The ship of the lost people
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The ship of the lost people |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 121 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Maurice Tourneur |
| script | Maurice Tourneur based on a novel by Franzos Keremen |
| production | Max Glass |
| music | Hans J. Salter |
| camera | Nikolaus Farkas |
| occupation | |
| |
The Ship of Lost People is a German silent film drama set on the high seas by Maurice Tourneur with Marlene Dietrich and Fritz Kortner in the leading roles.
action
Ethel Marley is a daring American who is one of the few women of the time who dares to cross the oceans alone in her airplane. During one of her daring, aeronautical ventures, however, she comes into a tailspin and crashes in the sea. Ethel is lucky in an accident, there is a ship nearby. The young, attractive American William Cheyne, who is on board against his will, and the good-natured, thoroughly decent ship's cook Grischa discover the plane wreck floating on the sea one night and heave Ethel on board. But through this rescue Ethel goes from bad to worse, because this seller of souls is a smuggler's ship, on which a lot of dark figures cavort - escaped convicts as well as fugitive criminals - and rough seamen.
Captain Vela, who is also not exactly trustworthy, is the boss on this barge and, as a "drooling Shylock in a skipper's gear, tirelessly threatening doom and disaster with a gun muzzle and nostrils," leads a tough regiment. Grischa and the US boy hide the break pilot from this depraved crew so that she does not get into their covetous hands. But the stowaway cannot be hidden for long on this not too big sailor. And so the only woman on board stands facing a whole horde of lustful villains and drunk rascals who only want one thing from her. Only Cheyne and Grischa stand protectively in front of Ethel. Before it can come to the extreme, a cone of light falls on the ship of the lost people. A passenger steamer received the SOS emergency call given by Grischa with a flashlight (!) And drove towards the smuggler ship. Vela and his men have no choice but to surrender. Ethel, Grischa and Cheyne, however, are saved.
Production notes
The Ship of the Lost People was made from April to June 1929 in Staaken's film studio . The gaff schooner, the central location of the film, was also recreated there in a 1: 1 ratio. The outdoor shots on the water were made in the mouth of the Trave , port shots were taken in the Rostock free port. The six-act act with an initial length of 2665 meters received a general performance ban during the first two censorship tests on August 26 and September 2, 1929, which was reduced to a youth ban on September 5, 1929 after cuts were made. In this approved version, the film was only 2593 meters long. The premiere took place on September 17, 1929 in Berlin's Ufa pavilion.
Producer Max Glass also took over the production management. The film structures were designed by Franz Schroedter . Tourneur's son Jacques Tourneur , later also a well-known Hollywood director, assisted his father.
With this film title, the German producers tried to tie in with Tourneur's most commercially successful film, the Hollywood production The Island of Lost Ships (1923).
For Dietrich and Kortner this was already the second film collaboration in 1929. At the beginning of the same year, they both stood together in Kurt Bernhardt's The Woman One Longs for in front of the camera.
Reviews
“Hardly anything could be said about this insignificant, theatrically unimportant film if it did not present itself as a“ German multi-million dollar film ”. Now that the industry is introducing this artistic denomination, we want to make use of its value standards. And so we now consider what in the film The Ship of Lost People , directed by Maurice Tourneur, may have cost millions. Kortner's brutality in the nostrils? (...) The floating underworld environment? But that is available off the shelf. The real bandit ship? But that was to be found on the garbage of the old pirate romance. And what about Marlene Dietrich's hairdresser? She has achieved great things: When Marlene is pulled out of the sea water and the curly hair still shows the most beautiful perms ... "
“Everything we see here is not a film, it is an illustrated colportage novel. The direction sticks to the primitive external plot. No atmosphere is created. The sea is just a backdrop, it smells of dust and glue instead of salty air. All passions are translated into passionate running, emotion in movement of the limbs. And since desires are desired in bulk here, the bustling crowd scenes tirelessly fight, run and fight again. Fortunately, with the tumbling crowd of extras, you get stuck on a face at least a few times, on a face covered in masks. It belongs to Vladimir Sokoloff. In his good, animal-like, supple humanity, this great artist turns the small role of the ship's cook into a figure who makes all the confused follies around him forget for happy moments. "
“Here the French-American director starts out with excellent scenes from Sankt Pauli: atmospheric and smoke-soaked shots from seaman's pubs and, above all, fantastically grotesque types. Rarely has one seen such gruesome, funny and stunning types in a German film. (The dance of two insane figures is wonderful.) It's a good American film in isolated scenes, in the drawing of the milieu. The grotesque force that drove up “The Island of Lost Ships” is missing in the plot. (…) [T] he contrasts and tensions are well and faithfully staged. Maurice Tourneur does not give the rattled motif an original version; in the end it slips completely into the mundane. In terms of performance, Fritz Kortner should be mentioned in particular, who analyzed a brutal cowardly captain. Marlene Dietrich's beauty remained lifeless. "
“The dedication and effort made a huge impression. If you added the names of the players and this gentleman-fellow Tourneur, who once created a standard work under the similarly rolled title “Island of the Lost Ships”, one could hope. But alas, only a ship of lost hopes sailed from the studio to the canvas. Because the faithful imitation did not become a stepping stone into another realm, into the realm of optical visions, it remained what it was: imitation of reality ... Except for a few moments, the weaknesses of the manuscript were not covered up. The simplicity of its action sinks into primitiveness in detail. (...) There are hardly any game opportunities here. Kortner repeats what has been there twenty times, Dietrich has to be content with lying on the table and playing cat and mouse, the gorgeous Sokoloff makes grimaces when there is no play. Only Gaston Modot's usurper captain makes an impression. Ship of lost hopes! "
“Maurice Tourneur, who was engaged by the Max Glaß production for her new adventure film“ The Ship of Lost People ”(Ufa Pavilion), has already proven once, in the unforgettable“ Island of Lost Ships ”, that it is next to an eminently picturesque one Eye at the same time also has the ability to make a film exciting and skilful by hand. This time it seems to have passed him thoroughly. Tourneur is an artist and a temper. He designed the atmosphere of the harbor districts and taverns, the cabin and aft deck profiles in a series of pictures, whose wonderfully tinted, shaded chiaroscuro is reminiscent of the portrait art of French masters. (Photography: Nikolaus Farkas.) But it doesn’t work for a film to show nothing more than a single, raging scuffle, without increases and cuts, without pauses and resting points. Over and over again shouting, boozing, demonically swaying extras, over and over again Marlene Dietrich, although wonderful to look at, on the run through a labyrinth of trap doors and portholes! And it is not acceptable to let Fritz Kortner play a captain who seems to confuse the command bridge with the director's chair at Jeßner's . Only Gaston Modot, strange and menacing in the guise of a criminal, and Wladimir Sokoloff, who portrayed a ship's cook as human, simple and suggestive, had that immediacy of expression that does not come from deliberation, but from instinct. Otherwise: a film made by the lost actors. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ cit. n. Werner Fiedler in: Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung v. September 21, 1929
Web links
- The ship of the lost people at filmportal.de
- The ship of the lost people in the Internet Movie Database (English)