The enemy in the country
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The enemy in the country |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | 75 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Curt A. Stark |
| production | Oskar Messter |
| camera | Carl Froelich |
| occupation | |
| |
The enemy in the country is a German silent film war drama from 1913 with Henny Porten in the lead role.
action
In the Franco-German border area in 1870. Suddenly war breaks out between the two peoples, and Henry Marteau, who earns his living as a railroad attendant in the tranquil town of Vithères, is called to arms. With a heavy heart his wife Marianne and their two daughters Madeleine have to let the landlord go. Henry fell in the first days of the war when he and his followers had holed up in a farm, captured by Prussian Uhlans . Then Vithères is also occupied by Prussian soldiers . The fighting broke out, in which the German soldier of all people who shot Marianne's husband was wounded. Marianne is now urged to look after that enemy in the country. When the wounded man puts a picture of her in her hand, Marianne realizes that this man must have killed her husband. The pain overwhelms her, but she can overcome a touch of vengeance, born of hatred, to judge her husband's murderer herself.
Rather, their revenge should focus on spying on military information from the enemy billeted in the station keeper's house and passing it on to their own people. And so she intercepts the messages sent by telegram from the Prussians. In fact, it gives the French an advantage and can throw back the enemy in the country a little. The Germans quickly found Marianne as the cause of this defeat and, separated from their child, put her before a court martial . Little Madeleine, deeply concerned about her own mother, sets out to break through the German lines and visit the Crown Prince . She asks for mercy for the mother condemned to death . He thinks of his own children and promises the sobbing little one: “Your mother should live!”. The courier rides at full gallop to the execution site to revise Marianne's death sentence. But it is already too late, the sentence has been carried out. Little Madeleine stands alone at her mother's grave.
Production notes
The enemy in the country , with the subtitle Memories from the war years 1870/71 , was made in the Messter film studio in Berlin's Blücherstraße 32, passed the film censorship in July 1913 and had its premiere on August 29, 1913. The film was four acts long and large 1679 meters.
In view of the humanistic message and the renewed hostilities, the film was banned by the Berlin censors in August 1914.
criticism
“To say a word again about Henny Porten's full artistic significance would be to pour water into the river. But the powerful female figure she conjures up for us this time on the film is a figure that Henny Porten has not yet created for us. (...) This figure looks tragically large and our pity for the poor grows into the painfully devastating, because despite all the misery, the woman's good intentions stand out. (...) There is a powerful, gripping mood over the whole work. Much warlike beauty, but also painfully moving. The drama is an image for the masses. "