The secret of Santa Margherita
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The secret of Santa Margherita |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1921 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rolf Randolf |
| script | Viktor Mann |
| production | Rolf Randolf |
| occupation | |
| |
The secret of Santa Margherita is a German silent film drama by and with Rolf Randolf from 1921. The screenplay was written by Viktor Mann , the brother of Heinrich and Thomas Mann.
action
The film deals with the fate of the noble Habsburg Archduke Johann Nepomuk Salvator , who was to go down in history as "Johann Orth" in a highly speculative to fictional manner . The life courses shown do not correspond in any way to the actual events in Orth's life.
Johann Salvator, the "rebel" in the Habsburg family, fell out with his family, who remained in the encrusted classiness. He joins an internationally operating secret association and is betrayed by his girlfriend. The family put him under pressure, whereupon Johann Salvator surrenders all honors and titles and goes abroad. He leaves Austria on the sailing ship Santa Margherita, but his life is sought after: a member of the secret association, who fears that the renegade archduke will betray him, attacks the ship (and thus the Habsburg). The ship sinks, but Johann Salvator survives.
After the shipwreck he is looking for new adventures and opportunities to earn money in the New World. From then on he called himself Johann Orth and first became a gold miner, then president of a Latin American banana republic. Revolutionaries soon overthrow El Presidente, and Orth's enemies kidnap his girlfriend, who had secretly followed him from Vienna to a foreign country. The desperate woman kills herself in her captivity. Disgusted by the terrible evil that seems to rule the world, the former Archduke withdraws completely from the outside world and becomes a hermit.
Production notes
Viktor Mann, then an expert at Bayrische Handelsbank, had already written the script for the film Orchideen for the Müller film industry in Munich as a sideline in 1919 and then came to Randolf Filmproduktion. Rolf Randolf wanted to produce a kick-off film in the Jofa Ateliers in Berlin-Johannisthal for the film company he had just founded in Berlin , and for this he obliged Viktor Mann to implement an “existing idea” as a script.
The Secret of Santa Margherita finally passed film censorship on August 8, 1921 and was premiered in Berlin on September 17, 1921. The film was shown in Vienna from March 10, 1922 under the title Johann Orth or The Disappeared Habsburg . The length was 2,365 meters, divided into seven acts. A youth ban has been issued.
Gustav A. Knauer created the film structures.
useful information
The mystery of Santa Margherita belongs works Randolf-to a number of with whom the Vienna-born in Germany just after the end of the First World War, around the house, from 1919 to 1921, tragic events in recent Austrian history Habsburg aufarbeitete cinematically.
It started in 1919 with Crown Prince Rudolph or: The secret of Mayerling , about the tragedy of Mayerling (1889), the following winter came about with Der Fürstenmord, through which millions died, the reappraisal of the assassination attempt in Sarajevo (1914), which led to the outbreak of the first World War led. In 1920 Randolf filmed with Under the Crown of Thorns. Mexico's Imperial Tragedy is a film about the three short reigns of the Habsburg Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, who became the plaything of the French, was fusilized in 1867 before Randolf concluded this film cycle with The Secret of Santa Margherita in 1921.
Rolf Randolf directed and produced all of these films as well as played a leading role in them. He also provided the script for three of these productions.
criticism
Paimann's film lists stated: “The game was passable. The presentation was limited to the bare minimum, the costumes were too modern, the photos were not always up to date. ”Viktor Mann later wrote in the autobiography We were five :“ R. shot a really good film with a lot of scenery, stars and extras, which brought his young AG a considerable initial success. "
Web links
- The mystery of Santa Margherita in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The secret of Santa Margherita at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang May: 1920/21: The first Jofa year . In: Johannisthaler Filmgeschichte (s) . Issue 2. S. 5 f .
- ↑ a b Viktor Mann: We were five . Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1961, p. 273-275 .
- ↑ The disappeared Habsburg ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Paimann's film lists .
