Herlth . Production manager was Helmut Beck .

reception

publication

The first screening of the film took place on March 13, 1953 in the cinema at Sendlinger Tor in Munich .

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films spoke of "folk entertainment in the drama style of the Heimatfilm".

In the Kölnische Rundschau it was read at the time that Egger acted “quietly and calmly, without the boldness that she displayed in other films, without pin-up and without conscious sex appeal”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Illustrated Film-Bühne No. 1848 Das Dorf unterm Himmel , p. 2
  2. ↑ Village under the sky, film photo.
  3. ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 318
  4. ↑ The village under the sky at zweiausendeins.de. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  5. ^ The village under the sky In: Kölnische Rundschau, May 23, 1953.
  6. ↑ Inge Egger at steffi-line.de. Retrieved March 31, 2014.