The house on 92nd Street
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The house on 92nd Street |
| Original title | The House on 92nd Street |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Henry Hathaway |
| script |
Barre Lyndon John Monks junior Charles G. Booth |
| production | Louis de Rochemont |
| music | David Buttolph |
| camera | Norbert Brodine |
| cut | Harmon Jones |
| occupation | |
| |
The house on 92nd Street (original title The House on 92nd Street ) is an American spy film from 1945. It belongs to the subgenre of semi- documentary film noir . Directed by Henry Hathaway , it stars William Eythe , Lloyd Nolan and Signe Hasso .
The film is based on a factual report by Charles G. Booth and was awarded an Oscar in the " Best Original Story " category at the 1946 Academy Awards.
action
In 1939, the FBI increased its surveillance of foreign citizens due to increasing hostilities in Europe. William "Bill" Dietrich, a German-American student who wants to become an engineer, becomes a valuable employee. The German side has also approached him to win him over. But Bill, an ardent patriot of his country, told Inspector George A. Briggs of the FBI about the offer, who asked him to cooperate with the German side in order to obtain important information. Bill travels to the German city of Hamburg, where he goes to an agent school, and, back in New York, is involved in a hit-and-run car accident, which leads to him being embroiled in one of the most complicated counterintelligence cases in America. The accident victim, it is found, has a Spanish passport, and you can also find an encrypted note with the German text “Mr. Christopher is focused on Procedure 97. "
It can be determined that it is the German spy Franz von Wirt. This calls in Inspector Briggs, because the procedure 97 is the most important secret of the Americans, the development of the atomic bomb . Now it is known that the foreign agents will do everything possible to acquire the formula. Briggs is instructed that this case is the top priority . With Bill Dietrich's help you want to find out who is behind the name "Christopher". A bait is to be laid out. Bill has contacts with the German agent Elsa Gebhardt, who runs a fashion salon in her house on 92th Street. The spies Max Cobler, Konrad von Arnulf and the Gestapo agent Johanna Schmidt also frequent this place. Bill pretends to build a shortwave radio station that Elsa will use to transmit information to Hamburg. At the same time, however, the messages are forwarded to the FBI via a separate transmitter so that Briggs is always up to date and can ensure that changed, i.e. unusable, information arrives in Germany. Bill intercepts information from Colonel Hammersohn. His attempt to find out the identity of "Mr. Christopher" from the professional spy, however, fails.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor , the FBI is working flat out to expose Christopher . Elsa Gebhardt and Colonel Hammersohn are even offered to let them go if they reveal who is behind Christopher . Bill manages to give the FBI further important information by means of a smoked cigarette dyed with lipstick. The German agent Luise Vadja is tracked down, who in turn leads the FBI agents on the trail of Charles Ogden Roper, a scientist in the Appleton laboratory , from which information is smuggled out. Briggs learns that Roper is a true memory artist who can memorize and memorize even the most complicated formulas, and is thus able to pass on information about the procedure 97 to "Christopher".
Roper admits his complicity and admits that his information would be picked up at the Lange bookstore, among other places. When the FBI monitored the bookstore, Elsa Gebhardt was discovered and she was exposed as "Christopher". But Dietrich has now also been seen through by the German agents, which puts him in a life-threatening situation. Briggs and his people surround house 92 and call on the inmates who have Bill Dietrich with them to surrender. During the mess in the house, Elsa takes off her blonde wig, removes her make-up and puts on men's clothes. Since the FBI has meanwhile used tear gas, she is not recognized by the German agent Arnulf and mistakenly shot. The FBI agents manage to break into the building and save Bill. With the discovery of Christopher's identity, the case is closed and the formula for the atomic bomb is saved from the wrong hands.
background
The shooting took place from April 16 to the end of August 1945. The film was shot on the George Washington Bridge in New York , in Manhattan , on Broadway , on the Brooklyn Bridge , in the Brill Building , in the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building , in New York and in Washington, DC in the USA . Further recordings were made in the German city of Hamburg . The house on 92nd Street was located at 53 East 93rd Street, in the Manhattan borough of New York. Wherever possible, the incidents described were combined with images of the actual cities. Apart from the main actors of the film, almost only members or staff of the FBI were seen in the supporting roles. J. Edgar Hoover himself appears shortly before and in his office at the beginning of the film. Before filming began, actors William Eythe and Lloyd Nolan had a crash course at the FBI Academy in Quantico .
