The cabinet of Dr. Larifari

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Movie
Original title The cabinet of Dr. Larifari
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1930
length 78 minutes
Rod
Director Robert Wohlmuth
script Max Hansen ,
Paul Morgan ,
Carl Jöken
production Fritz Deitz
music Robert Stolz ,
Franz Wachsmann ,
Max Hansen
camera Eduard Hoesch ,
Otto Heller
occupation

The cabinet of Dr. Larifari is a German sound film from 1930. Director is Robert Wohlmuth . The film was also sold under the alternative title: "A thousand words joke".

To the title

The title had already been used for a German feature film six years earlier. It concerns the puppet film "The great love of a little dancer", which Alfred Zeisler made in 1924 with the puppeteers of Powell-Schwiegerling-Co. realized. He chose the working title “The Cabinet of Dr. Larifari ”, based on a character in the film, the magician Dr. Larifari, which shows clear echoes of Robert Wiene's " Caligari " figure from 1920.

action

The three friends Paul, Max and Carl are broke. In order to reorganize themselves, they decide to dare big things, namely to enter the newfangled sound film business and to found a production company together. And because they're three, they call this: The Trio Film. But the trio still lacks a usable script. First ideas are played through, but quickly discarded. When it was finally agreed on a family film, filming began in the studio, although the new producers, with their carefreeness, soon caused complete chaos until the staff went on strike and everything collapsed. In the end, the three of them have gained a few more experiences, but they are just as burned as before.

Style and influence

Film-in-film comedy in which the Berlin cabaret of the Weimar Republic and its greats experience one last apotheosis before the “seizure of power” in 1933. The title parodically refers to Robert Wiene's famous expressionist silent film “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari ”from 1920. Only here in the individual played scenes, which hold together a framework plot that caricatures the film business, the absurd horror is replaced by a no less absurd but liberating humor of a thoroughly self-referential quality.

The fact that the new medium of sound film, hardly fully fledged, immediately reflects itself critically, is not a singular phenomenon with the “Kabinett” film. Even Max Ophuls designed in 1930 his sound film-operetta "The love company" as a "satire on filmmaking," he had "a lot fun at the pastiche of various film types and stereotypes".

The "freedom of absurd humor" in the cabinet of Dr. Last but not least, Larifari consists in the fact that pretty much everything is parodied here that had previously cashed in on styles, stereotypes and stars in German film: From the wave of "Rhine and Wine" and "Vienna" and "Singer films" up to dealing with the current audience favorites, the stars themselves. The comedy arises through self-reflexivity, through “excursions into wishful and parallel worlds”, in which reality and fiction, social conventions and traditional gender roles are dealt with more playfully.

And the 1930s viewers who flocked to theaters apparently knew how to deal with, understand, and enjoy this kind of comedy.

Performers

The film is characterized by a unique line-up of top-class cabaret performers, which even today makes it a document of the times beyond its mere entertainment value: You can see and hear the Austro-Jewish comedienne Gisela Wer District as a meschuggene writer Hedda Mutz-Kahla, the actor and cabaret artist Willy Prager in the role of a patient, both persecuted by the Nazi regime, plus the soubrette Alice Hechy as wife and the veteran comedian Karl Harbacher as the waiter Leopold. The two cabaret artists Paul Morgan and Max Hansen and the tenor Carl Jöken play themselves - in several changing roles.

The music numbers are also up to date: They are played by what was probably the 'hottest' German jazz band at the time, the 'Weintraubs Syncopators' by 'drummer' Stefan Weintraub . They are compositions by Robert Stolz , Franz Wachsmann and Max Hansen. The lyrics were also written by First Forces in their field: Robert Gilbert , Max Hansen, Armin Robinson and the cabaret-experienced emcee Paul Nikolaus .

Music titles: "The ballad of a German city", "Eternal love is only available in a novel!" (Wachsmann / Gilbert, Robinson), "My little brother dreams of you day and night" (Stolz / Hansen). They also appeared on industrial records (Grammophon / Electrola).

