The Fire Devil (1940)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The fire devil |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1940 |
| length | 100 (1940) 92 (post-war length) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis Trenker |
| script |
Hanns Sassmann Luis Trenker |
| production | Luis Trenker for Luis-Trenker-Film GmbH, Berlin |
| music | Giuseppe Becce |
| camera |
Albert Benitz Klaus von Rautenfeld Albert 'Bertl' Höcht |
| cut |
Gottlieb Madl Werner Jacobs |
| occupation | |
| |
Der Feuerteufel is a German film drama from 1939 by and with Luis Trenker . It is set against the Napoleonic dictatorship during the wars of liberation . Luis Trenker embodies a Carinthian lumberjack.
action
Carinthia in 1809. Just like in neighboring Tyrol , where the freedom-loving Andreas Hofer and his men rebelled against Napoleonic servitude, Holzknecht Valentin Sturmegger, who is known by everyone as “the fire devil”, is planning to take his beloved home from the yoke of the French occupiers to free. He smuggled proclamations of revolt against the Napoleon regime past French posts and carried out needle-stick attacks like raids on French officers. When he is caught doing one of his actions, it is the daughter of the commander of the rebels, Maria Schmiederer, who deeply admires his courage, who helps him to escape. Valentin will return the favor one day. When Maria's father is about to be arrested, he pretends to be and allows himself to be arrested, although he faces the death penalty.
Using a trick, he survived his own shooting, pretended to have been fatally wounded and was able to escape the following night. His followers believe they see a ghost when he shows up alive at a secret meeting. At the last moment, Sturmegger was able to prevent Commander Schmiederer, who no longer saw any point in continuing to fight against the superior French forces, from signing a document of surrender. Now Valentin takes over the leadership of the daring bunch himself. Sturmegger travels to Vienna to ensure the imperial protection. He wants to ask Archduke Johann for support, but he was banished to Graz immediately before by the skillful tactician Metternich .
For the Carinthians, their situation seems more and more hopeless. It is Napoleon himself who, impressed by Sturmegger's daring, wants to get to know him in Vienna. He offers the Carinthian a military career in his army. But Valentin brusquely rejects his request. When the little Corsican tries to arrest him, Valentin Sturmegger escapes with the help of the Marquise de Chanel. Back home, he calls on his compatriots to attack the French wherever possible. However, the traitor Rafael Kröss threatens to ruin his plan, as he leads French units directly into his back. The Austrian freedom fighters suffer heavy losses, Schmiederer dies too. At times, Sturmegger has to flee into the mountains and go underground there. Finally, in 1813, the tide turned and the French usurpers were driven out of the country. At last the lumberjack can look to a liberated land and go back to his wife and child to do his real work in peacetime.
Production notes
The fire devil was filmed from the beginning of July 1939 (exterior shots) and from mid-October to mid-November 1939 (studio shots). The shooting locations were the Archduke Johann Klause near Kramsach , Vomp near Schwaz and the high Alps near Kufstein . The studio recordings were shot in the Bavaria studio in Munich - Geiselgasteig . The premiere took place on March 5, 1940 in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo .
The production costs amounted to 1,056,000 RM . By February 1941 the film had grossed 1,477,000 RM. This made Der Feuerteufel a considerable box office success.
Willy Reiber took over the production management. His brother Ludwig Reiber designed the film structures that Erich Grave implemented. Rudolf Pfenninger was involved in the construction work without being named. The costume designs come from Herbert Ploberger .
19-year-old Judith Holzmeister made her film debut here.
For Luis Trenker, this film was the last chance to produce films in the Third Reich largely independent of the party and state. For some time now, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had been a thorn in the side, just like that of Trenker's all-round filmmaker colleague Harry Piel immediately before . In addition, Trenker did not want to make a clear decision in 1939/40 in the South Tyrol option proposed by Hitler and Mussolini . Finally, after the premiere of Der Feuerteufel , Trenker had to give up his production company under pressure from Goebbels and was no longer able to produce feature films according to his own taste in the Reich until the end of the war. His feature film Im Banne des Monte Miracolo , begun in 1943, was started in 1943 under the umbrella of an Italian production company and, after the fall of the Third Reich, was brought to an end by Trenker's newly founded Tirol-Film (in reborn Austria).
Reviews
Boguslaw Drewniak's 'Der deutsche Film 1938–1945', an overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 301, wrote: “In the screenplay for the film that Luis Trenker wrote together with Hanns Saßmann, history and fantasy shaped an exciting fate. The main hero, to a certain extent a cross between Hofer and Schill, was designed with the idea of "Greater Germany". "
The Lexicon of International Films came to the following verdict: "Despite its patriotic tones, the Nazi propagandists thought the film was not timely enough and too privatistic, so that it was not given a rating."
The online version of the same publication writes: “True to his role model Andreas Hofer, the woodworker Sturmegger blows the last contest against the French - but without being fusiled for it: he survives in the mountain loneliness with his wife and child. Trenker himself plays the adventurous, mountaineering title role in the freedom drama, which is appropriately equipped with a Judas figure, rock falls and riflemen. "
Handbook VII of the Catholic Film Critics said: "Noticeably influenced by Nazi ideas."
See also
Web links
- Firestarter in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- The fire devil at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme, 11th year 1940/41, Berlin 2000, p. 45 f.
- ↑ Der deutsche Film 1938-1945 , p. 301.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 2, p. 1006. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987
- ↑ Der Feuerteufel in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on November 4, 2013.
- ^ Films 1962/64, Düsseldorf 1965, p. 52