The film premiered in New York on September 26, 1945, and it was shown in Los Angeles on October 18, 1945 . It was released in cinemas in the Federal Republic of Germany on June 26, 1952 and in Austria in December 1950. The working title of the film was Now It Can Be Told .
According to the production company Twentieth Century-Fox, this film was also inspired by the FBI's numerous arrests of German and German-speaking spies in 1941. The FBI also dug up the Duquesne spy ring. Frederick Joubert Duquesne was the model for the character of "Colonel Hammersohn" in the film. The figure of Bill Dietrich was based on the double agent "William G. Sebold" , an American citizen born in Germany. Lilly Stein was the inspiration for "Elsa Gebhardt" who appears in the film. Herman W. Lang was the model for the memory artist "Charles Ogden Roper". All 33 spies were sentenced to long prison terms.
The atomic bomb was first developed by the USA in the Manhattan Project and successfully tested for the first time on July 16, 1945 (Trinity test). On August 6 and 9, 1945, the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, claiming hundreds of thousands of victims.
The film marks the acting debut of Vincent Gardenia , who is not mentioned in his role as an intern in the credits, as is that of EG Marshall , who is also not mentioned in the credits. Bruno Wick also had his first role in this film. For the French actress Lydia St. Clair it was her first role in an American film.
The image design, which was semi-documentary, comes from the well-known documentary filmmaker Louis de Rochemont, whose newsreels The March of Time received an honorary Oscar . On October 12, 1945, William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, and Signe Hasso appeared in a radio version of the film that was broadcast on the FBI program. The house on 92nd Street influenced a number of films, including Anthony Mann's secret agent T (1947) and Jules Dassin's City Without a Mask (1948).
Reviews
The lexicon of international films said that it was a realistic spy drama of solid tension, whose semi-documentary style with many outdoor shots influenced many later spy films.
Variety Staff praises the technology, which is reminiscent of March of Time , and says the film is “a gripping documentary that is often interspersed with dramatic moments. The cooperation with the FBI, which is mentioned in the foreword, has paid off. "
Thomas M. Prior, film critic for the New York Times, suggests that like the Army and Navy, the FBI had a story to tell about its activities during the war, and that story was inspiring and full of thrills. The film stays on the surface during the counter-espionage operations, but shows the FBI's procedures and that is fascinating. Prior also praised the very successful merging of the documentary part with the feature film part, which proves that realism can be entertaining. William Eythe fits easily into the role of Dietrich. His later dealings with ruthless Nazi agents in New York are full of tension and get the pulse racing.
Awards
At the 1946 Academy Awards , the Oscar in the “ Best Original Story ” category went to Charles G. Booth , on whose template the film was based.
For "Best Screenplay" Charles G. Booth got together with screenwriter Barré Lyndon and John Monks Jr. 1946 Edgar Award for the story about The House on 92nd Street .
Web links
- The House on 92nd Street in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The House on 92nd Street at TCM - Turner Classic Movies.
- The House on 92nd Street at filmposter.net. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg Seeßlen: Cinema of fear. History and mythology of the film thriller, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-499-17350-6 , pp. 120–121.
- ↑ a b c d The House on 92nd Street at TCM - Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ The house on 92nd Street in the Lexicon of International Films . Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ↑ The House on 92nd Street ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Variety Staff, published December 31, 1944. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ^ The House on 92nd Street Thomas M. Prior. The New York Times. Film review from September 27, 1945. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
- ↑ The house on 92nd Street at imdb / Awards. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
