The Girl from the Moorhof (1935)

Movie
Original title	The girl from the Moorhof
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1935
length	82 minutes
Rod
Director	Detlef Sierck
script	Philipp Lothar Mayring
production	Peter Paul Brauer for UFA
music	Hans-Otto Borgmann
camera	Willy Winterstein
cut	Fritz Stapenhorst
occupation
Hansi Knoteck : Helga Christmann Ellen Frank : Gertrud Gerhart Eduard von Winterstein : Magistrate Gerhart Kurt Fischer-Fehling : Karsten Dittmar Friedrich Kayßler : Father Dittmar Jeanette Bethge : Mother Dittmar Theodor Loos : Judge Lina Carstens : Mother Christmann Franz Stein : Father Christmann Fritz Hoopts : peat boatmen Erich Dunskus : Jens Willgraff Erwin Klietsch : Peter Nolde Hans Meyer-Hanno : Foreman Carl Jönsson : Marten Klaus Pohl : Second lay judge

The girl from the Moorhof is a film drama and melodrama by director Detlef Sierck from 1935. The literary film adaptation is based on the novella Tösen från Stormyrtorpet by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf . In the main role , Hansi Knoteck embodies the young farm girl Helga Christmann.

action

The young farm girl Helga is made pregnant by her employer and then fired by him. He denies being the child's father. Helga knows that he is lying, but does not want to let him swear perjury and withdraws her paternity suit.

Helga suffered considerably from social exclusion as an unmarried mother. She finds a new job with the farmer Karsten Dittmar. Helga draws hope. However, when Karsten's fiancée Gertrud arrives at the property, she demands that Karsten dismiss the young maid. Karsten is plagued by remorse, but he gives in to his bride's wishes and dismisses Helga again.

On the evening before his wedding, Karsten and his friends got into a serious argument with a group of sailors in a state of alcohol. The next morning Karsten learns that one of the sailors, probably in the course of the dispute the night before, was stabbed to death in the head. The broken knife blade was still in the wound. Although he cannot remember the course of the fight himself, he finds his own knife with a broken blade in his pocket. He is now of the opinion that he is the sailor's murderer. He cannot live with this thought: He goes to court to confess his murder of the sailor.

The plot of the film takes a turn when Helga confirms with her statement that Karsten did not kill the sailor. The day before he had lent his knife to Helga so that she could cut shavings. In a very short sequence you can see that she breaks the blade. Your commitment to Karsten touches on Gertrud's pride. Nevertheless, she makes it clear to Karsten that Helga loves him and gives up the relationship. Karsten marries Helga.

Release dates and different film titles

The film premiered in Berlin on October 30, 1935 in Germany . It appeared in France under the title La fille des marais , in Italy under the title La ragazza di Moorhof and in the USA under the title The Girl from the Marsh Croft and The Girl of the Moors . The film was first shown on German television on May 3, 1988 on ZDF.

Production notes

Some scenes were filmed in front of the St. Viti church in Zeven.

Sierck moved the plot to Northern Germany and renamed the main characters accordingly (Gertrud Gerhart instead of Hildur Eriksdotter, Karsten Dittmar instead of Gudmund Erlandsson, Peter Nolde instead of Per Martensson, etc.). Sierck later confessed self-critically: "The script deviated a lot from the original and I think it was a mistake to transplant the Lagerlöf story into the northern German heathland. The Scandinavian farmers are very different from the Germans; they are more educated than the rural population in all the rest of Europe "(Halliday: Sirk on Sirk). As you can see from the modern clothes and short hairstyle of the singer Fanny in the village pitcher scene, the film obviously takes place in the 1930s and not in the late 19th century. Their appearance is in clear contrast to the villagers, who are traditionally dressed in traditional costumes.

The shooting took place in July and August 1935. The location was u. a. the Teufelsmoor near Worpswede . Some exterior shots were taken in front of the St. Viti church in Zeven . Carl L. Kirmse was responsible for the production design . In 1958 another film adaptation of the novella was made under the direction of Gustav Ucicky .

Reviews

"Well-played, true-to-the-factory Selma Lagerlöf film adaptation."

- cinema

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era

Web links

• The girl from Moorhof in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The girl from the Moorhof at filmportal.de
• The girl from the Moorhof at Moviepilot.de
• The girl from the Moorhof in the lexicon of international films

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Das Mädchen vom Moorhof (1935) - Release Info - IMDb. In: imdb.com. Retrieved July 11, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Two thousand and one. Film lexicon FILMS from AZ - The girl from the Moorhof (1935). In: zweiausendeins.de. Retrieved July 11, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Quoted from: Christa Bandmann and Joe Hembus: Classics of the German sound film 1930-1960. Munich 1980, page 225
4. ↑ Elisabeth Läufer is wrong when she claims that it is about the church in Worpswede "with its double helmets", especially since the church there does not have a double tower and one cannot be seen in the film. Compare: Elisabeth Läufer: Skeptics of Light. Douglas Sirk and his films , Frankfurt am Main 1987, page 42
5. ↑ The girl from the Moorhof. In: filmportal.de. Retrieved July 11, 2015 . 
6. ↑ The girl from the Moorhof. In: cinema.de. Retrieved July 11, 2015 .