The tenor Carl Jöken will perform the ballad “Der Erlkönig” (Schubert) and the aria by Vasco da Gama “Land so wunderbar” from “Die Afrikanerin” (Meyerbeer).

Style-shaping new technology

The level of attention that the “Blick ins Tonfilmatelier” achieved with the audience at the time due to the technical novelty of the medium is reflected in several productions of this time, e. B. in Max Ophüls' musical comedy Die Verliebte Firma or in Alfred Zeisler's crime thriller Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier , both made in the same year (1930) as the Kabinett and, like it, played in the film environment.

Contemporary criticism

Three artists that Berlin audiences know from stage, cabaret and film, three names who are known throughout Germany with the association of a smile from their records, radio and, above all, film - Paul Morgan, Max Hansen and Carl Jöken - are the enterprising and executive “trio” of this sound film.

The structure of the triofilm is of a completely new genre. After operetta and revue have been conquered, there is now the "sound film - cabaret of comedians". The plot is divided into individual parodies and sound film glosses. The entrance conference is very nice, which makes it clear to the audience that they are facing an original motley, a holiday gulp of their three favorites.

First of all, the directors of the industry have to believe in it, and like our three, who always have to work so hard for their heavy pay, imagine life in a film directorate, it is so obviously parodistic and nicely done that, despite some widths, every audience enjoys it will have. Since they are now making “film within a film” according to the fashion of this season, our three comedians parody everything that was successful in talkies.

p .: The cabinet of Dr. Larifari. In: Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 184, August 2, 1930.

Audio documents

(Recordings on industrial records)

  • [19] My little brother dreams of you day and night. Lied and Slowfox (Rob. Stolz and M. Hansen) adTonfilm “Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari ”. Bernard Etté and his orchestra, refrain: Kurt Mühlhardt. Crystal order no. 3100 (mx. C 575.1) September 1930
  • [20] My little brother dreams of you day and night. Lied and Slowfox (Rob. Stolz and M. Hansen) adTonfilm “Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari ”. Max Hansen with the Paul Godwin Orchestra. Gramophone 23 170 (mx. 1327 bn)
  • [21] The Ballad of a German City (W. Kadenis and M. Hansen) Max Hansen with Paul Godwin Orchestra. Gramophone 23 182 (mx. 874 ½ bd)
  • Eternal love, that's only available in the novel (F. Wachsmann / Gilbert / Robinson), English Waltz from the film DAS KABINETT DES DR.LARIFARI, 1930, performed by Weintraub's Syncopators. Electrola EG1423 (mx. BLR 5519-I)

Illustrations

  • Original movie poster “The Cabinet of Dr. Larifari ”, offset 1930 (142 × 95 cm) [22]
  • Berliner Filmkurier # 1420: The cabinet of Dr. Larifari, Max Hansen, Paul Morgan [23]
  • Carl Jöken, Max Hansen and Paul Morgan (stand photo) [24]
  • Max Hansen conducts the Weintraubs (stand photo) [25]

