The Prince of Pappenheim (1927)

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Movie
Original title The Prince of Pappenheim
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1927
length 91 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Eichberg
script Robert Liebmann
production Richard Eichberg
music Artur Guttmann
Giuseppe Becce
camera Heinrich gardener
Bruno Mondi
occupation

Der Fürst von Pappenheim is a German silent film fun play from 1927 by Richard Eichberg with Curt Bois in the title role and the Argentine Mona Maris as Princess on the run. The story is based on the operetta of the same name (1922) by Arnold and Bach .

action

The eponymous Prince von Pappenheim is by no means a representative of the high nobility, but is only called Fürst, more precisely: Egon Fürst, and works as the first salesman in the fine Berlin fashion salon of Ms. Camilla Pappenheim. One day a young lady gets lost there who introduces herself as Antoinette and wants to present fashion as a mannequin. What little, skinny Egon doesn't know: The young lady is really noble and is only looking for refuge from an unwanted prince whom she should marry at the will of the strict Mr. Papa. Her uncle has already tackled Antoinette's heels on his father's behalf to bring the headstrong young lady back.

Egon Fürst is quickly inflamed for the young princess, who in turn has long loved a man, but whom the head of the family does not allow her to marry. The uncle also believes that he will soon have found his niece, apparently not very well known, in another mannequin and drags her back to the master palace in Baden-Baden. As luck would have it, there will soon be a fashion demonstration of the latest Pappenheim collection. When Egon Fürst and Antoinette appear there along with the company management, a series of confusing and amusing entanglements soon ensues, in which Egon Fürst also has to slip into women's clothes.

Production notes

The Prince of Pappenheim was made in Neubabelsberg (studio recordings) and Baden-Baden (external shoots) in June and July 1927 and passed censorship on August 15, 1927, with a youth ban. The film was 2306 meters long, divided into six acts. The first performance took place on September 7, 1927 in Berlin's Gloria Palast.

Jacques Rotmil designed the film structures, Hugo Hirsch provided the musical motifs for the cinema music.

Reviews

The film exemplarily shows how a benevolent film review of the Weimar Republic under the National Socialist rule could turn into the opposite for purely anti-Semitic considerations.

until 1933

At the premiere in 1927, the critics reacted extremely friendly in view of the lively film fun. Hans Wollenberg, for example, praised director Eichberg in the edition of the Lichtbildbühne of September 8, 1927, who proved that he had “an absolutely secure grip” in the genre of film fun and “he gave us back the liberating laugh”. Bois acted "grotesque and yet amiable", as Der Kinematograph found, and the BZ at noon praised Bois as "mercurial agility". In addition, at the same point you can read: “It turned out to be a real Eichberg film, without any particular ambition, except for one thing: to entertain. Eichberg has once again fully achieved this goal. His sense of healthy humor, which is forgiven for occasional coarseness, and his feeling for spicy piquancy allow him to soon come into contact with the audience, who willingly go along in a happy mood. " The Vossische Zeitung even saw Bois' humor presentation as "the realest Chaplin. Most touchingly there, where he directs his sad Bois eyes into sudden nothingness, but most madly when, disguised as a mannequin, he has to suffer the wild caresses of his pursuer in sweet dissolution ”.

after 1933

In 1935, when Oskar Kalbus looked back on German silent film production, he showed a very benevolent assessment and was quite open to the role play man-woman - he wrote: “Richard Eichberg has the motif of comic disguise with skill for the comedy film 'Der Fürst von Pappenheim' use understood ”and“ Kurt [sic!] Bois can successfully utilize his talent for the grotesque and utilize his talent for parody in disguise. The 'big evening dress' with the deep cut-out at the back fits him just as well as his female partner. ”- so the National Socialist view on this subject was to change massively just two years later. In the anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlet "Film-'Kunst ', Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption" by Messrs Neumann, Belling and Betz, the Jewish origin of the vilified was emphasized. In addition to the “half-Jew” Reinhold Schünzel , the Jew Bois was also shown there in women's clothes - role photos from this same Fürst von Pappenheim film - as evidence of the allegedly decadent humor and the allegedly harmful Jewish influence on German culture in the so-called “ System time "(1919–1933). The same publication says about the equally Jewish screenwriter Robert Liebmann, Pappenheim : “He wrote everything so as not to let anyone else in”.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review overview
  2. ^ Oskar Kalbus: On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Berlin 1935. p. 122
  3. ↑ cf. about this: Kay Less : In life, more is taken from you than given ... Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria 1933 to 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 53.

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