literature

  • Frank Arnau (Ed.): Universal Filmlexikon 1932. Berlin / London, 1932.
  • Review of the film at Cinegraph: [26]
  • Review of the film at filmportal: [27]
  • Thomas Elsaesser: Weimar cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Berlin 1999.
  • Filmophile's Lexicon: Expressionism [28]
  • Malte Hagener, Jan Hans (Ed.): When the films learned to sing. Innovation and tradition in music film, 1928–1938. Cinegraph Book 11, Munich: edition text + kritik 1998. ISBN 3-88377-614-9 .
  • Sabine Hake: Provocation of the disembodied voice. Pages 55–72, here: page 60. In: Kenneth Scott Calhoon, Peripheral Visions: The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema. Liliane Weissberg editor. Wayne State University Press (Paperback - July 2001).
  • “Künstler am Rundfunk” - A paperback dedicated to our readers. Part 1: Singers. Berlin, Verlag Rothgießer & Diesing AG, 1933. Contains on page 91 a photo of the chamber singer Carl Jöken, member of the Berlin State Opera, on the piano.
  • Horst H. Lange: Jazz in Germany - the German jazz chronicle 1900–1960. Berlin, Colloquium 1966, 2nd improved edition, Olms 1996, 296 pages, ISBN 3-487-08375-2
  • Berthold Leimbach (ed.): Sound documents of cabaret. Self-published, Göttingen 1991. Contains articles on Hansen, Morgan, Prager and Wer district.
  • Untitled: Songs and Laughs: The Musical Comedy. In: filmportal.de [29]
  • Untitled: Max Hansen. [30]
  • Eva Offenthaler: From "Czernowitzbold" to Hollywood actor: Paul Morgan. In: Institute Austrian Biographical Lexicon and Biographical Documentation. Biography of the month. Oct. 2011. Biography of the month: From "Chernivtsi" to Hollywood actor: Paul Morgan ( Memento from November 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  • Viktor Rotthaler: The musicalization of the cinema. The composers of the Pommer production. In: Katja Uhlenbrok (Ed.): MusikSpektakelFilm. Music theater and dance culture in German film 1922–1937. Munich 1998, pages 123-134.
  • Jörg Schöning (Hrsg.): The German film comedy before 1945. (Kaiserzeit, Weimar, National Socialism). Catalog book for CineFest I. International Festival of German Film Heritage, editing: Jörg Schöning with the assistance of David Kleingers and Johannes Roschlau. Munich, edition text + kritik, 2004, 140 pages, 50 illustrations. ISBN 3-88377-792-7
  • Jörg Schweinitz: “Like in the cinema!” The auto-thematic wave in early talkies. Figurations of the self-reflective. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): This side of the demonic canvas. New perspectives on late Weimar cinema. Pp. 373-392.
  • Rudolf Ulrich: Austrians in Hollywood. 2nd edition 2004, article Gisela Wer District (Werbisek). Review in: Austria Journal v. April 21, 2011, pp. 114-115, m. Illustration. [31]
  • Article Franz Waxman. In: ArkivMusic: [32]
  • Article Franz Waxman: In: film reference [33]
  • Michael Wedel: The German music film. Archeology of a genre. Munich, edition text + kritik, 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "A thousand words ..." is derived from a book title that has become a winged word. In the mid-1920s, the Ullstein publishing house in Berlin brought a language course in lesson letters based on the concept of Dr. Ernst Wallenberg (see DER SPIEGEL 35/1948 [1] ) on the market, which was entitled "1000 words" (English / French / Italian etc.). The record company. Vox also produced language teaching boards for this purpose. This "audiovisual" method soon became popular and with it the title that was quickly applied to other areas. Evidence: Ernst Wallenberg: 1000 words in English: 12 booklets. Ullstein publishing house, 1926 u.ö. / Vox 05095-A (mx. 1814-A): 1000 words in English [based on the teaching letters of the same name from Ullstein-Verlag] Vox language teaching record, part 1 (NE 02/1926) to Vox 05100-B (mx. 1900 ½ A ) Part 12 (conclusion) [2] / "On the ship they had a book called '1000 Words of English' 'and they studied it diligently from morning to evening ..." reports Werner Michael Blumenthal, who in the spring of 1939 was with his parents and sister fled the Nazis from Berlin to Shanghai. [3]
  2. ↑ cf. online film database [4]
  3. ↑ cf. [5] as well as silent film forum, entries "Thomas Stummfilmkönig" and "Hofmeister Stummfilmkanzler" v. March 1, 2009 [6] .
  4. ↑ cf. Eva Offenthaler: From "Czernowitzbold" to Hollywood actor: Paul Morgan. In: Institute Austrian Biographical Lexicon and Biographical Documentation. Biography of the month. Oct. 2011. Biography of the month: From “Czernowitzbold” to Hollywood actor: Paul Morgan ( Memento from November 29, 2012 in the web archive.today ) “In 1930 he [Morgan] founded his own company with Max Hansen and Carl Jöken, the trio Film GmbH, but already after the first film, 'Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari ', went bankrupt. "
  5. ↑ cf. Malte Hagener, Jan Hans (Ed.): When the films learned to sing. Innovation and tradition in music film, 1928–1938. Cinegraph Book 11, Munich: edition text + kritik 1998. ISBN 3-88377-614-9 , foreword: “In Das Cabinet des Dr. Larifari (1930), after dismissing the sound engineer in anger, the director quickly takes over the technology and brings it to a complete breakdown. The sound cuts out, the camera moves back and reveals the helpless crew, then the picture fails too - with the exception of a short epilogue the film ends. "
  6. ↑ cf. Robert Wohlmuth
  7. ↑ cf. Malte Hagener, Jan Hans (Ed.): When the films learned to sing. Innovation and tradition in music film, 1928–1938. Cinegraph Book 11, Munich: edition text + kritik 1998. ISBN 3-88377-614-9 , foreword: “The new thing was as early as August 1930, when the film premiered - not a year had passed since the first sound film premieres in Germany Medium already ripe for a parody. Column saints of German film culture like Emil Jannings are targeted in a series of numbers that are reminiscent of the formats of today's TV comedy shows, held together by a framework story that satirizes the gold rush mood in the face of the new medium of sound film. "
  8. ↑ cf. Zeughauskino program in the German Historical Museum in Berlin on July 2, 2010 [7]
  9. ↑ [8]
  10. ↑ after [9] Larifari means "senseless chatter" and arose from the Italian note names La, re and fa for the notes a, d and f, which together form the d minor triad. In the 19th century, Count Franz Pocci called his puppet figure “Larifari”.
  11. ↑ cf. Filmophile's Lexicon: "Robert Wolmuth's hard-to-find 'Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari ', released in 1930, is a brilliant parody of the movement's hallmark film "
  12. ↑ Many of them sought to benefit from the national feeling that had regained their strength after the start of the Rhineland evacuation in January 1926 by serving anti-French (“hereditary enemy”) and anti-Semitic resentments and showing plenty of hard-drinking, beating and colored Corps students with hearty German girls in a beautiful landscape, so z. B. German hearts on the German Rhine. Germany 1925/1926. Director: Fred Sauer - The Lindenwirtin on the Rhine. Germany 1927. Director: Rolf Randolf - Stolzenfels am Rhein (Napoleon in Moscow). Germany 1927. Director: Richard Löwenbein - Autumn time on the Rhine. Germany 1927/1928. Director: Siegfried Philippi - Nur am Rhein… Germany 1930. Director: Max Mack [10] - Zapfenstreich am Rhein. Germany 1930. Director: Jaap Speyer [11] or: I was a student at Heidelberg. Germany 1927. Director: Wolfgang Neff - O old boyish grandeur. Germany 1930. Director: Rolf Randolf - Be a student when the violets are in bloom. Germany 1930. Director: Heinz Paul
  13. ↑ z. B. Vienna, Vienna - just you alone Germany 1927. Director: Ludwig Hamburger, Wolfgang Neff - Vienna, you city of songs. Germany 1930. Director: Richard Oswald - I once loved a girl in Vienna. Germany 1930. Director: Erich Schönfelder
  14. ↑ z. B. Women on the Edge. Germany 1929. Director: Georg Jacoby - Die singende Stadt. Germany / Great Britain 1930. Director: Carmine Gallone, with Jan Kiepura - I never believe in a woman again. Germany 1929/1930, directed by Max Reichmann - The luring goal. Germany 1930. Directed by Max Reichmann - the latter both with Richard Tauber.
  15. ↑ cf. Corinna Müller, DIF: “From the awkward language that was said of the film and the powerful films in the silent film era, to the 'Rhine-Vienna-Danube' wave, the singer films and melodramas in the style of the lore novel and the smear comedy Tips also on Emil Jannings, Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich, the sound film, more or less witty, is drawn through the cocoa with relish. "And Dictator's Cut: [12] " ... the comedy satirizes the present and the work of the film industry around 1930. musical highlight in the film with the "weintraubs syncopators". the film was banned because of jewish actors. "
  16. ↑ cf. Malte Hagener, Jan Hans (Ed.): When the films learned to sing. Innovation and tradition in music film, 1928–1938. Cinegraph Book 11, Munich: edition text + kritik 1998. ISBN 3-88377-614-9 , foreword and Elsaesser (1999), p. 265: "... this type of goods has an ironic and thus a distancing element."
  17. ↑ cf. Malte Hagener, Jan Hans (Ed.): When the films learned to sing. Innovation and tradition in music film, 1928–1938. Cinegraph Book 11, Munich: edition text + kritik 1998. ISBN 3-88377-614-9 , foreword, to the contribution by Donata Koch-Haag: “The comedy of these films ... can only work if there is an audience that can accept these suggestions understands that such excursions into wishful and parallel worlds can understand and know how to deal with them. It seems like there was such an audience "
  18. ↑ Pictures of the tenor under [13] , a report on his participation in the sound film “Schubert's Spring Dream” (1931) in: Filmwelt No. 7, February 15, 1931, page 9 in [14] and in Wedel (2007), p. 311.
  19. ↑ on jazz in Germany at the end of the Weimar Republic cf. Gisela Probst-Effah, seminar “Songs and Schlager at the time of the Weimar Republic”, 2004/05: “A well-known band in the years between 1927 and 1933 were the 'Weintraubs-Syncopators', one of the best dance bands, which by German standards was exceptional 'Hot' and 'jazzy' is said to have played. In 1930/31 the 'Weintraubs' still appeared in German films ... ” [15] and Horst H. Lange (1966), pages 32, 48, 49, 54, 58 and 67.
  20. ↑ cf. Albrecht Dümling in Jazz-Zeitung 09/2006, pages 22–23 [16]
  21. ↑ Wachsmann, later Americanized Waxman, was Fr. Hollaenders' successor as a pianist with the Weintraubs. The music for the “Kabinett” was his first composition for the sound film, cf. ArkivMusic "His first original film score was Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari (1930) and by the end of 1933, he had 11 scores to his credit. "
  22. ↑ cf. steffi-line: Max Hansen “... with his leading role in Robert Wohlmuth's cabaret film parody 'Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari '(1930) he caused a sensation at the side of Paul Morgan; Hansen was also responsible as a composer, lyricist and screenwriter. "
  23. ↑ Screenwriter, copywriter, music publisher (Alrobi), cf. [17]
  24. ↑ Original Paul Nikolaus Steiner, born on March 30, 1894 in Mannheim. Sharp-tongued master of the KadeKo . In 1933 he fled the Nazis to Switzerland. There he committed suicide on March 31, 1933.
  25. ↑ cf. Sabine Hake: Provocation of the disembodied voice. In: Kenneth Scott Calhoon, Peripheral Visions: The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema. Liliane Weissberg editor. Wayne State University Press (Taschenbuch - July 2001), p. 60: “The new technology provided the appropriate setting in an earlier murder mystery 'Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier' 1930. It also inspired silent film parodies like 'Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari '1930 and, beginning with' Zigeuner der Nacht '1932, introduced the projectionist as the main protagonist ... "
  26. ↑ cf. Malte Hagener, Jan Hans (Ed.): When the films learned to sing. Innovation and tradition in music film, 1928–1938. Cinegraph Book 11, Munich: edition text + kritik 1998. ISBN 3-88377-614-9 , foreword: [18] “Obviously, this is a period in film history in which the showing and exhibiting of technical conditions, which is more inclined to the spectacle came into view. It is a period that can be taken as evidence that the introduction of sound does not necessarily have to lead to greater realism. ”And Schweinitz p. 379“ A new attraction came into play. The technical technical side attracted renewed attention under the sign of the sound ”, cf. Wedel (2007), p. 251 on note 20